PROVIDENCE — Those participating in the celebration of Holy Mass during Human Life Guild Day on October 10 discovered that, like many highly visible, even iconic signs displayed around the Ocean State, they too are signs—visible signs with a mission to touch and change people’s hearts in the ongoing struggle to ensure that all life is seen as sacred and worthy of growing to fruition.
Bishop Bruce A. Lewandowski, C.Ss.R., the principal celebrant of the annual Mass, spoke in his homily about all the signs that people see when driving around Rhode Island, from the Big Blue Bug on the side of Rte. 95 South to the Planned Parenthood sign—for the facility that performs abortions just a few hundred feet from the cathedral—to the gray barbed wire surrounding the Wyatt Detention Center in Central Falls, where many migrants swept up in federal government raids are being housed pending their expulsion from the country.
“They are places where dreams go to die,” Bishop Lewandowski noted of facilities like Planned Parenthood and the Wyatt Center. He also defended the elderly against those who seek to legalize physician-assisted suicide should they become seriously ill.
Attendees praised the Mass and the bishop’s message about the dignity of human life and responding to issues in society.
“I thought the Mass was extremely well done, and the bishop’s message was so appropriate for today, with all that’s happening in our society,” said Chris Ernst, a parishioner at St. Luke Parish in Barrington. “In talking about signs, the bishop made it visually very apparent what the issues are and how we should get engaged. I think the call to our hearts was very clear and moving. So his message just resonates with all of us today in a special way.”
More than 100 people attended Human Life Guild Day, which began with the Mass and concluded with the distribution of the Human Life Guild awards.
Six individuals were honored with the Human Life Guild Award across the following categories:
• Adult Award: Peter J. Colosi, Ph.D., parishioner, St. Thomas More Church, Narragansett
• Adult Award: Sonia Aldana Morales, parishioner, St. Bartholomew Church, Providence
• Special Rachel’s Vineyard Recognition: Lisa Jenard, parishioner, St. Thomas More Church, Narragansett
• Special St. Gabriel’s Call Recognition: Barbara Fisher, parishioner, St. Mary’s of the Bay Church, Warren
• Youth Award: Joseph Ferris, parishioner, Our Lady of Mercy Church, East Greenwich and student, Bishop Hendricken High School, Warwick
• Youth Award: Elaina Gray, parishioner, Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, Providence and student, Chesterton Academy of Our Lady of Hope High School, Warwick
Gray, 18, a student at Chesterton Academy, reflected on her award: “I find it to be so important to fight and to advocate for life, especially in this pro-death culture that just surrounds us on all sides,” said Gray, who learned about the power of prayer when her mother, Lisa, took her and her brother, Abram, to pray the Rosary outside the local abortion clinic.
“For us, it’s very personal,” she said. “We realize these are people, and that you have to really defend life in order to be able to have the sanctity of human life. It’s really unfortunate that it’s not common sense—just not murdering babies, but legalizing assisted suicide as well. These are all problems that we have to combat, and I just want to do my part by being at least a small pinprick of God’s light in the world to help combat that evil in some way or another.”
Following the award presentations, the diocesan Office of Life and Family Ministry, led by coordinator Jean Ernster, hosted a brunch in the lower cathedral followed by a session on “The Gift of Children and Assisted Reproductive Technologies” by internationally known speaker Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, Ph.D., who served as a staff ethicist at the National Catholic Bioethics Center for 22 years and is a priest of the Diocese of Fall River.
Father Stephen Dandeneau, chaplain of the Human Life Guild, was very pleased with the turnout.
“It is a blessing that people care about the dignity of human life at all stages, from the moment of conception until natural death,” he said. “And my hope is that they stay truly focused on the dignity and safety of human life, and that they continue to rise to the challenges through their prayers and their efforts to defend human life at all stages because God created us in his image and likeness.”
Human Life Guild Day is the annual celebration of life during October, which is observed as Respect Life Month. Learn more at www.dioceseofprovidence.org/life.
