Cathedral Mass, Life Chains to highlight Respect Life Sunday events

St. Joan of Arc parishioners Abby Schneider, left, and Patty Yeadon of Indianapolis participate in the Central Indiana Life Chain on Oct. 1, 2006, on North Meridian Street in front of the Archbishop Edward T. O’Meara Catholic Center. Yeadon volunteers as a pro-life sidewalk counselor outside abortion clinics throughout the year. Life Chains are scheduled on Respect Life Sunday on Oct. 7 throughout the state. (File photo by Mary Ann Wyand)

By Mary Ann Wyand

“The Infant in My Womb Leaped for Joy” is the theme of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat for

Pro-Life Activities’ 2007 Respect Life Program.

The artwork chosen for the Respect Life Program poster is a painting that portrays Elizabeth welcoming her kinswoman, Mary, when both women were pregnant. Scripture relates that John the Baptist leaped for joy in Elizabeth’s womb when they heard the Blessed Mother’s greeting (Lk 1:44).

Respect Life Sunday will be observed in dioceses throughout the U.S. on Oct. 7 with Masses and pro-life prayer chains.

Msgr. Joseph F. Schaedel, vicar general, is the celebrant for the archdiocesan Respect Life Sunday Mass at 1 p.m. on Oct. 7 at SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral, 1347 N. Meridian St., in Indianapolis.

On behalf of Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein, Msgr. Schaedel will present the Archbishop Edward T. O’Meara Respect Life Award to St. Elizabeth Ann Seton parishioner Steve Hamilton of Carmel, Ind., for his distinguished service to the cause of life in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis and the Lafayette Diocese.

The vicar general will present the Our Lady of Guadalupe Pro-Life Youth Award to St. Bartholomew parishioner Michael Padilla of Columbus for his outstanding pro-life volunteer service.

Following the Respect Life Mass, Catholics will join Christians from other denominations for the ecumenical Central Indiana Life Chain to pray for an end to abortion from 2:30 p.m. until 3:30 p.m. along North Meridian Street in Indianapolis.

Life Chains also are scheduled in the archdiocese in Columbus, Connersville, Greencastle, Greenfield and Terre Haute as well as in Carmel, Ind., which Hamilton helped organize, and 18 other Indiana cities.

“It is my hope that the year-round

pro-life campaign launched on Respect Life Sunday will lead all the faithful in the archdiocese to embrace the ministry of prayer that the Pro-Life Office proposes,” said Servants of the Gospel of Life Sister Diane Carollo, director of the archdiocesan Office for Pro-Life Ministry.

“Each parish is assigned an abortion clinic that is located within the boundaries of our archdiocese,” Sister Diane explained. “Parishioners are asked to pray for the women and men tempted to abort their unborn children, those who facilitate abortions and those who suffer from the aftermath of abortion. To build up a culture of life, we must first start on our knees in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. All else that is done must flow from prayer.”

(For information about parish pro-life prayer assignments, log on to www.archindy.org/prolife and click on Prayers.)†