FAIRFIELD COUNTY CATHOLIC
October 2001
Priests for Life visit Ridgefield
Pro-life parish event open to all
By Beth Longware Duff
Bridgeport, CT -- Priests for Life, a national ministry that visits parishes
to speak about the Church's teachings on abortion and euthanasia, will be
featured as part of the "Pro-Life Parish Weekend" at Saint Mary Parish in
Ridgefield, October 6-7. Father Denis Wilde, O.S.A., will be the guest speaker.
Started in 1991 by Father Frank Pavone, Priests for Life is a movement of
priests seeking to help the rest of the Church to use her full strength against
the most devastating attacks on human life. Its mission is to unite and
encourage all clergy to give special emphasis to the life issues in their
ministry and to help them take a more vocal and active role in the pro-life
movement. Despite its name, the organization is for everyone who wants to stop
abortion and euthanasia.
Enormous Forum
"We, the Church, have 19,000 parishes around the country - a huge forum, if
we use it right. No major party has anything like that," Father Wilde says. "The
problem is speaking out on these issues. A priest needs to be at the front,
side, and beyond his flock in this battle for life.
Ours is not an option to wait for someone else to come along. What
a joy it is to know that God is in charge and will not fail to lead us forward
to end this 'unspeakable crime."'
Father Wilde is an Augustinian priest and a professor at Villanova
University. He travels the country as a full-time priest associate of Priests
for Life. An accomplished pianist, he often presents concerts for pro-life
causes.
He says society has become apathetic on the subject, and he blames the media
in this country for slanting information to a viewpoint that eventually
"inculcates us to the tragedy, the horror that this thing is." The statistic
that Father Wilde uses is that one out of three babies conceived in this country
becomes a victim of abortion. He admits that it's difficult to identify with
such a large statistic, so he tries to get his audiences to identify with the
casualties of abortion.
Dangers of the wombs
"There is no more dangerous environment for persons than the womb," he has
written. "This bizarre state of a culture of death protected by law and
disguised as medicine perpetuates a lie of a colossal order. Its consequence is
a dead-end street to baby, mother, and civilization."
In addition to providing training seminars and individual assistance to
priests to help them preach more effectively against abortion and euthanasia,
Priests for Life also distributes a free newsletter to over 45,000 priests in
the US. It produces video and audio tapes, bulletin inserts, homily materials,
and other pro-life resources for clergy and laity. Staff is available around the
clock to assist people to find alternatives to abortion, and they offer
counseling to anyone who has been involved in an abortion.
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