The Missionaries of the Gospel of Life:
Activities and Spirituality
The Missionaries of the Gospel of Life will be constituted as
a Society of Apostolic Life. This is not a religious
congregation, but does have a community life. The focus is on
the mission ("apostolic life"), which will take the members
nationwide in the defense of the unborn.
Membership will include priests, deacons, and lay
missionaries. There will also be affiliate membership for lay
persons who are married and cannot live in the community.
The Aim of our new Society
The Society seeks to give witness before the Church and the
world to the priority of the right to life as the foundation of
all other rights, and to the absolute claims to respect and
protection that this right makes upon every individual and
community in the human family.
In that context, we seek
1. To bear public witness, in every sector of society, to the
sanctity of each human life, and to defend human life against
direct attacks by abortion, and other evils such as infanticide,
destruction of embryos in the name of research, and euthanasia;
2. To be a prophetic voice within the Church, in order that
pastoral programs, preaching, teaching, and the allocation of
time and resources in every sector of the Church reflect the
"urgent priority and attention" that the tragedy of abortion
deserves (see US Bishops’ Pastoral Plan for Pro-Life Activities:
A Campaign in Support of Life, Introduction, 2001);
3. To provide ongoing education, motivation, and resources
for the clergy and all who minister in the Church, helping them
to network with each other and equipping them with to preach and
teach the pro-life message, to counsel those tempted to abort or
who have aborted, and organize their people for pro-life
activities;
4. To minister to the entire pro-life movement by offering
spiritual support, guidance, teaching and direction.
In short, we are pastors to the unborn child and to the
pro-life movement.
Means to Achieve our Aims
These goals are accomplished by traveling into local
communities to strengthen the work of the pro-life movement, and
by reaching out to the wider community by means of media and
other forms of public outreach.
The following activities, while not an exhaustive list of the
opportunities we have, give an indication of how our mission
takes concrete shape.
Parish visits – At the invitation of the local pastor, we
visit parishes to preach the pro-life message at Masses, parish
missions, or other parish gatherings in liturgical or
educational settings. We meet with, train and strengthen local
parish ministers in the pro-life dimensions of their work.
Assistance to clergy – We provide spiritual and practical
assistance to the clergy of all denominations in the pro-life
dimensions of their ministry.
Training seminars – We present training seminars about all
aspects of the pro-life movement to priests, deacons,
seminarians, laity, and ecumenical audiences.
Retreats – Pro-life retreats give participants an opportunity
to see in their relationship with God the call to defend life,
and to root all their pro-life activities in their relationship
with God.
Presence at ministerial conferences – We are present, as
members, participants, and exhibitors, at conferences at which
specialists in different aspects of Church life and ministry
gather. Our presence provides pro-life resources, networking and
education to them.
Pro-life events – Local, national, and international pro-life
organizations and Churches invite us to speak and pray at their
pro-life events (including conventions, banquets, seminars,
prayer vigils, abortion mill protests), to strategize with or
minister to their members, or to provide a clerical presence
where it is lacking.
Alternatives to Abortion and Healing After Abortion – We
foster, promote, and interact with the many ministries, both
within and beyond the Catholic Church, that provide alternatives
to abortion and healing after abortion. We assist the Churches
to connect their congregations with such resources. Our priests
assist directly in training and carrying out counseling both
before and after abortion, and in conducting retreats for those
wounded by abortion, including all the family members of the
aborted child, and former abortionists.
Media activity – We produce and appear on radio and
television broadcasts for local, national, and international
media outlets to articulate the pro-life message and comment
upon developments relevant to it.
Fostering political responsibility – Through non-partisan
activities, we assist Churches and pro-life organizations to
mobilize, equip, and educate their people to carry out their
political responsibilities. This includes such activities as
voter registration, distribution of non-partisan voter guides,
and get-out-the-vote drives.
Schools – We speak at schools of every level to deliver the
pro-life message to students and to equip and encourage the
faculty and administration in this dimension of their work.
Participation in leaders’ meetings – On a local, national,
and international level, we participate in various meetings with
leaders of all religious, political, and cultural backgrounds to
develop strategy for the pro-life movement.
Individual counseling of members in government, media, and
other leadership roles – Personal and confidential meetings with
leaders to discuss their attitudes and actions regarding the
right to life provide important opportunities for conversion,
guidance, and encouragement.
Dialogue – We foster respectful dialogue with those who
promote the Culture of Death, in such a way that, without
compromising our message, we can enable them to realize that
they too share in the dignity proper to every human life. By
rediscovering their own dignity, they may be able to rediscover
that of the unborn child.
We also promote that dialogue of salvation which the Church
carries out with all who do not embrace the Christian faith or
any faith at all. Many people of good will share our concern
about the right to life, and we collaborate actively with them
in its defense.
Service to Priests for Life – We serve the Priests for Life
Association in its activities in these same arenas and in the
other practical needs it may have to carry out the pro-life
mission.
Our spirituality
The spirituality of the Missionaries of the Gospel of Life is
Biblical
The Word of Life, found in the pages of the Sacred Text, is to
be a constant source of meditation and instruction, as well as
the most frequently used pastoral tool for preaching and
teaching. The member is to be intimately familiar with the pages
of Scripture, both Old and New Testaments, and is to always
deepen his ability to articulate for the people the Biblical
message about the sanctity of life, as it is found in every part
of the Bible.
Prophetic
Counteracting the culture of death demands a prophetic
spirituality. Our teaching is not our own, and like the
prophets, we nurture the spirit of humility and awe that God
should deign to speak His eternal word through mortal, sinful
instruments like ourselves. Yet, as Jesus did, we teach "with
authority," because the Word we preach is His. The Gospel,
always respectful of culture and expressing itself in
diversified cultural contexts, likewise challenges and
transforms culture. The prophet does not tell the future as much
as he tells the present, that is, interprets for people what God
says about what is going on in the world. We speak the prophetic
word that challenges society to recognize the unborn as brothers
and sisters, and to therefore repent of practices and policies
that destroy them or put them at risk.
Because prophets are always persecuted, and because the abortion
issue is particularly volatile, we foster a particular
attentiveness to accepting the inevitable reality of
persecution. Rooted in the Beatitudes, we seek the spirit of the
apostles who "rejoiced at having been counted worthy to suffer
for the sake of the Name" (Acts 5:41).
Liturgical
We foster a liturgical spirituality that "thinks and feels" with
the ebb and flow of the Church’s liturgical year. Our observance
of liturgical seasons and feasts is carried out with a special
attentiveness to the lessons those seasons and feasts present
regarding the sanctity of life. The Society observes with
special solemnity certain special feast days particularly
associated with this theme and outlined in the Statutes.
Eucharistic
The Eucharist is Life itself, and therefore our spirituality is
centered on the Bread of Life. The members will meditate
frequently and preach often about the intimate links between our
faith in the Eucharist and our commitment to the defense of
life.
Ecumenical
Members share the deep longing of Christ that His disciples
would be one, and we see in the Christian response to abortion
one of the most practical and effective arenas for authentic
ecumenical collaboration. We are ecumenical to the very fabric
of our being, always thinking, speaking, and working in ways
that welcome our brothers and sisters of other denominations.
In the light of our spirituality, there are certain key virtues
that we seek to foster in ourselves and others. These include:
A spirit of joy.
Life is joyful, and defending life is a mission that should be
carried out with joy. We seek to foster, in ourselves and
others, a "joyful sorrow," that is, a spirit that is always
mourning because of its keen awareness of the ongoing, unseen
destruction of human life, and at the same time, is always
serene and rejoicing that death has been conquered by Jesus
Christ, who is Risen and is with us at all times.
A serene confidence.
We do not have to worry about the ultimate outcome of the battle
for life. As John Paul II declared, it has already been decided.
We do, at the same time, have to work anxiously to be faithful
to our own role in proclaiming, celebrating and serving that
victory. Despite all outward appearances of the power of the
culture of death, we foster, in ourselves and others, a supreme
and uninterrupted confidence that the tools of grace with which
God has equipped the People of Life are far more powerful and
eternally victorious.
A deep compassion.
We have all aborted God’s will in our lives. We never look down
on those who have committed the sin of abortion or who promote
it. They are not the enemy, but rather are captive to the enemy.
We seek to free them, as their brothers and sisters who are no
strangers to temptation, error, and sin.
This compassion is translated into a constant and effective
invitation to the healing and forgiveness of Jesus Christ, and
tireless efforts for the conversion of those who promote the
culture of death. We also seek to assist those who have
repented, including former abortionists, to re-integrate
themselves into wholesome, life-giving activities and attitudes.
A radical solidarity.
Pope John Paul II declared that the pro-life stance is one "of
radical solidarity with the woman" (Crossing the Threshold of
Hope, p.206-207). We do not seek to point fingers of
condemnation, but rather to extend hands of mercy that lift out
of despair those who are tempted to abort a child, or who endure
the pain of having done so.
This radical solidarity stands at the same time with the child,
in the awareness that it makes no sense to choose one against
the other, but rather only to respond to mother and child by
loving them both.
A strong courage.
"The spirit God has given us is no cowardly spirit," St. Paul
tells Timothy (2Tim.1:7). Our work requires constant courage,
which is nurtured at the feet of our Lord, in the pages of
Scripture, in incessant prayer, and by the example of numerous
saints and other historical figures who have fought against the
injustices of their times.
A constant readiness for public witness.
We do not shrink from the public spotlight, which is often where
we need to be in order to give voice to the voiceless and to
reach the numbers of people we need to reach in the short time
we have to reverse the culture of death. "Let your light shine
before others," the Lord said, always reminding us that the
glory goes to the Father (see Mt.5:16). Members will form their
spirit according to the plea of the Prophet, "Cry out
full-throated and unsparingly; lift up your voice like a trumpet
blast!" (Is.58:1).
A passion for justice.
The sacrifices needed to build a Culture of Life can only be
sustained when there is a deep passion for justice. Christians
believe in righteous anger, which was exhibited by the Lord and
His saints in the face of evil. We are angry at what the culture
of death does each day. We strive to submit our anger to the
Holy Spirit of God, not asking Him to extinguish it but rather
to channel it into a wholesome, energized passion which, always
docile to the promptings of the Spirit and obedient to
authority, sustains us in the task at hand.
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