The Price of Our Humanity: Cost Effectiveness, Abortion, and Disability

Posted by Mary O’Callaghan on Jan 22, 2020 10:11:16 AM

“‘What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?’” They paid him thirty pieces of silver…” —Matthew 26:15

It is particularly haunting to see an exact price exchanged for a human life; the juxtaposition of a finite monetary amount and the life of an infinite being is incomprehensible. In Mathew’s Gospel above, the thirty-pieces figure has been traced back to earlier scriptural references, and is thought to signify the compensation due a master when a slave is killed. 

No matter how the amount is derived, calculating the worth of a human life is at once both so absurd and crass that it renders the act of killing for a specific financial gain singularly troubling. 

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Topics: abortion, pro-life, human dignity, disability, Down syndrome

A Message to Young People Marching for Life: Be Open

Posted by Emily Froeba on Jan 14, 2020 7:03:00 AM

“To each one of you Christ says: ‘I am sending you.' Why is he sending you? Because men and women the world over—north, south, east and west—long for true liberation and fulfillment. The poor seek justice and solidarity; the oppressed demand freedom and dignity; the blind cry out for light and truth (cf. Luke 4:18). You are not being sent to proclaim some abstract truth. The Gospel is not a theory or an ideology! The Gospel is life! Your task is to bear witness to this life: the life of God’s adopted sons and daughters. Modern man, whether he knows it or not, urgently needs that life – just as two thousand years ago humanity was in need of Christ’s coming; just as people will always need Jesus Christ until the end of time.”

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Topics: pro-life, young people, youth ministry, March for Life

Memory as an Antidote to the Culture of Death

Posted by Christina Leblang on Nov 5, 2019 7:00:00 AM

As a former college track and field sprinter, I have spent countless hours of my life practicing. I have struggled through long workouts to build endurance, faster workouts to build speed, weight-lifting to build strength, and shorter workouts to provide rest before a competition. In each one of these instances, I began practice going through a set of drills. While these drills provided the necessary preparation for the workout, they also functioned to train my muscles to behave in a certain manner. Marching, skipping, high knees—all of these tedious drills were extremely important in creating muscle memory. Every sport has a series of drills or routines that athletes perform which allow an athlete to trust her muscles to act in the way she needs them to without thought.

Training and preparation is necessary not only in sports but in all areas of life, especially the moral life.

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Topics: pro-life, human dignity, teaching resources, Office of Life and Human Dignity

Living a Consistent Life Ethic, Part 3

Posted by Claire Fyrqvist on Oct 17, 2019 11:34:59 AM

Practicing Hospitality, Welcoming Life

A consistent life ethic begins at home. Mother Teresa, one of the most beloved canonized saints of the 20th century and a great defender of human dignity, said very simply in her acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize: 

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Topics: pro-life, hospitality, human dignity, Respect Life Month

The Challenges of Teaching Life

Posted by Sarah Kernan on Oct 9, 2019 7:05:00 AM

As a moral theology teacher at a Catholic high school and moderator of our school's pro-life club, people expect me to teach my students about a Catholic ethic of life. I do, certainly, and conversing with young people about key life issues is incredibly rewarding (albeit challenging!). But just as faith and prayer should permeate every aspect of a Catholic school—and not be relegated to its theology curriculum and ministry programs—the same is true of a Catholic vision of human life and dignity.

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Topics: pro-life, teaching resources, Respect Life Month

Living and Handing on the Faith

The McGrath Institute Blog helps Catholics live and hand on their faith in Jesus Christ, especially in the family, home and parish, and cultivates and inspires everyday leaders to live out the fullness and richness of their faith in the simple, little ways that make up Church life.

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