This blog was created for members of the Y-LIFE Youth Group to get the message out about events and projects the group is working on to further what Pope John Paul II called "The Culture of Life." We will also be using it to blog in our own words about what it's like to be young and pro-life in today's society.
Sorry we haven't posted in a while. Everyone is back to school and writing papers for teachers and professors. We hope to get some blog posts up soon.
Our Conference featuring Fr. Tad Pacholczyk is tomorrow, with registration beginning at 9:30 a.m. We are pleased to announce that our celebrant for Mass at 10 a.m. in the new Queen of Apostles Chapel is Fr. Dennis Kolinski, SJC.
If you would like to attend, shoot us an email to ylifeprovita@gmail.com and we will register you at the door.
(Check out all the info at the top of the blog sidebar.) Our Conference this year is also a fantastic retreat opportunity for Confirmation candidates. You may be thinking that pro-life work is all about the evil of abortion and we have even heard a priest say, "I would really like to see more pro-life groups focus on the death penalty and the injustice of war." A lot of folks think we ignore the more standard peace and justice ministries, and this is simply not the case.
Take Dr. Theresa Krankowski, founder of St. Gerard's Center for Life. In ministering to abortion-minded women, she, and the St. Gerard volunteers, often-times end up clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, sheltering the homeless, visiting the prisoner and visiting the sick. Ironically, when it is time to bury the dead of this terrible wholesale killing of the unborn, most of the time their little bodies cannot be found, so Dr. Theresa works in the spiritual realm and comforts the sorrowful mothers. She and her volunteers also instruct the ignorant, admonish sinners, counsel the doubtful, bear wrongs patiently, forgive injuries and pray for the living and the dead. And Dr. Theresa is just one of many who work tirelessly in the pro-life movement to stand up to the culture of death with truth and love. Just so you know. Her ministry doesn't play well in, say, The Hartford Courant or People Magazine or The New York Times. The secular culture likes food drives, cure walkathons and vigils outside of prisons (all of which are good things). But there is also lots of sympathetic coverage for "the right to choose" when you will not find any kind of truthful coverage regarding the difficult work of helping abortion-minded women in any way imaginable. This help is still there even if the baby is aborted, because these mothers suffer the most. This is a fight against the death penalty and war at its most fundamental level, put most eloquently by Bl. Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa):"The greatest destroyer of peace is abortion because if a mother can kill her own child, what is left for me to kill you and you to kill me? There is nothing between."
The sessions at the Conference that will be given by Fr. Tad Pacholczyk will be geared toward our attendees and will provide not just information, but truth regarding the buzz around stem cell research and reproductive technologies.. Truth is sadly lacking in the information the culture at large provides to young people, because the intrinsic dignity of the human person is denied due to legal shenanigans that have rendered the pre-born in this country an unprotected class of human being. If we can't go out armed with truth, how can we be a force for good or change or anything that God has put us here on earth to do. The Conference also includes Mass and a Holy Hour with an opportunity for confession, so as far as a retreat opportunity is concerned, you have the whole package ... Mass alone makes it a retreat par excellence.
Talk to your pastor or your DRE or the person in charge of your Confirmation class. We would love to have you attend the Conference, and there are opportunities for group rates and scholarships. It promises to be a day that will assist you in being the kind of Christian who can speak the truth in love. See you on October 16th!
The Academy of the Holy Family’s Teens of Pro-Life Club (TOP-Life Club) and the Connecticut Right to Life Corporation are sponsoring the new and improved 2nd annual Youth 4 Life pro-life conference on Saturday, March 27, 2010, from 4-8 pm at the Academy of the Holy Family's St.MichaelCenter on School Hill Road in Baltic. In a new format, there will be live testimonies, breakout sessions, live band, film presentation, Mass and confession, music and pizza & …!
with Sean Forrest as keynote speaker. The cost is $15 per person for the whole day, and that includes a pizza lunch. If, however, cost is a problem, please contact us at the email address below and put "Conference Scholarship" in the subject line. Also, seminarians and religious attend for free, but we would like you to send in a registration form to help with the scheduling. The Conference is geared towards high school and college students and will be held at Holy Apostles College and Seminary inCromwell, Connecticut. To get the registration form and/or to get more info regarding the Conference, email us at:
2:15 p.m.—3:00 p.m. - Break Out Session I
choice of:
• Sr. Nancy Marie Piecewicz— Euthanasia
• Mike Barnett of American Life League—How to Grow Your Campus Pro-Life Group
• Deacon John Trambley — Stem Cell Research & Bioethics
3:15 p.m.—4:00 p.m. - Break Out Session II
choice of:
• Fr. Reggie Norman — Black Genocide
• Brian Hoeing & Cal Anderson — Two Lawyers Explain How Abortion is the Civil Rights Issue of Our Day
• Missionaries for Life— Abortion: The Personal and Medical Perspective
