Chair – Guy
Parasch 636.527.0294
Minutes for
Pro-Life Committee
Meeting
In attendance Guy Parasch
Marge Scheman Kevin
Brady Bob Vondera
Wally Nowak Joan Nowak Catherine Mack
Diane
Muccigrosso Marty Jaeger Sue Jaeger
Melissa
Barnason
The meeting was opened with a prayer and the Divine Mercy
Chaplet.
Winners of the Archdiocesan
Pro-life Essay Contest
1st
Marie Oliver ($300) , 2nd Andrew Figari ($200), 3rd Dan Breheny ($100)
Suggested
that winners of Archdiocesan Pro-life Essay Contest be published in the
bulletin - Marge
Birthright
Amount
made by trivia night was $2,500 to Birthright.
Guy
asked Diane to send Birthright a check bi-annually instead of monthly.
Baby Shoes
At
the last Deanery meeting, a traveling display was made available to those
parishes interested. The display includes 4,000 pairs of baby shoes, the number of abortions
performed in the
*use
the display in conjunction with a booth for voter registration
*use
the display as a game (e.g. obtain a children’s wading pool. Fill it with the shoes
and sell “guesses” as to how
many shoes. The wading pool would be the
prize.)
After the picnic, publish in the bulletin the name
of the winner and the number of
abortions that the shoes represent.
Additional suggestions were made to publicize the
booth, i.e. balloons, signs, etc.
Diane will
follow up with parish picnic coordinator to see if this is feasible.
Discussion on the Death Penalty Statement
The Death Penalty Statement, which was submitted to the
Pro-Life Committee has been ratified with an 80%
positive response. Guy will now submit
the statement to the Parish Council for their consideration. Should they ratify the statement, it may then
be submitted to the Archdiocese, the Governor’s office, etc.
Ratification of this statement at this time could contribute
to important state policy as the execution of Chris Simmons has been postponed
to June.
There was additional discussion on the death penalty
statement and concern that it did not and might not speak for all in the
parish. Careful consideration in the
wording of the statement, however, addresses this issue and states that “the Parish
Council of St. Joseph’s… supports the repeal of the death penalty and a
moratorium on executions in the State of
Committee
Goals 2002
The committee goals will
also be submitted to the Parish Council by Guy.
They had been amended slightly since the last meeting. Specifically, instead of
asking for pro-life homilies of the priests at key feasts (i.e. the
Annunciation), work toward organizing a pro-life mission.
The goals are as follows:
1) Provide at least one event for each of the core issues
from the Culture of Life
·
Abortion: pre-implantation - pregnancy - healing
after,
·
Moms choosing life
·
Chastity
·
Euthanasia
·
Death penalty
2) Enlarge pro-life committee and activity team list from 90
families to 200.
3) Identify, find funding
for and receive Father Santen’s support to have a Pro-Life Mission Priest
provide a homily at all 7 of the masses for one weekend. Target this for in the month of
September/October.
(Note: the Conference of Catholic Bishops now require at least one pro-life prayer petition be included at
each Sunday Mass. This will be supported
as well by committee suggestions.)
4) Work to establish a prayerful connection with youth of
the parish
e.g. Spiritual
adoption – a nine month program where school children “adopt” an
unborn
child, name the child, pray for him/her, and study the baby’s development
(Guy)
Endowment Fund
Guy mentioned that the parish is asking organizations to
consider making a 10% donation of profits [exceeding $1,000] from fundraisers
to an endowment fund.
Committee updates
Guy mentioned that there have been a few additions and
deletions from the committee list. In
addition, it was discussed that committee members should attend a minimum of
two committee meetings per year.
Website
Guy is trying to make updates to the website which would
include a calendar for Pro-Life activities.
Sue will check to see if handout with color picture can be
placed on website.
Priests for Life
Priests for Life have
distributed a testimonies by a nurses who witnessed
live birth abortions. They are trying
one of these testimonies disseminated widely within the pro-life
community. Melissa will get a copy of
the testimony to Guy for consideration on if and how St. Joe’s may want to be
involved.
Life
Chain
Sunday October 6th (1st Sunday
in October). Planning will
need to begin in June.
Next Meeting: June 12
Archbishop May Room