October is Respect Life Month
Join us in prayer for the protection of all life from conception to natural death

• Young Adults Raise Their "Voices 4Life"
  
• Action Alert: Support Protect Life Act – House Vote Imminent
• Respect Life Events this Saturday, Oct. 15
  • Quarterly Mass, Adoration and Rosary Procession
  • 40 Days for Life-Dallas Midway Rally
  • 40 Days for Life-Dallas Youth Day
  • Hike for Life
    
• Breaking Pro-Life News
  • An Adoption Miracle: "We know him today…as Steve Jobs"
  • Bishop Vasquez: Austin city ordinance impeding pregnancy resource centers "is unjust."
    
  • Remembering Kortney Blythe Gordon: A Pro-Life Champion
    

Save the Dates for the two major pro-life events in 2012 with Bishop Farrell: Roe Memorial Mass and Dallas March for Life on January 21, 2012 and The Bishop's 19th Annual Catholic Pro-Life Dinner on April 14, 2012.

Young Adults Raise Their "Voices 4Life"

The Catholic Pro-Life Committee is launching a new initiative for young adults – Voices 4Life! 

Voices 4Life welcomes young adults interested in advancing a Culture of Life through fellowship, service and support of pro-life ministry.  It is an opportunity to let your voice be heard on behalf of the voiceless millions in the womb in need of our protection!

Learn more at our November 3 inaugural event...

Please invite your friends and join Voices 4Life on Facebook!

The Health Care Reform law fails to prohibit the direct or indirect funding of abortion through tax dollars, and also fails to protect the conscience rights of health care providers and taxpayers.  The Protect Life Act (H.R. 358 and S. 877) has been introduced in Congress to ensure that these concerns are mandated in implementation of the Health Care Reform law.  The House is scheduled to consider the Protect Life Act this week.  Click here to ask your US Representative to support the Protect Life Act.

You can also learn more about the US Bishops' Position on the Health Care Reform bill on the USCCB Conscience Protection action alert page here.

Quarterly Mass, Adoration and Rosary Procession for an End to Abortion in Dallas

40 Days for Life-Dallas Midway Rally

40 Days for Life-Dallas Youth Day

Hike for Life

Time: 9 a.m.	Hike for Life is an annual pro-life walk in various Texas locations to raise money for local pregnancy care centers and awareness of the dignity of all human life.  The final hikes in Richardson and Dallas are this Saturday. For more information and to pre-register, visit hikeforlifetexas.org or contact Tom Clark, 214-282-6297 or . Sponsored by Hike for Life Texas.
Breckenridge Park, Richardson and White Rock Lake, Dallas.
Flyer/Sponsor Sheet

Homily for October 2, 2011: 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Deacon Greg Kandra, Deacon's Bench

Since this is Respect Life Sunday, and the beginning of Respect Life month, I wanted to talk about one woman who did respect life – and her choice has made a difference in the life of virtually every person in this church.

Her name is Joanne Schiebel.  In 1954, she was a young unmarried college student who discovered that she was pregnant.  In the 1950s, her options were limited.  She could have had an abortion – but the procedure was both dangerous and illegal.  She could have gotten married, but she wasn’t ready and didn’t want to interrupt her education. Joanne opted, instead, to give birth to the baby and put it up for adoption.

And so it was that in 1955, a California couple named Paul and Clara Jobs adopted a baby boy, born out of wedlock, that they named Steven.

We know him today…as Steve Jobs.  Continue reading.

Free speech lawsuit filed against city
KXAN.com

Different rules for resource, abortion centers

Thursday Liberty Institute filed a lawsuit against the city of Austin over its ordinance requiring pregnancy resource centers to post signs at their entrances stating what services they do not provide, such as abortions, birth control drugs and devices. . . .

"The Roman Catholic Diocese of Austin, Catholic Charities of Central Texas and the Gabriel Project of Austin provide women in crisis pregnancy with life affirming options," said Bishop Joe Vasquez. "The ordinance enacted by the City of Austin impedes our ability to perform this ministry effectively and it is unjust. We turn now to the courts to protect our constitutional rights."  Read entire article.

Remembering Kortney Blythe Gordon: A Pro-Life Champion
by Gerard Nadal, Ph.D., LifeNews.com

In the Jon Voight movie, Pope John Paul II, the young Karol Wojtyla announces to his friends in Nazi-occupied Poland that he has decided to become a priest.  The friends of the young future pope respond with incredulity, demanding to know why. Karol replies:  When faced with this abyss of evil, I can only respond with an abyss of love.

And so it was with Student’s for Life of America’s National Field Director, Kortney Blythe Gordon, whose life has been that of a first order pro-life abolitionist. . . .

Saturday night, while returning from Georgia’s Student’s for Life Conference, Kortney was driving another SFLA staffer, a student, and conference speaker from a pregnancy center when her car was struck in a head-on collision. . . .Kortney, her unborn daughter Sophy, and the other driver were immediately killed on impact. . . .

Kortney died as she lived, a saint who responded to an abyss of evil with an abyss of love.   Read entire article.

**Our prayers are with the families and friends of Kortney, her daughter Sophy, and the others injured in this tragic accident.  May God welcome home those who passed and heal those left to mourn this incredible loss. **