Respect Life Mass

Sanctity of life, Pro-Vita award recipients honored at annual Mass

By Gene Horan Correspondent at The Catholic Spirit
February 2, 2012

METUCHEN — A large congregation participated in the annual Respect Life Mass Jan. 22 at the Cathedral of St. Francis of Assisi, marking the 39th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision. That decision effectively removed legal protection for the life of an unborn child.

The Mass preceded by one day the 39th annual March for Life in Washington, D.C, and a concomitant pro-life demonstration in Trenton.

Bishop Paul G. Bootkoski was the principal celebrant of the Mass. Msgr. Richard Behl, chairman of the Diocesan Commission for Pro-Life Action, concelebrated. Bishop-Emeritus Edward Hughes presided.

 “And it’s cataclysmic”

Following the reading of the Gospel, in which St. Mark related the beginnings of Jesus’ public ministry and his calling of the first apostles, Father Timothy Christy, the homilist, said that “Jesus began his inaugural preaching in today’s Gospel and his message is simple, concise, unambiguous, riveting — and it’s cataclysmic: ‘The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the Good News.’”

Father Christy warned that those who live in our sophisticated age may “somehow safely put that message in a category at a safe distance where it doesn’t have to upset and shake things up.” But in reality, he said, “That original proclamation of Christ is still the Church’s message in this very moment … We are systematically taught by everything in our culture that what we do here in the cathedral, worshiping on Sunday, teaching the faith to our children, should not in any way impact on our public policy, our schools, our healthcare, our politics.”

He added, “Blessed Pope John Paul II in 1995 wrote a powerful letter to the church called Evangelium Vitae, the gospel of life. And in it he said that the inherent dignity of every human life is an essential concern of the gospel, that there is no way to authentically be Catholic and a follower of Jesus without defending and protecting every single human being from conception to natural death.”

Pro Vita Awards

Following the Mass, Bishop Bootkoski presented the 2012 Pro Vita (pro-life) Awards to honorees Dr. Jean Golden-Tevald and Lois Pryor. Because Pryor could not be present, her oldest daughter, Kathy Jepsen, accepted the award on her behalf.

Dr. Golden-Tevald, the mother of seven children, three biological and four adopted, has been providing pro-life, pro-family healthcare through her MorningStar Family Health Center. She is involved with the NaPro Technology for fertility solutions, a program consonant with Catholic ethical teaching developed at Creighton University.

Pryor, the mother of eight grown children, is one of the founders and board members of the Pregnancy Aid and Information Center in Raritan, where she has served faithfully for more than 30 years. She has helped hundreds of women choose life for their babies.

At a reception after the Mass, Dr. Golden-Tevald remarked how beautiful the service was and how much she appreciated the recognition but that she was “standing on the shoulders of others.” Jepsen, representing her mother, also remarked how beautiful the Mass was, particularly citing the music and the homily.