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Nominate your parish! What does your pro-life ministry look like? Parish Pro-Life Profile nomination forms can be found right here

September Pro-life Parish

A Special Kind of “Tree of Life”

For nearly two decades, Vermont Catholics have nurtured a special kind of “tree of life.” It is called the Diocesan Respect Life Phone Tree, and it boasts a membership of nearly 1,500 pro-life Catholics representing every parish in Vermont.

Put in place more than 15 years ago, it is a telephone (and now, e-mail) chain used to communicate time-sensitive “action alerts” regarding public policy and proposed legislation. Usually, the alerts contain a request to call or write either State or National legislators to express concern over a key issue.  When the Phone Tree is activated, usually no more than a few times a year, parish coordinators contact their parish team captains who, in turn, call or e-mail members.

With more than 50 members, Holy Cross Parish in Colchester has one of the largest Phone Tree memberships in the Diocese.  Parish Coordinator Judy Audette attributes the size of the Holy Cross Phone Tree to the longevity of many of its members, who came on board early in its formation, and stayed.

With a small investment of time, Phone Tree members, acting en masse, can make a meaningful impact.  Audette says that at most, a member will be on the phone for a few minutes to receive the message, and then a few more, to either call, write or e-mail a legislator to express an opinion on the issue in question. It’s a way to be “pro-life” in a quiet, behind-the-scenes, but effective manner.

“A lot of people feel anxious about making that phone call to a legislator, but I find that the person who answers the phone is usually very courteous, and it’s quite easy to do.  After you finish, you feel good that you’ve done your part in some small way.”  She says, “If a large number of us call about a particular issue, the legislator will know it’s important.”  She adds that it helps when family members make their own calls as well. 

If you aren’t a member of your parish Phone Tree, and would like to be, contact your Parish Phone Tree coordinator.  If you don’t know who that person is, find out by calling the Respect Life Office at 658-6111. 

Holy Cross, Colchester

August Pro-life Parish

A Powerful Pro-Life
Prayer Collaboration

"Only with prayer-prayer that storms the heavens for justice and mercy, prayer that cleanses our hearts and our souls-will the culture of death that surrounds us today be replaced with a culture of life." -U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

Pastoral Plan for Pro-Life Activities Parishioners at St. Anthony Church in Bethel and St. Elizabeth Church in Rochester were working together in ministry long before the erection of their newly formed parish community, Our Lady of the Valley. Their combined-church Stewardship Committee has set a tone of collaboration over the past several years. According to parishioner Mary Ann Church of Bethel, a pro-life initiative begun last year is one such joint effort. Last winter, Church approached friend and Stewardship Committee member JoAnn Bryfogle of Stockbridge for help creating a pro-life activity to include members of both churches. Together they developed a "Day of Prayer," in observance of the annual January 22 March for Life in Washington.

"We weren't able to send a group to Washington for the National Day of Prayer and March for Life, so we decided that we could instead get together and do our own Day of Prayer right here," she explains. It included about 90 minutes of music and prayer, during which the group of almost a dozen people, representing both church communities, dedicated each of 10 decades of the rosary to a specific pro-life intention. Lunch and fellowship followed.

"Those of us who participated thought it was very spiritual, and we were all very enthusiastic about doing it again," Bryfogle says. She said she is hoping to expand it to include a longer prayer period next time. A Day of Prayer for Life can happen any time during the year and is easy to organize. For tips on putting together a pro-life prayer activity at your parish or in cooperation with other parish communities, and to receive copies of the pamphlet containing Mysteries of the Rosary for Life, call the Diocesan Respect Life Office at 802-658-6111.

Our Lady of the Valley, Bethel

July Pro-life Parish

Setting the Standard for Pro-Life Ministry

"Rather than be thought of as special or uncommon, our parish's pro-life initiatives should be found in all Catholic parishes," said Patricia Brooks of St. Peter Parish in Vergennes. "All parishes have heard the good news and proclamations by Pope John Paul II in his Gospel of Life, and all parishes have heard Pope Benedict's message that we recognize that life is God's gift to be welcomed with love, and preserved with care, always and at every moment."

With that in mind, St. Peter's has developed a well-rounded pro-life ministry. Parish pro-life coordinators Dorothy and Bernie Perron said that, while there is not a pro-life committee per se, there are many opportunities for parishioners to show their support for life, including a weekly rosary for life, social-action activities, parishioner involvement in Addison County Right to Life Committee, and other public-action initiatives.

It helps to have a pastor who actively supports the pro-life message in word and deed, said Brooks. "Father Yvon Royer demonstrates respect for the sanctity of life from the smallest in the parish to the oldest," and he takes time to participate in many pro-life activities, including the March for Life in Washington.

Keys to maintaining an active pro-life ministry are prayer and the work of the Holy Spirit, according to Brooks, who acknowledges that it can sometimes seem overwhelming when one considers that more than 50 million abortions have occurred in the U.S. since 1973. They take heart in knowing they have support from Scripture, the Church and the many groups that continue to proclaim the sanctity of life from conception until death.

St. Peter, Vergennes

June Pro-life Parish

"A great prayer for life is urgently needed."
-Pope John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae

The power of prayer cannot be underestimated in the pro-life ministry. In Essex, St. Pius X Parish's active pro-life parishioners have taken that message to heart and added a new prayer component associated with a national movement called "Cenacles for Life," aimed at offering weekly rosaries and fasting for pro-life intentions.

Cenacles are prayer groups that meet once a week before the tabernacle to pray for a renewed respect for life, with special attention to ending abortion, according to organizers. "I would love to see other parishes start their own cenacles," says Ann Messier, who helps lead the weekly prayer service that includes 10 decades of the rosary. She notes that it is easy to implement following daily Mass and has many rewards. "It's a great community-building activity, too."

"Any time we can go before the Blessed Sacrament to bring our needs before the Lord, it is a good thing," affirms Father Richard Tinney, pastor of St. Pius X.

Participants also offer a day of fasting each week to strengthen the effort, in acknowledgment of the words of Jesus, "This kind can only come out through prayer and fasting" (Mk 9:29).

The cenacle, which has attracted as many as a dozen parishioners in a given week, is just one part of a busy pro-life program that began nearly 15 years ago at St. Pius X with the formation of the Diocesan Phone Tree, according to phone-tree coordinator Lorraine Mathieu. Nearly three dozen parishioners take an active part in the phone tree and other outreach that includes prayer ministries and fundraisers for crisis pregnancy centers and other pro-life causes. Mathieu credits Father Tinney for encouraging parish pro-life initiatives. "Father Tinney's defense of the unborn sets a good example for his parishioners to follow," she notes.

For information about starting a parish Cenacle of Life contact the Office of Marriage, Family & Respect Life Ministries at 802-658-6111.

Parishioners and non-parishioners alike are welcome at the St. Pius X cenacle on Wednesdays at 9 a.m. and at the St. Joseph Co-Cathedral cenacle in Burlington on Tuesdays beginning at 8:30 a.m.

St. Piux X, Essex

May Pro-life Parish

Garden Provides Witness to Life

In springtime, there is perhaps no better reminder of the beauty and variety of God's creation than the budding of new life displayed in nature, a truth in evidence at St. Michael Parish in Brattleboro. The parish's flowering "Garden of the Innocents" provides "A constant, visible reminder of our parish pro-life ministry, and a place for people to pray, reflect and find healing," says Father Rich O'Donnell, pastor.

The garden was first planted some 15 years ago to offer a public witness to the importance of pro-life principles, and has been maintained as a parish-wide effort ever since. Situated in an accessible location on parish property, it contains a variety of flowers, shrubs and carefully placed stones and monuments, including stone cherubs that provide a reminder of the innocent lives lost in the years since abortion was legalized nationwide in 1973.

A plaque announcing the purpose of the garden is displayed on an exterior wall of the church, and reads:

Garden of the Innocents
A Garden planted in memory
of aborted children
"In Ramah is heard the sound
of moaning, of bitter weeping!
Rachel mourns her children,
she refuses to be consoled
because her children
are no more."
Jeremiah 31:15

St. Michael, Brattleboro

April Pro-life Parish

Leadership from a parish priest can go a long way toward framing the sometimes controversial name, "pro-life," in a positive light.

"I find it very encouraging to have a pastor who encourages us in our work - in the many different ways that we are prolife," says St. Thomas parishioner Laura Wells, noting that the parish has active ministries covering a host of pro-life themes, including social justice, pro-marriage and antiabortion outreach. Wells describes St. Thomas' parishioners as "very pro-life," and credits Fr. Rick Danielson's leadership with encouraging prolife ministries.

"Father provides us with a model not just in preaching but in what he does," says Wells.

Among other things, Father Danielson periodically joins parishioners in their public prayer ministry in front of the Planned Parenthood clinic in Burlington, where abortions are performed. He says a chief value in offering public witness to an issue many people would prefer to ignore is that it brings the topic out into the open.

When he talks about pro-life issues, he says he gets mostly positive feedback. "I think not talking about abortion plugs into a general societal predisposition to ignore it. They ignore it because it's controversial and people naturally avoid controversy."

St. Thomas, Underhill

March Pro-life Parish

We are a pro-life people, bearing witness to the dignity of all life, in ways large and small, every day.

Here are examples of how parish communities witness to the dignity of all human life.

Social Justice and Culture of Life: Two Sides of the Same Coin

Focusing on the needs of their surrounding community formed common ground for parishioners of Sacred Heart and St. Francis de Sales parishes in Bennington when the two joined as one parish nearly 20 years ago, according to pastor Father James Preskenis. “I am told they really came together around social justice projects,” he notes, a collaboration that continues to thrive, and which underscores the connection between social justice and respect-life ministries.

When any vulnerable person is helped, whether it is a single mother, a lonely elderly person or a struggling family, “we are helping to promote that ‘consistent ethic’ of life referred to by the bishops,” says Carolyn McMurray, director of the parish’s thriving food pantry and clothing ministry known as “HIS Pantry.”

Parishioners help feed and clothe growing numbers of needy people in the Bennington area. The pantry served 400 people in January alone, an increase of almost 25 percent from the previous January. More than twodozen volunteers gather, sort and distribute donations from the surrounding community, including clothing and perishable and nonperishable food items. They even offer recipes and preparation tips to make food selections as healthful as possible.

Respect for all life is inherent in social ministries which help the vulnerable, says McMurray. “Jesus himself told us that whenever we feed or clothe someone, we are acting in his name.”

Sacred Heart St. Francis de Sales, Bennington

February Pro-life Parish

Plant seeds and collaborate. According to Father Patrick Forman, pastor of St. John the Evangelist Parish in St. Johnsbury, that strategy is working effectively to build a pro-life culture there. "We are planting seeds. We're not attracting thousands yet, but there is great value in the consistency of our efforts," he notes. Monthly Eucharistic Adoration for Life and other public prayer opportunities "keep it in the public consciousness," allowing the seeds to grow. Willingness to collaborate with people outside the parish community who are committed to the same principles strengthens the effort.

The first "seed planting" took place in 2008 when parishioners sponsored a speaker from Vermont Right to Life, ultimately leading to the formation of Caledonia Right to Life Committee (CRLC). Sally Young, secretary of CRLC, says Catholics work together with people of other faiths to provide public education and influence legislation on important pro-life issues. Some members, like Gisele Burrington, have reached out to assist programs like "Pathways for Pregnancy" in nearby Littleton, New Hampshire, which helps pregnant moms. The purpose of collaboration is to meet needs, not to mark out territory.

Be willing to start small and grow your program gradually. The Office of Respect Life Ministries has developed an "Idea Book" for parishes who need support in starting or expanding their pro-life ministry. Call the office at 802-658-6111, ext. 1329, to learn more.

St. John the Evangelist, Saint Johnsbury

January Pro-life Parish

We are a pro-life people, bearing witness to the dignity of all life, in ways large and small, every day.

Here is an example of how Vermont Catholics witness to the dignity of all human life.

Holy Angels' pro-life ministry is impressive in the sheer number of activities undertaken. The parish bulletin bursts with evidence of its pro-life commitment, from activities like pro-life fundraisers and blood drives to Masses and other worship opportunities, along with informative articles on topics like capital punishment.

According to Father Maurice Roy, pastor at Holy Angels Church, programs usually develop from the grassroots up, with parishioners initiating ideas and taking responsibility for carrying them out.

For example, in November the parish confirmation-preparation program youth group sponsored a spaghetti dinner to raise funds for CareNet Pregnancy Services, raising goodwill and more than $1,100 to help women with crisis pregnancies.

Parishioner Bob Cole, who organizes participation in the annual diocesan-sponsored "March for Life" trip to Washington D.C. in January for parish teens and their chaperones, says that Holy Angels parishioners are enthusiastic supporters of pro-life activities. "(They) are always very generous and supportive," particularly of teen-driven initiatives, he notes, adding, "I think that having the kids doing these types of activities shows both the kids as well as the adults that they are an important part of the parish life."

Confirmation Program Director Bart Tatro agrees. "Supporting life is an important part of the culture at Holy Angels. It is a culture where it is understood that it requires action by those involved in the parish," he says, crediting Father Roy and Deacon Duane Langlois for inspiring parishioners.

One thing is certain: building a culture of life at Holy Angels is a group effort.  Kudos, Holy Angels!

Nominate your parish! What does your pro-life ministry look like? Parish Pro-Life Profile nomination forms can be found right here

Holy Angels Church, Saint Albans