Florida Catholic | Respect Life Now Advocacy and Justice

In a respect for life, advocacy and justice meet

Respect Life Office name changed to Office of Advocacy and Justice.

DEBORAH STAFFORD SHEARER

Published: 09.28.07

Responding to synod recommendations to help “forge a common vision” for the Diocese of Orlando based on a revitalization and refocusing of objectives to lead all of us to be better “Witnesses to Hope, Alive in Christ,” the Respect Life Office has undertaken a new name. Now the Office of Advocacy and Justice, it will maintain the same message of respect for the life and dignity of all God’s creation.

The mission of the Respect Life Office has always been and continues to be educational, providing information on critical issues, while advocating for just solutions to social problems, all within a consistent moral framework of Catholic social teaching. The new name complements the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ pastoral plan, “A Campaign in Support of Life,” which “sets abortion and euthanasia in the context of other issues involving threats to human life and dignity — for example, capital punishment, war, poverty, population control, child abuse and abandonment, false views of human sexuality, human cloning, and research that destroys human embryos — and calls attention to the way in which each touches on the sanctity and dignity of human life.” The words of the new name articulate this same moral imperative.

Advocacy and justice are essential components of the Gospel at work and “contribute to forming a more worthy society, one more respectful of (human) rights, based on the principles of justice and peace” (Pope John Paul II, “Address to the Laity”). At the core of these rights and principles is a profound awareness and understanding that the weakest and most vulnerable members of society are dependent on each of us for protection and development.

As we approach Respect Life Sunday, Oct. 7, (annually the first weekend of October, as designated by the U.S. bishops), we remember that we are called to change our culture.

Reminded by the readings for this Sunday, the prophet Habakkuk asks the same question that reverberates to this very day: “How long, O Lord? Destruction and violence are before me.” The Lord responds with a vision of a plan that will be fulfilled in its time through faithfulness and an adherence to justice. The restoration of human dignity, away from destruction, to new life in Christ is intricately connected to this vision of justice and challenges us to be the builders of evangelizing communities of faith and solidarity.

Our task as believers and witnesses to hope, alive in Christ is to proclaim the good news of the social mission of the church, remembering that we are servants empowered by the Holy Spirit and obliged by the Gospel to bear the light of Christ to a world in darkness and despair.

Stafford Shearer is director of the Diocese of Orlando’s Office of Advocacy and Justice.

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In a respect for life, advocacy and justice meet

Respect Life Office name changed to Office of Advocacy and Justice.

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