FULLERTON – Archbishop William E. Lori used a personal reflection from his 103-year-old mother to illustrate the “gift of life” during the annual Life is Beautiful Mass Jan. 15 at St. Joseph in Fullerton.
With more than 300 gathered for the liturgy, Archbishop Lori described a recent trip to southern Indiana to visit his mother Margaret for her birthday.
“Last Thursday was mom’s 103rd birthday,” he said of his trip that included a bedside Mass, cake and a good conversation. “Mom talked about how she and dad relied on the help of the Lord.”
The conversation was the inspiration for his homily for the Life is Beautiful Mass.
“My mom was really saying to me ‘Life is beautiful,’” he said of his mother, who raised three sons – including one with developmental disabilities – and was married to the late Francis Lori for 73 years. “I am so grateful my parents taught me this lesson. We give thanks in a very special way for the gift of life, the beauty of life, the goodness of life.”
The goodness of life was on display at the annual Mass, which included the presentation of Culture of Life medals of honor to two individuals who have dedicated their ministries to pro-life causes – Monsignor James Farmer, temporary administrator of Immaculate Conception in Towson, and Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life Education Defense Fund.
Monsignor Farmer, retired pastor of St. Thomas More in Baltimore, is a former attorney who has served in a variety of roles in the pro-life community for decades. He is a strong supporter of pregnancy resource centers and has ministered as spiritual director of an archdiocesan office dedicated to pro-life ministry.
Archbishop Lori told the congregation that all must heed the call to build a culture of life; reject racism and xenophobia; protect the young; and refuse to accept violence and death as a way of life.
“No one is a mere statistic,” he said. “No one is a condition. Every human life must have with it beauty in our eyes.”
Paul Younkins, a parishioner of St. Peter in Libertytown, took the archbishop’s unifying words to heart.
“I would just say that there is a lot of divisiveness in the world pre-Roe v. Wade, after Roe v. Wade,” Younkins said. “There continues to be a polarization. Satan divides and conquers. We need to be as unified as we can around the Gospel.”
Younkins is husband of Erin Younkins, director of the archdiocesan Office of Life, Justice and Peace in the Institute for Evangelization.
After the award presentation at the end of Mass, Mancini gave a talk to several dozen people in the parish center.
Mancini said even though abortion on demand is no longer federal law, she estimated 700,000 abortions have been performed in the United States since the Roe v. Wade ruling was overturned by the Supreme Court in June.
“Part of the challenge is just articulating why there’s still a need to march,” she said of the March for Life, scheduled for Jan. 20. “Over the course of the last 50 years we’ve become the largest, longest-running human rights demonstration worldwide. It would not make any sense to stop the human rights abuse protest, when the human rights abuse is still happening.”
Mancini said she was optimistic about the 50th anniversary of the event in Washington, D.C.
“I think we’ll have a great turnout,” she said.
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