Archdiocesan news

Celebrate Life Day reinforces value of unborn human life among eighth graders

PHOTOS BY JACOB WIEGAND | jacobwiegand@archstl.org St. Joseph Cottleville youth minister Danny Zink, second from left, led a small-group activity with St. Joseph Cottleville eighth graders, from left, Louis Redmon, Ryan Witthaus and Rory Malloy at the Celebrate Life Day event Jan. 21 at St. Joseph Parish in Cottleville. The gathering featured speakers, small-group activities, Mass and eucharistic adoration.

Celebrate Life Day emphasizes prayer and sacrifice

Celebration Life Day kicked off with a high-energy chant at St. Joseph in Cottleville:

“What do you want?”

“A culture of life!”

“How do you get it?”

“Prayer and sacrifice!”

St. Joseph Cottleville student Louis Redmon held up images of students as babies for a small-group activity during a Celebrate Life event Jan. 21 at St. Joseph Parish in Cottleville. The gathering featured speakers, small-group activities, Mass and eucharistic adoration.

Nearly 200 eighth graders from five Catholic schools attended the second annual Celebrate Life Day on Jan. 21, a day of education on pro-life issues — primarily abortion — and to arm them with practical tools to defend life. The daylong event — held on the eve of the anniversary of Roe v. Wade (now the Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children) — included speakers, Mass, adoration and small-group discussions and activities. Students were from St. Joseph in Cottleville, Immaculate Conception in Dardenne Prairie, St. Charles Borromeo in St. Charles, All Saints in St. Peters and St. Joseph in Josephville.

The daylong event was launched last year after the archdiocese discontinued its annual Generation Life pilgrimage to the March for Life in Washington, D.C., said Nashville Dominican Sister Agnes Clare, who teaches seventh and eighth grade religion at St. Joseph School. Organizers said they wanted to help teens learn how to have effective conversations about life issues with others. They also learned about the work of St. Patrick Center and wrote notes to clients.

“Eighth grade is a great time because students have the intellectual capacity to deal with something difficult, and it’s usually — for most of them — before they’ve had to make practical decisions for life,” she said. “To have the understanding that my life matters and my choices matter, my life is a gift, and so is every other person — it ties in really well with the development of the children before they go off to high school.”

Francis Howell High School student and Celebrate Life teen mentor Ali Thuet took part in eucharistic adoration at a Celebrate Life event Jan. 21 at St. Joseph Parish in Cottleville.

Reagan Barklage, national field director for Students for Life, spoke to students about the different methods of abortion and gave students pointers on how to talk about the topic with others. Barklage was 13 when she stumbled across a medical illustration of an abortion. The image horrified her, “and I just couldn’t comprehend what I was seeing,” she said. “God had placed this instinct in me from a young age, and it’s really cool looking back at how God was using me and preparing me to what I would eventually do today” as a pro-life activist.

Gabriel Cobb, a triathlete and public speaker with Down syndrome, spoke about the value of all human life. He described his physical and learning challenges and explained that those challenges don’t limit what he can do. He shared some of his achievements, including completing 15 half Olympic triathlons without modifications, advocating for people with Down syndrome (including a speech at the United Nations), his involvement in Special Olympics and American Rangers, a Catholic boys’ ministry, and how his Catholic faith is an important part of his life.

“I’m not scared to be seen and I make no apologies — this is me,” Cobb said to the teens’ applause and cheers. “My name Gabriel means ‘God’s messenger,’ so I guess I’m supposed to be a public speaker anyway. Challenges: yes. Limitations: no.”

Wendy Dwyer, a mom of eight from St. Joseph Parish, spoke about her experience of becoming pregnant and having a baby at the age of 17. She was an honor student, involved in several extracurricular activities and was on track to graduate with 28 college credits.

Immaculate Conception of Dardenne student Gabby Francis (red at left), St. Joseph Josephville student Lucy Venable, St. Joseph Josephville student Miriam Mullenschlader, adult mentor Shannon Boland, St. Joseph Cottleville student Kinley Dorman, St. Joseph Cottleville student Delaney Smith and teen mentor Kylie McKeowan worked on a small-group activity during a Celebrate Life event Jan. 21 at St. Joseph Parish in Cottleville.

“All my parents and I could see was a future in which I had lost all that I worked for,” she said. But in her decision to parent her child, Dwyer said, “I was pro-life. There was nothing that was going to keep me from having this baby, and that was definitely a grace from God. My parents made it clear that I was loved and we were a team.”

Dwyer encouraged students to be proactive in supporting pregnant women and to foster a culture of life. “If you find yourselves pregnant or with a girlfriend who is pregnant, do not believe the lies,” she said. “Your life is not over. … There are so many who will help — seek help, reach out. You will never regret it. If you find yourself the friend of someone who is pregnant, be a friend, love them.”

Students spent time in class learning about fetal development so they would be prepared for conversations at Celebrate Life Day. St. Joseph Cottleville eighth grader Dylanie Pistorius said she was surprised by some of the abortion procedures she learned about.

“These babies are real lives, and they’re not just a clump of cells like people like to say,” she said. “It was especially important for us to learn about this now, so that we can go out there in the world and support people and love people — and also fight against abortion.”

Eighth grader Kylie Hodges said she, too, was surprised by some of the methods of abortion she learned about. “I didn’t realize that people actually would do that to a baby,” she said. “People who think abortion is fine — it almost disgusts me.”

Father Joseph Martin elevated the Eucharist for Benediction during adoration Jan. 21 at a Celebrate Life event.

>> How to talk about abortion

• Listen to understand: Ask yourself, are you just waiting to talk or are you truly listening to the other person?

• Clarify objections: It can be easy to assume you know what the other person thinks, feels, or intends, but we are often wrong. This is why we use clarifying questions to ensure that we understand what others are trying to say.

• Find common ground: Look for things you can both agree on. Perhaps they think that abortions should be illegal once the preborn heart starts beating or once the child can feel pain. Share your agreement and take the conversation from there. Finding points of agreement can help make the conversation more civil and even create more dialogue.

• Be nice: We must follow our passion to defend the preborn while still treating others with respect and kindness. When students on your campus and in your community define what it means to be pro-life, what they observe from your group will become part of that definition.

Source: Students for Life of America, studentsforlife.org/learn/how-to-talk-about-abortion/

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