Respect Life

As a matter of social justice, Church of the Holy Spirit strives to defend and promote the God-given right to life in a variety of ways in cooperation with the Archdiocese of Detroit, Lakes Area Right to Life, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

We faithfully and peacefully oppose policies and practices that are contrary to the dignity of the human person, marriage, family,| and a just society abortion,| artificial birth control, infanticide, euthanasia, assisted suicide, human embryonic stem cell research, human cloning, and in vitro fertilization.

We seek life-affirming solutions to difficult problems such as crisis pregnancies and end-of-life decisions.

Pope John Paul the Great spoke frequently about the obligation of all Christians to build a culture of life. Following are some resources.

Project Rachel -- Post-Abortion HelpProject Rachel| is a confidential healing ministry of the Archdiocese for the many people, both men and women, who have been touched by an abortion experience.


Foundations for the Right to Live
God's natural law, Sacred Scripture, and the ancient teaching of the Church inform us that the right to life is universal from the moment of natural conception until natural death for all of God's children, born and unborn.| The Founding Fathers of our nation recognized this fact in the Declaration of Independence:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are LIFE, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Numerous Bible passages confirm what we know by faith and reason,| namely,| God is the sole Author of life and no one has the right to take the life of an innocent person.| For example, God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them (Genisis 1:27); You shall not kill (Exodus 20:18); and I call heaven and earth today to witness against you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live (Deuteronomy 30:20), to name three.

| For more information about how you can get involved, call parishioner Chris Zielinski at 248-529-6125 or e-mail him at czielinski@rtl.org.