Archbishop Raymond L. Burke, with the collaboration of the archdiocesan Respect Life Apostolate, is commissioning a rosary crusade to safeguard human embryonic life.
The commissioning will take place at a eucharistic holy hour and rosary, starting at 7 p.m., Tuesday, May 9, at the Basilica of St. Louis, King of France (Old Cathedral), 209 Walnut St. on the riverfront Downtown. Irish tenor Mark Forrest will provide reflections and music.
The crusade was developed as a response to a current ballot initiative that seeks to constitutionally protect embryonic stem-cell research and human cloning in Missouri. If enough signatures are garnered in support of the initiative, the measure will appear on the Nov. 7 ballot.
Those who attend the holy hour and rosary will be invited to sign a pledge to invoke the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the patroness of life, and pray the rosary for the next seven months leading up to the ballot vote.
Others who do not attend the May 9 service will be able to sign up through their parishes. In addition, the Respect Life Apostolate is launching a Web site
www.morosarycrusade.org, where people can make their pledges.
The apostolate last week sent information packets to parish respect life coordinators, which described the crusade and promoted the May 9 event. Parishes also will receive posters with space for signups and brochures that offer reflections on the mysteries of the rosary that address the particular intentions of the crusade.
In a letter to parish respect life coordinators, Molly Corcoran Kertz, director of the apostolate, noted a couple of instances where the power of prayer has helped the faithful in times of need.
In St. Louis in 1866, Father Joseph Weber of St. Joseph’s Church (now the Shrine of St. Joseph) called together his parishioners to pray to the parish’s patron to protect them from a cholera epidemic that had broken out in St. Louis.
"From that Sunday on, not a single member of any family who had signed the prayer pledge died of the dread disease," wrote Kertz. "In gratitude, a special altar was designed and dedicated to St. Joseph."
In addition to spreading the message of the crusade to parishes, Kertz said her office also will be promoting the effort in schools, nursing homes and among other groups where people gather to pray the rosary.
Teaching the faithful about the immorality of embryonic stem-cell research and human cloning has been a priority for the archbishop.
In recent months, he sent to archdiocesan priests a copy of a DVD by Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk, a priest of the Diocese of Fall River, Mass., and director of education for the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia.
The archbishop also wrote in his column last fall on the topic, "Safeguarding human life: the very beginning," in which he detailed the sacredness of embryonic human life. He also joined with the other Missouri bishops to ask priests and deacons with homiletic faculties across the state to speak about embryonic stem-cell research and human cloning during their homilies the first weekend of Advent.
Free parking on Memorial Drive between Walnut Street and Washington Avenue will be available for the May 9 event.
For more information on the crusade, call the Respect Life Apostolate at (314) 792-7555.
Originally published in the
St. Louis Review on April 28, 2006. Reprinted with permission.
