Pope St. John Paul II wrote the encyclical Evangelium Vitae–The Gospel of Life–twenty-five years ago.
To commemorate this great encyclical that has inspired our efforts to defend life and build a culture of life, we have planned an evening of prayer and catechesis at St. Thomas Aquinas on Friday, October 23, at 7 p.m.
Fr. Matthew Kauth and Fr. Peter Ascik will be teaching and preaching on the importance of Evangelium Vitae and the definitive teaching it contains.
The event will be held in the church. At this time, St. Thomas Aquinas Respect Life is working on arranging Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, or the Rosary and Divine Mercy chaplet possibly before the reflection/talks.
This encyclical was promulgated on the Feast of the Annunciation, March 25; this event will take place the day after St. John Paul II’s feast day.
“Human life is sacred and inviolable at every moment of existence, including the initial phase that proceeds birth. All human beings, from their mother’s womb, belong to God who searches them and knows them, who forms them and knits them together with his own hands, who gazes on them when they are tiny shapeless embryos and already sees in them the adults of tomorrow whose days are numbered and whose vocation is even now written in the ‘book of life’ (cf. Ps 139:1, 13-16). There too, when they are still in their mother’s womb–as many passages of the Bible witness–they are the personal objects of God’s loving and fatherly providence.” (EV 61) – St. John Paul II