Diocese of Venice Respect Life Department HOME PAGE

The Vatican

U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

Florida Catholic Conference

Diocese of Venice in Florida

A child dies, a mother suffers, and other family members grieve in silence...

The Diocese of Venice offers

Project Rachel, a post-abortion ministry to help women and their families cope with the aftermath of abortion.

Call toll-free in Florida

1-877-908-1212

Our Lady of Lourdes, Venice

Parishes aim the

Respect Life message at a wider audience through billboard ads.

Click here for larger picture of billboard

Florida Memorial

for the Unborn

A Place for Healing...

The purpose of the Florida Memorial for the Unborn is to help those who have experienced the loss of an unborn child due to abortion or miscarriage. Many times meaningful closure can be reached by giving the child a name, finding a place and way to memorialize him or her and allowing yourself to grieve your loss. The Florida Memorial for the Unborn provides a serene place to memorialize your child, grieve and pray.

The Memorial is located in Naples, Florida. Learn more by visiting the website: www.floridababymemorial.com

Welcome to the Diocese of Venice

Respect Life Website

Most Rev. Frank J. Dewane

Bishop

Bishop Dewane became the

Ordinary of the Diocese of Venice on

January 19, 2007

Click here for information about Bishop Dewane's ordination and appointment as the second Bishop of the Diocese of Venice in Florida.

Respect Life Department

Jeanne Berdeaux

Director

Marina Kopko

Assistant Director

Welcome to the Diocese of Venice Respect Life website. We hope you will find helpful information here. It is a work in progress that will be updated from time to time...

There are a number of pro-life organizations doing wonderful work from many different approaches, but our role is to do the work that our Bishop, the United States Bishops and the Holy Father have given us to do.

Click here for full statement

RESPECT LIFE DEPARTMENT

MISSION STATEMENT

Download PDF Version

Respect Life Ministry is dedicated to transforming today’s culture of death into a culture of life. Pope John Paul II’s encyclical, The Gospel of Life provides hope and inspiration in the promotion of respect for all life, from fertilization to natural death. The American Bishops’ Pastoral Plan for Pro-Life Activities: A Campaign in Support of Life provides a framework for the ministry, following the Catholic tradition of prayer, study/education and action, including pastoral care and legislative advocacy. Respect Life Ministry focuses on life and death issues involving the beginning of life, end of life, the death penalty, and legislative action on the parish, diocesan, state and national levels.

Persons with Disabilities Ministry seeks greater inclusion of persons with physical, sensory, cognitive and emotional disabilities in the life of the parish. The primary focus of the older Catholics Ministry is helping the frail elderly and their caregivers. Natural Family Planning Ministry is an effective method of child spacing in keeping with Church Teaching.

KEY CHURCH TEACHINGS

"We are facing an enormous and dramatic clash between good and evil, death and life, the "culture of death" and the "culture of life." We find ourselves not only "faced with" but necessarily "in the midst of" this conflict: we are all involved and we all share in it, with the inescapable responsibility of choosing to be unconditionally pro-life." (#28) ... "It is impossible to further the common good without acknowledging and defending the right to life, upon which all the other inalienable rights of individuals are founded and from which they develop." (#101)

Pope John Paul II - The Gospel of Life

"Restoring respect for human life in our society is an essential task of the Church that extends through all its institutions, agencies, and organizations and embraces diverse tasks and goals...Actively promoting a renewed respect for human life is the responsibility of every Catholic."

United States Bishops' Pastoral Plan for Pro-Life Activities:

A Campaign in Support of Life

"The failure to protect and defend life in its most vulnerable stages renders suspect any claims to the "rightness" of positions in other matters affecting the poorest and least powerful of the human community. If we understand the human person as the "temple of the Holy Spirit" -- the living house of God -- then these latter issues fall logically into place as the crossbeams and walls of that house. ... All direct attacks on innocent human life, such as abortion and euthanasia, strike at the house's foundation. These directly and immediately violate the human person's most fundamental right -- the right to life. Neglect of these issues is the equivalent of building our house on sand."

Living the Gospel of Life - A Challenge to American Catholics #23 -

A statement by the Catholic Bishops of the United States

"America ~ Defend Life!"

~ Pope John Paul II

The Gospel of Life ~ Evangelium Vitae

En Español / Spanish version

Pope John Paul presents the Church's teaching on the sanctity and inviolability of innocent human life, from conception to natural death, with special reference to abortion, euthanasia, and other assaults against life in its most vulnerable stages and conditions. 1995.

Study Guide to Evangelium Vitae

By Russell Shaw. This Study Guide to Evangelium Vitae, has been prepared by the Knights of Columbus for groups and individuals who wish to become more familiar with Catholic teaching on the respect due human life. It is available online and as a printed booklet through the Catholic Information Service.

Quotes from The Gospel of Life

A collection of Quotes from The Gospel of Life has been compiled. These notable quotations are helpful for use in developing teaching aids, bulletin briefs, etc., and present key elements and teachings of the Encyclical.

Pastoral Plan for Pro-Life Activities:
A Campaign in Support of Life

	In response to Pope John Paul II's call for "a general mobilization of consciences and a united ethical effort to create a great campaign in support of life" (The Gospel of Life, no. 95), the U.S. bishops call upon all the resources of the Church – its people, services and institutions – to work together to build a culture of life. The Pastoral Plan describes comprehensive model for pursuing this goal. 2001.

USCCB Respect Life Program 2007-2008

The Infant in My Womb Leaped For Joy

The Respect Life Program begins anew each year on Respect Life Sunday, the first Sunday in October. The program is highlighted in liturgies and marked by special events.

The USCCB Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities publishes a downloadable program packet of materials to call attention to numerous human life issues. Each contains information on current issues, program suggestions, liturgy resources and clip art. It may also contain prayers for daily recitation and parish bulletin briefs.

EL NIÑO SALTÓ DE ALEGRÍA EN MIS ENTRAÑAS

en español

Spanish version of the packet materials is available.

*Program Materials from prior years:*
2006-2007	2005-2006	2004-2005	2003-2004	2002-2003	2001-2002


2000-2001	1999-2000	1998-1999	1997-1998	1996-1997

Into the Future for Florida's Respect Life Directors

This document, written for the use of diocesan Respect Life Directors, outlines strategies (goals, objectives and proposed action) for the coming decade. The importance of this planning is intensified by a sense that the coming years will be especially challenging for the Church, particularly in her role as promoter and defender of human life and human dignity. 2000.

DEPARTMENT GOALS & OBJECTIVES

Commissions

Beginning of Life Issues

Death Penalty

End of Life Issues

Legislative Action

Ministries

Natural Family Planning

Older Catholics

Persons with Disabilities

Outreach

Catholic Schools

Post Abortion Reconciliation and Healing

Youth

Speakers Bureau

Dr. Daniel J. Pepin

Curriculum Vitae

BIOETHICS CONSULTANT

PROFESSOR OF ANATOMY & PHYSIOLOGY

Edison College, Naples, FL

Instructor of Human Biology

North Central Michigan College, Petoskey, MI

Programs on Bioethical Issues

Six programs dealing with some of the more controversial bioethical issues of today have been created by Dr. Dan Pepin, professor of anatomy & physiology, instructor of human biology, and consultant on Bioethics. These programs are designed to educate audiences, small or large, and are appropriate for churches, pro-life organizations, the public at large, as well as high and college campuses. The goal of each program is to replace the “complacency of ignorance” with the “responsibility for knowledge”.

More about Dr. Pepin's programs & contact information

Program Synopsis

"Reproductive Cloning and the New Eugenics Movement"

Mary Beard Stegman, M.D.

Contact Information and Bio

CHAIRMAN, END OF LIFE ISSUES

Respect Life Department, Diocese of Venice

MEDICAL DIRECTOR

HOPE of Southwest Florida, Inc. Hospice, Ft. Myers, FL

More about Dr. Stegman's "Decisions for Living" program

Marina Kopko

Assistant Director

Respect Life Department, Diocese of Venice

O Mary,

Bright dawn of the new world,

Mother of the living,

To you do we entrust the cause of life:

Look down, O Mother,

Upon the vast numbers

Of babies not allowed to be born,

Of the poor whose lives are made difficult,

Of men and women

Who are victims of brutal violence,

Of the elderly and the sick killed

By indifference or out of misguided mercy.

Grant that all who believe in your Son

May proclaim the Gospel of life

With honesty and love

To the people of our time.

Obtain for them the grace

To accept that Gospel

As a gift ever new,

The joy of celebrating it with gratitude

Throughout their lives

And the courage to bear witness to it

Resolutely, in order to build,

Together with all people of good will,

A civilization of truth and love,

To the praise and glory of God,

Creator and lover of life.

(Evangelium Vitae, §105)