Portland, Ore., Sep 29, 2010 / 23:01 pm
Announcing this year's initiative to protect life in his archdiocese, which will begin October 3 on Respect Life Sunday, Portland Archbishop John Vlazny penned an empathetic plea to all citizens of Oregon. His column in last Tuesday's Catholic Sentinel urged the faithful to consider the dignity and value of all human life, making a “love without measure” their motivation for choosing rightly even in the most difficult dilemmas.
“Sometimes the challenges can be formidable when our sisters and brothers are confronted with life issues,” he acknowledged, describing a number of situations in which individuals must make choices of a life-or-death nature.
“It’s very tempting for a college girl to seek an abortion,” he offered as an example, “when she barely knows the father and he offers to help pay for the abortion but in no way cares to be involved with raising a child.”
Likewise, “busy families with an aging grandparent who slips into a 'persistent vegetative state,'” may be “encouraged, even by physicians, to withdraw the food and water that keep him alive.”