October is Respect Life Month

by Fr. John Granato  |  10/22/2023  |  Words from Fr. John

My Dear Friends,

As you know, October is not only the month to honor Our Lady of the Rosary, but it also respect life month. Every year the Archdiocese of Hartford joins with the other dioceses throughout the United States to prayerfully pray for life from conception to natural death. We do so here in Our Lady of Hope by taking our parish’s turn in front of a Planned Parenthood that performs abortions, and we do a 24 hour adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. There are so many other ways for us to show our love for life, especially the life of the unborn.

This Tuesday, we will be having our Rachel Rosary at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church beginning at 6:30 pm, immediately prior to our Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. The Rachel Rosary is a rosary that has meditations during the decades of the Hail Marys that focus on life issues. All are invited, of course, especially our teens and those who are in the confirmation program.

Next Sunday we will also be having our baby shower for the end of the spiritual adoption program that we began nine months ago, praying for a newly conceived baby. The items we are collecting for the baby shower are for Two Hearts Pregnancy Center in Torrington. As you know, Deacon Dave Reynolds and his wife Lynn Reynolds, who run the center, are passionate about Two Hearts. It is our way as a Catholic community living out our Catholic faith by focusing not only on the baby in the womb but also the baby and the mother after birth. The accusation that pro-life people are only concerned with the baby in the womb is disgusting. Christians generally, and the Catholic Church especially, have always prioritized the importance of life, not only in the womb but also after birth. There are thousands of Catholic charity programs that are there to help women who find themselves pregnant and have no support from the man who has abdicated his responsibility. Women deserve better from these men, and they deserve better from our culture than defaulting to the option of destroying the baby in the womb. Pope Francis has continually used the language of hiring a hit man to get rid of a problem when discussing abortion. Pope Francis says, “Every child which arrives in a woman’s womb is a gift.”