Natural Family Planning Awareness week is July 25 - 31, 2010
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Changes announced in Respect Life Office
Patricia Pitkus Bainbridge is retiring as director effective June 30. Bainbridge has been the director of the Respect Life Office since 2004. However, she has worked with the Rockford Diocese since 2000.
"Msgr. David Peck first called me in January 2000 to ask if I would assist him in setting up a Respect Life Office. I began helping him on a part time basis in February 2000. In May 2000 I was appointed associate director and continued volunteering, but on a full-time basis. I did this for two and a half years and then began receiving a monthly stipend," Bainbridge said.
Since then, the Respect Life Office has set up a complete network of pro-life coordinators in each parish, provided comprehensive training for Natural Family Planning (NFP) instructors and individuals throughout the diocese and been involved locally and nationally on legislative issues on both promoting the dignity of life and opposing those issues that attack it.
"When I began organizing the office, I asked for the files and was given one folder that had some correspondence in it. Nothing else. So, I basically started from the beginning. I would have to say my greatest accomplishment was going from that one file folder to the establishment of a fully functioning, effective and energetic diocesan office," Bainbridge said.
"Hiring our administrative assistant, Laura Christianson, and our NFP coordinator, Deborah Irwin, is an important part of that accomplishment. I cannot stress enough how valuable they both are to carrying out our mission," she explained.
When asked about her retirement Bainbridge said, "It's the beginning of another journey directed by God. I'm just along for the ride!"
"God willing, I will be active in the pro-life movement until my dying breath. I will continue serving as a consultant/advisor for a number of pro-life organizations and as chairman of Human Life International.
I will also be traveling for speaking engagements and hopefully, will finish writing a book or two," she told The Observer.
Even though she plans to continue her pro-life work, she plans to find time for some of her favorite leisure time pursuits including gardening, golf and tennis.
"And don't laugh but I hope to learn to tap dance," she said.
Hired to succeed Bainbridge is Mitch A. Striedl of Wheaton.
Striedl brings with him a background in pro-life and youth ministry in addition to experience in legislation and theology.
He is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana with a degree in political science and minor in English. He received a teacher certification from National Louis University in Wheaton.
For the past four years he has been the Respect Life Office Coordinator of Youth Outreach for the Archdiocese of Chicago. From 2002 to 2006 he taught theology and was head track and field coach at St. Edward Central Catholic High School in Elgin.
He was a legislative analyst in the Illinois House of Representatives and was a summer intern for House Speaker Dennis Hastert in 1999.
He has volunteered at the Newman Center at the University of Illinois and been a lector, team leader for marriage preparation seminars and led a parish men's group at his parish in Lombard.
He is also educated in the Creighton Model of Natural Family Planning. He will begin his duties in Rockford on July 1.
"I am thrilled to be working for the Diocese of Rockford, which is my home diocese. Here, I have received all of my major sacraments and spent the majority of my life. It couldn't be more of a blessing to now serve in an official capacity for the diocese," Streidl said of his appointment.
"It is my hope that I can build on the great work of Patricia Bainbridge and ensure that the Gospel of Life is at the heart of what the Rockford Diocese does and says. It will continue to be the priority of the Respect Life Office to serve and support the people of this diocese to live out the Gospel message more fully, allowing the world to see the faithful as people of Life," he said. Striedl and his wife, Sue, have been married for six years and have two children, Christopher, age three years and Joshua, three months.
Excerpts from The Observer archived article of May 14, 2010 by Penny Wiegert, Editor
To read the complete article visit: http://observer.rockforddiocese.org/Archives/2010Archives/May142010/Changesannouncedindiocesanadministration/tabid/2922/Default.aspx
Bible Study Offers "A Time To Heal"
Terri White was 18 when she had an abortion.
Already separated from the Catholic Church, the abortion only pushed her farther away.
"I buried (my abortion) for 13 years," she says. "I couldn't face it."
White credits the Blessed Mother and the Eucharist for bringing her back to God, beginning with a healing Mass that she attended while visiting her godmother.
God pierced and converted her heart that evening, White says. "I was flooded with the reality of God's presence in the world."
Soon, White made herself go to confession, thinking that would make everything fine.
In one way, that was true, she says, because her sins were forgiven. But her memory and the spiritual and emotional effects of her abortion lingered.
"I thought that confession was the end," she says. "What it did was open the door to healing."
White is one of nine volunteers in the Rockford Diocese who facilitate "A Time to Heal," a 14-week Bible study designed to help women who have had abortions. In the study, they ponder their own lives and struggles as they look at several women in biblical history.
The diocesan Respect Life Office also offers Project Rachel and is working to bring the Entering Canaan, a prayer and retreat post-abortion program to the diocese, developed by the Sisters of Life and Theresa Bonopartis in the Archdiocese of New York.
"A Time to Heal" Bible studies already have been offered in the Rockford and McHenry deaneries. The goal, says Christianson, is to present the study at least once annually in each of the diocese's seven deaneries.
From The Observer archived article of June 25, 2010 by Amanda Hudson, News Editor
To read the complete article visit: http://observer.rockforddiocese.org/Archives/2010Archives/June252010/BiblestudyoffersTimetoHeal/tabid/3005/Default.aspx
Our Mission
The Respect Life Office of the Diocese of Rockford was established to fulfill the objectives of the Pastoral Plan for Pro-Life Activities of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. The office is under the direction of the Bishop of Rockford, the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities of National Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Catholic Conference of Illinois. The Office is administered by a Diocesan Director appointed by and responsible to the Bishop.
The Most Rev. Thomas G. Doran, Bishop of Rockford
It has been twenty-seven years since the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its rulings, Roe v Wade and Doe v Bolton, which legalized abortion for any reason during all nine months of pregnancy. As a result of these rulings, an estimated 38 million pre-born babies have been destroyed by abortion and untold millions of mothers, fathers, grandparents, and siblings are suffering from the aftermath of those abortions.
Sadly, a recent study by the Alan Guttmacher Institute-an affiliate of Planned Parenthood Federation of America-reported that 31% of women having abortions describe themselves as Catholic. In 1997 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that no constitutional prohibition against a competent, terminally ill patient committing suicide with the aid of a physician could be found in the Constitution.
Pope Benedict XVI
Paul VI had already recognized and drawn attention to the global dimension of the social question. Following his lead, we need to affirm today that the social question has become a radically anthropological question, in the sense that it concerns not just how life is conceived but also how it is manipulated, as bio-technology places it increasingly under man's control. In vitro fertilization, embryo research, the possibility of manufacturing clones and human hybrids: all this is now emerging and being promoted in today's highly disillusioned culture, which believes it has mastered every mystery, because the origin of life is now within our grasp.
Changes announced in Respect Life Office
"Msgr. David Peck first called me in January 2000 to ask if I would assist him in setting up a Respect Life Office. I began helping him on a part time basis in February 2000. In May 2000 I was appointed associate director and continued volunteering, but on a full-time basis. I did this for two and a half years and then began receiving a monthly stipend," Bainbridge said.
Since then, the Respect Life Office has set up a complete network of pro-life coordinators in each parish, provided comprehensive training for Natural Family Planning (NFP) instructors and individuals throughout the diocese and been involved locally and nationally on legislative issues on both promoting the dignity of life and opposing those issues that attack it.
"When I began organizing the office, I asked for the files and was given one folder that had some correspondence in it. Nothing else. So, I basically started from the beginning. I would have to say my greatest accomplishment was going from that one file folder to the establishment of a fully functioning, effective and energetic diocesan office," Bainbridge said.
"Hiring our administrative assistant, Laura Christianson, and our NFP coordinator, Deborah Irwin, is an important part of that accomplishment. I cannot stress enough how valuable they both are to carrying out our mission," she explained.
When asked about her retirement Bainbridge said, "It's the beginning of another journey directed by God. I'm just along for the ride!"
"God willing, I will be active in the pro-life movement until my dying breath. I will continue serving as a consultant/advisor for a number of pro-life organizations and as chairman of Human Life International.
I will also be traveling for speaking engagements and hopefully, will finish writing a book or two," she told The Observer.
Even though she plans to continue her pro-life work, she plans to find time for some of her favorite leisure time pursuits including gardening, golf and tennis.
"And don't laugh but I hope to learn to tap dance," she said.
Striedl brings with him a background in pro-life and youth ministry in addition to experience in legislation and theology.
He is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana with a degree in political science and minor in English. He received a teacher certification from National Louis University in Wheaton.
For the past four years he has been the Respect Life Office Coordinator of Youth Outreach for the Archdiocese of Chicago. From 2002 to 2006 he taught theology and was head track and field coach at St. Edward Central Catholic High School in Elgin.
He was a legislative analyst in the Illinois House of Representatives and was a summer intern for House Speaker Dennis Hastert in 1999.
He has volunteered at the Newman Center at the University of Illinois and been a lector, team leader for marriage preparation seminars and led a parish men's group at his parish in Lombard.
He is also educated in the Creighton Model of Natural Family Planning. He will begin his duties in Rockford on July 1.
"I am thrilled to be working for the Diocese of Rockford, which is my home diocese. Here, I have received all of my major sacraments and spent the majority of my life. It couldn't be more of a blessing to now serve in an official capacity for the diocese," Streidl said of his appointment.
"It is my hope that I can build on the great work of Patricia Bainbridge and ensure that the Gospel of Life is at the heart of what the Rockford Diocese does and says. It will continue to be the priority of the Respect Life Office to serve and support the people of this diocese to live out the Gospel message more fully, allowing the world to see the faithful as people of Life," he said. Striedl and his wife, Sue, have been married for six years and have two children, Christopher, age three years and Joshua, three months.
Excerpts from The Observer archived article of May 14, 2010 by Penny Wiegert, Editor
To read the complete article visit: http://observer.rockforddiocese.org/Archives/2010Archives/May142010/Changesannouncedindiocesanadministration/tabid/2922/Default.aspx
Bible Study Offers "A Time To Heal"
Already separated from the Catholic Church, the abortion only pushed her farther away.
"I buried (my abortion) for 13 years," she says. "I couldn't face it."
White credits the Blessed Mother and the Eucharist for bringing her back to God, beginning with a healing Mass that she attended while visiting her godmother.
God pierced and converted her heart that evening, White says. "I was flooded with the reality of God's presence in the world."
Soon, White made herself go to confession, thinking that would make everything fine.
In one way, that was true, she says, because her sins were forgiven. But her memory and the spiritual and emotional effects of her abortion lingered.
"I thought that confession was the end," she says. "What it did was open the door to healing."
White is one of nine volunteers in the Rockford Diocese who facilitate "A Time to Heal," a 14-week Bible study designed to help women who have had abortions. In the study, they ponder their own lives and struggles as they look at several women in biblical history.
The diocesan Respect Life Office also offers Project Rachel and is working to bring the Entering Canaan, a prayer and retreat post-abortion program to the diocese, developed by the Sisters of Life and Theresa Bonopartis in the Archdiocese of New York.
"A Time to Heal" Bible studies already have been offered in the Rockford and McHenry deaneries. The goal, says Christianson, is to present the study at least once annually in each of the diocese's seven deaneries.
From The Observer archived article of June 25, 2010 by Amanda Hudson, News Editor
To read the complete article visit: http://observer.rockforddiocese.org/Archives/2010Archives/June252010/BiblestudyoffersTimetoHeal/tabid/3005/Default.aspx
Our Mission
The Respect Life Office of the Diocese of Rockford was established to fulfill the objectives of the Pastoral Plan for Pro-Life Activities of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. The office is under the direction of the Bishop of Rockford, the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities of National Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Catholic Conference of Illinois. The Office is administered by a Diocesan Director appointed by and responsible to the Bishop.
The Respect Life Office networks with other Diocesan Offices including, but not limited to, Catholic Charities (specifically adoption and crisis pregnancy counseling services), the Family Life Office, Catholic Education Office, Campus Ministry, the St. Francis Office for Persons with Disabilities and the Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry. Additional networking activities include community and lay organizations as well as other Diocesan Respect Life offices across the nation.
The Respect Life Office sponsors spiritual, pastoral care, educational, and public policy events related to pro-life issues. The Office condemns all acts of violence against persons or property and requests that all members of the diocesan pro-life effort work in cooperation with the goals and policies of the Pastoral Plan for Pro-Life Activities. No event is endorsed by this Office without official notification of approval from the Bishop or the Director of the Respect Life Office.
The Director of the Diocesan Respect Life Office cannot possibly meet all the spiritual, pastoral care, educational, and public policy demands of the diocese. Work and responsibility must be shared with others including clergy, religious and the people of God within our parishes throughout the Diocese. Only then can we, with God's help, secure a consistent ethic of life in this nation.
The Gospel of life is for the whole of human society. To be actively pro-life is to contribute to the renewal of society through the promotion of the common good. 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. A society lacks solid foundations when, on the one hand, it assets values such as the dignity of the person, justice and peace, but then, on the other hand, radically acts to the contrary by allowing or tolerating a variety of ways in which human life is devalued and violated, especially where it is weak or marginalized. Only respect for life can be the foundation and guarantee of the most precious and essential goods of society, such as democracy and peace.
There can be no true democracy without a recognition of every person's dignity and without respect for his or her rights. Nor can there be true peace unless life is defended and promoted. As Paul VI pointed out: "Every crime against life is an attack on peace, especially if it strikes at the moral conduct of people...But where human rights are truly professed and publicly recognized and defended, peace becomes the joyful and operative climate of life in society."
The "people of life" rejoices in being able to share its commitment with so many others. Thus may the "people for life" constantly grow in number and may a new culture of love and solidarity develop for the true good of the whole of human society.
The Respect Life Office sponsors spiritual, pastoral care, educational, and public policy events related to pro-life issues. The Office condemns all acts of violence against persons or property and requests that all members of the diocesan pro-life effort work in cooperation with the goals and policies of the Pastoral Plan for Pro-Life Activities. No event is endorsed by this Office without official notification of approval from the Bishop or the Director of the Respect Life Office.
The Director of the Diocesan Respect Life Office cannot possibly meet all the spiritual, pastoral care, educational, and public policy demands of the diocese. Work and responsibility must be shared with others including clergy, religious and the people of God within our parishes throughout the Diocese. Only then can we, with God's help, secure a consistent ethic of life in this nation.
The Gospel of life is for the whole of human society. To be actively pro-life is to contribute to the renewal of society through the promotion of the common good. 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. A society lacks solid foundations when, on the one hand, it assets values such as the dignity of the person, justice and peace, but then, on the other hand, radically acts to the contrary by allowing or tolerating a variety of ways in which human life is devalued and violated, especially where it is weak or marginalized. Only respect for life can be the foundation and guarantee of the most precious and essential goods of society, such as democracy and peace.
There can be no true democracy without a recognition of every person's dignity and without respect for his or her rights. Nor can there be true peace unless life is defended and promoted. As Paul VI pointed out: "Every crime against life is an attack on peace, especially if it strikes at the moral conduct of people...But where human rights are truly professed and publicly recognized and defended, peace becomes the joyful and operative climate of life in society."
The "people of life" rejoices in being able to share its commitment with so many others. Thus may the "people for life" constantly grow in number and may a new culture of love and solidarity develop for the true good of the whole of human society.
A Message From...
The Most Rev. Thomas G. Doran, Bishop of Rockford
Sadly, a recent study by the Alan Guttmacher Institute-an affiliate of Planned Parenthood Federation of America-reported that 31% of women having abortions describe themselves as Catholic. In 1997 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that no constitutional prohibition against a competent, terminally ill patient committing suicide with the aid of a physician could be found in the Constitution.
As a result, each state now may decide whether or not to legalize physician assisted suicide. While Oregon is the only state so far to legalize this illicit act, debate on the issue is taking place in other state legislatures, including Illinois.
Many of our people worry about factors encompassing modern medical technology and end of life decisions and think that assisted suicide and in some cases, euthanasia, must be available to them and their loved ones. The mainstream media and others have frightened them needlessly to the point where they do not understand that there are positive, life-affirming options available to the terminally ill and dying.
It is abundantly clear that we must step up our efforts to prevent the actual or threatened assaults on the dignity of each human life from fertilization to natural death. This is especially true for the great multitude of the weak and defenseless among us.
As the Bishop of the Diocese of Rockford, I pledge my full support for the mission of the Respect Life Office and its activities designed to promote the respect for life at all its stages.
Many of our people worry about factors encompassing modern medical technology and end of life decisions and think that assisted suicide and in some cases, euthanasia, must be available to them and their loved ones. The mainstream media and others have frightened them needlessly to the point where they do not understand that there are positive, life-affirming options available to the terminally ill and dying.
It is abundantly clear that we must step up our efforts to prevent the actual or threatened assaults on the dignity of each human life from fertilization to natural death. This is especially true for the great multitude of the weak and defenseless among us.
As the Bishop of the Diocese of Rockford, I pledge my full support for the mission of the Respect Life Office and its activities designed to promote the respect for life at all its stages.
Pope Benedict XVI
Here we see the clearest expression of technology's supremacy. In this type of culture, the conscience is simply invited to take note of technological possibilities. Yet we must not underestimate the disturbing scenarios that threaten our future, or the powerful new instruments that the "culture of death" has at its disposal. To the tragic and widespread scourge of abortion we may well have to add in the future - indeed it is already surreptiously present - the systematic eugenic programming of births.
At the other end of the spectrum, a pro-euthanasia mindset is making inroads as an equally damaging assertion of control over life that under certain circumstances is deemed no longer worth living. Underlying these scenarios are cultural viewpoints that deny human dignity. These practices in turn foster a materialistic and mechanistic understanding of human life. Who could measure the negative effects of this kind of mentality for development? How can we be surprised by the indifference shown towards situations of human degradation, when such indifference extends even to our attitude towards what is and is not human?
What is astonishing is the arbitrary and selective determination of what to put forward today as worthy of respect. Insignificant matters are considered shocking, yet unprecedented injustices seem to be widely tolerated. While the poor of the world continue knocking on the doors of the rich, the world of affluence runs the risk of no longer hearing those knocks, on account of a conscience that can no longer distinguish what is human. God reveals man to himself; reason and faith work hand in hand to demonstrate to us what is good, provided we want to see it; the natural law, in which creative Reason shines forth, reveals our greatness, but also our wretchedness insofar as we fail to recognize the call to moral truth.
"In the course of my intellectual life I experienced very acutely the problem of whether it isn't actually presumptuous to say that we can know the truth - in the face of all our limitations. I also asked myself to what extent it might not be better to suppress this category. In pursuing this question, however, I was able to observe and also to grasp that relinquishing truth doesn't solve anything but, on the contrary, leads to the tyranny of caprice. In that case, the only thing that can remain is really what we decide on and can replace at will. Man is degraded if he can't know truth, if everything, in the final analysis, is just the product of an individual or collective decision.
In this way it became clear to me how important it is that we don't lose the concept of truth, in spite of the menaces and perils that it doubtless carries with it. It has to remain as a central category. As a demand on us that doesn't give us rights but requires, on the contrary, our humility and our obedience and can lead us to the common path."
At the other end of the spectrum, a pro-euthanasia mindset is making inroads as an equally damaging assertion of control over life that under certain circumstances is deemed no longer worth living. Underlying these scenarios are cultural viewpoints that deny human dignity. These practices in turn foster a materialistic and mechanistic understanding of human life. Who could measure the negative effects of this kind of mentality for development? How can we be surprised by the indifference shown towards situations of human degradation, when such indifference extends even to our attitude towards what is and is not human?
What is astonishing is the arbitrary and selective determination of what to put forward today as worthy of respect. Insignificant matters are considered shocking, yet unprecedented injustices seem to be widely tolerated. While the poor of the world continue knocking on the doors of the rich, the world of affluence runs the risk of no longer hearing those knocks, on account of a conscience that can no longer distinguish what is human. God reveals man to himself; reason and faith work hand in hand to demonstrate to us what is good, provided we want to see it; the natural law, in which creative Reason shines forth, reveals our greatness, but also our wretchedness insofar as we fail to recognize the call to moral truth.
"In the course of my intellectual life I experienced very acutely the problem of whether it isn't actually presumptuous to say that we can know the truth - in the face of all our limitations. I also asked myself to what extent it might not be better to suppress this category. In pursuing this question, however, I was able to observe and also to grasp that relinquishing truth doesn't solve anything but, on the contrary, leads to the tyranny of caprice. In that case, the only thing that can remain is really what we decide on and can replace at will. Man is degraded if he can't know truth, if everything, in the final analysis, is just the product of an individual or collective decision.
In this way it became clear to me how important it is that we don't lose the concept of truth, in spite of the menaces and perils that it doubtless carries with it. It has to remain as a central category. As a demand on us that doesn't give us rights but requires, on the contrary, our humility and our obedience and can lead us to the common path."
"Every individual, precisely by reason of the mystery of the Word of God who is made of flesh, is entrusted to the maternal care of the Church."
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Copyright© 2009 Catholic Diocese of Rockford | Website inquiries: webmaster@rockforddiocese.org
Copyright© 2009 Catholic Diocese of Rockford | Website inquiries: webmaster@rockforddiocese.org