Link between life, dignity focus of national meeting
By NADIA MARIA SMITH
CS&T Staff Writer
Cherry Hill, N.J. — Members of pro-life, social justice and family life ministries are gearing up to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s letter, Humanae Vitae, in a historic conference that will explore new pathways to partnership in promoting human life and dignity.
Sponsored by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, the Diocese of Camden and the Knights of Columbus, the three-day national convocation will take place July 25-27 at the Crown Plaza in Cherry Hill, N.J.
“Humanae Vitae is so important and pivotal because of its insights into the dignity of the human person,” said Dominic Lombardi, the director of the archdiocesan Family Life Office. “The profound dignity of the human person is the single source connecting the Catholic social teaching and the Church’s teaching on marriage and pro-life. The goal of the conference is to develop a collaboration and spirit of community amongst those who labor in the Church on behalf of the dignity of the human person in these various areas.”
Experts in each field will give presentations dealing with today’s most pressing issues including abortion, global poverty, human rights, bioethics, family life, the environment, and science and religion.
They will explore how diocesan and parish pro-life, social justice and family life ministry leaders and the scientific and medical communities can cooperate and contribute to the new evangelization.
Participants will delve into Catholic moral and social teaching from the Second Vatican Council and the papal encyclicals Humanae Vitae and Deus Caritas Est.
The idea for the conference came together because the national pro-life directors’ meeting was scheduled to take place during the same week as the 40th anniversary of Humanae Vitae.
The USCCB, which has refocused attention on the U.S. Church’s pro-life, social justice and marriage and family ministries, coordinated the convocation with the other sponsors in an effort to “reach out to all three of those groups that often don’t talk to each other or work together as closely as they could,” said Tom Grenchik, the executive director of the Bishops’ Committee For Pro-Life Activities.
The pro-life directors’ meeting will take place in Philadelphia. On July 24 Cardinal Justin Rigali, who chairs the Bishops’ Committee for Pro-Life Activities, will celebrate the opening Mass for the national conference at the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul, followed by a conference at the Sheraton Hotel in Center City.
The directors will then join other ministry leaders for the convocation across the Delaware River in Cherry Hill, N.J., where Bishop William E. Lori of Bridgeport will give the opening address on “Generosity and Collaboration.”
Other speakers include Kathleen Raviele, president of the Catholic Medical Association; Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk, director of education for the National Catholic Bioethics Center; Helen M. Alvaré, associate professor of law at George Mason University; Mark LeChevallier, director of Innovation and Environmental Excellence at the American Water Co., and Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus.
Physicians and nurses who attend the conference will also have the opportunity to obtain continuing medical education credits and nursing contact hours.
“We hope that everybody will see something that they’d like to learn more about and in the process learn about other areas as well, and meet folks they might not necessarily spend three days with,” Grenchik said.
For more information or to register by June 30, e-mail ljf@usccb.org. or visit www.archphila.org. Later registrations are subject to an additional fee.
CS&T staff writer Nadia Maria Smith may be reached at npozo@adphila.org or (215) 965-4614.
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