Temperatures may have fallen with the start of this autumn, but discourse only continues to heat up as the election approaches. With several serious ballot propositions, constitutional amendments and new leaders to vote upon, this election season is only growing in importance.
As Coloradans head to the ballot boxes, Respect Life Denver invites the faithful to gather with Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila in peaceful prayer and witness for life in the annual Eucharistic Procession around Planned Parenthood in Denver on Saturday, Nov. 2.
Part of the 40 Days for Life, the annual archdiocesan event will begin in the garden at Marisol Health Denver. It will include a Eucharistic Procession around the Planned Parenthood property and Benediction (a Eucharistic blessing offered by Archbishop Aquila), followed by Mass in the garden at Marisol Health, celebrated by Father John Paul Leyba.
With the Eucharistic Procession, Denver Catholics will have the opportunity to give public witness to their faith while offering powerful, peaceful prayer in support of a culture of life in our communities.
“As Catholics, on this horizon, we cannot be satisfied with a marginal or private faith,” Pope Francis recently said in his address on the 50th Social Week of Italian Catholics. “We have something to say, but not to defend privileges. No. We need to be a voice, a voice that denounces and proposes in a society that is often mute and where too many have no voice.”
In his latest column, Archbishop Aquila expounded upon the Pope’s words: “The unborn have no voice in the fight for their rights and their lives. The ability to bring our values into the public square and advocate for the truth and dignity of human life is one of the blessings of liberty that our constitution speaks of.”
The great blessing of liberty to be a voice for the voiceless is accompanied by a call to advocate for the most vulnerable among us and to build a culture of life that respects, defends, honors and upholds life from the womb to the tomb, said Jeannine Duffield, director of Respect Life Denver.
“Our faith calls us to love and serve others, especially the most vulnerable among us. So, engaging in respect life activities is how we are to be Christ’s hands and feet in the world,” she said. “We all want to live in a place where there is a compassionate and just society for everyone, and we must help create that.
“Everybody has a part to play in this, and God’s work won’t be done if anyone is missing,” she continued. “We’re all needed in the Body of Christ. So, your role, whether you believe it’s big or small, is important. It’s vital to getting this work accomplished. It’s only by all of us doing this together that we can make any substantial change in this world that we live in. The small things do matter.”
“I encourage all Catholics of the archdiocese to join me in fervent prayer and witness ahead of the election this November,” Archbishop Aquila said. “May the Lord Jesus, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life, illumine our hearts, that we might form our consciences well, advocate for Truth and continue to foster a culture of life that honors each human being from the moment of conception to natural death.”
Eucharistic Procession and Benediction
Led by Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila
Saturday, November 2, 2024
Beginning at 9:45 a.m. in the garden at Marisol Health, Denver
Entrance on Pontiac Street across from 7155 E. 38th Avenue, Denver, CO 80207.
Mass to follow the Eucharistic procession in the garden at Marisol Health, Denver.
