As the Church enters Respect Life Month, Donice Cariglino of St. Anthony Parish in Des Moines shares how a parish Respect Life Committee can defend human dignity from conception to natural death. A longtime teacher and first-grade catechist, Donice explains how her daughter helped awaken her pro-life convictions and why forming young hearts early matters. She also invites listeners to St. Anthony's Respect Life Mass and encourages Catholics to start a Respect Life ministry in their own parish.
Donice Cariglino, a parishioner at St. Anthony Parish on the south side of Des Moines for more than 50 years, joins Deacon Mark Campbell to kick off Respect Life Month, the USCCB's annual October call to prayer and awareness for the dignity of every human life.
Donice shares how her daughter's passion for the pro-life cause challenged her to look closely at what her everyday choices support, and why — as a lifelong teacher and first-grade catechist — she believes forming children early prepares them for the pressures they'll face in college and beyond. She and Deacon Mark discuss abortion, euthanasia and assisted suicide, and homelessness as connected issues of human dignity.
St. Anthony's Respect Life Committee started as a small group of twelve — "Jesus started with twelve, too" — and serves "womb to tomb": cooking meals for the Catholic family shelter several times a year, sending high school students to the March for Life, and accompanying a woman who walked into Mass asking for help, staying by her side for a full year until her death.
St. Anthony's Respect Life Mass is this Saturday, October 3, at the 8:30 a.m. Mass. If your parish doesn't have a Respect Life Committee, Donice's advice is simple: start small.
Heard on the Catholic Morning Show, weekdays at 7 a.m. Central on Iowa Catholic Radio. More at IowaCatholicRadio.com.
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