The following comes from an Oct. 14 story on Catholic News Agency website.
Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez encouraged a gathering of thousands of teens to deepen their respect for all human life and to show society how to reach out in love and compassion to all those in need.
“Our job as Christians is to show our society a new way. A way of love. A way of welcoming and hospitality,” he said Oct. 9.
He stressed the need to defend “the sanctity and the dignity of all human life – from conception, through life until natural death.”
“We need to reach out to everyone with the helping hand of Jesus Christ – from the woman expecting a child to the handicapped and the aged. We need to be people of mercy and understanding – welcoming to everyone.”
The archbishop spoke to an audience of more than 5,000 Catholic junior high and high school students at the “Christian Service 4 Life” event at the StubHub Center at California State University, Dominguez Hills in Carson, Calif.
The event, which took place during the Church’s Respect Life Month, was co-sponsored by Life SoCal, a pro-life group in southern California. Other speakers included actor Eduardo Verastegui and 2011 Miss Delaware, Maria Cahill. Leaders of community organizations talked to the students about how to help the poor, the elderly, the disabled, and pregnant women and their unborn children.
Archbishop Gomez lamented the loss of respect for life in the culture, evident in the problems of abortion, euthanasia, street violence, domestic violence, the neglect of the old and the sick, and other forms of indifference to suffering.
He encouraged the students to ask what Jesus wants from them and to be “a voice for the people God loves.”
“Our God loves and cares for every one he has created – especially the innocent and defenseless, those who can’t take care of themselves,” he said. “Especially those lives that are weak and fragile, ‘inconvenient’ or a burden to others – the child in the womb, the sick and the handicapped, the elderly.”
Action to protect the vulnerable is part of the Christian mission in the world, the archbishop explained.
“My young friends, Jesus needs you! The Church needs you and our society needs you! We need your energy, your enthusiasm and your hope. You are the future!” he said, citing Pope Francis’ words of encouragement at World Youth Day in Brazil.
Archbishop Gomez said that Jesus Christ is calling each person to be “disciples” and “missionaries” who will “go and serve others” and tell others about him.
“My young friends, Jesus is calling us to be saints! And you are never too young to answer that calling!”
The archbishop recounted the story of St. David Roldán Lara, a Mexican 19-year-old who was martyred in the anti-Catholic persecutions in Mexico in the early 20th century.
The young man worked peacefully to resist the persecution, but was arrested with his friends and his parish priest. He was “smiling and joyful” even in the days before his execution by firing squad.
Archbishop Gomez described the teenage saint as a model for youth.
To read the entire story, click here.
A powerful message. Saddened by the news this AM of the discovery of a dead fetus in the shopping bag of a New York woman arrested for shoplifting at a Victoria Secret’s store in Manhattan.
Very sad, Good Cause. That poor baby! Both the child and the mother.
Archbishop Gomez,
if you really mean what you said: “a voice for the people God loves” when are you going to clean up the dissent infested REC which is a source of loss of true Faith for so many, when are you going to stop honoring, especially at the Rogmahal, public figures who make a joke of Catholic moral teachings?
May God have mercy on an amoral America.
Viva Cristo Rey!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
Well said, Kenneth. Justice and mercy are complimentary, not mutually exclusive. A true voice for the people God loves will correct as well as forgive.
that is sad news that you have shared good cause…..I understand why you would feel sad by it….it is a tragedy. God have mercy on us all.
I was reading that this is becoming a ‘trend’ Abeca, though you don’t see it in the news there have been about 10 cases since this past May of young girls throwing their babies away and treating them like trash. Here is a recent story on the NY case…https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/breaking-baby-found-in-suspected-shoplifters-bag-was-born-alive-likely-asph
PS. Here’s the article…
That Victoria’s Secret baby is just the tip of a disturbing trend
And this one:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/woman-from-northeast-washington-held-on-murder-charge-in-death-of-her-infant-son/2013/10/17/f46cd924-371b-11e3-ae46-e4248e75c8ea_story.html
Right now if we can reach out to our youth at their own level….then all it takes is to plant the seed and then trust in our Lord to grow it and the rest is in His hands but we must never stop watering that seed…..it needs to be consistent in the truth.
I’m a little suspicious when I hear that “Leaders of community organizations talked to the students about how to help the poor . . . .” especially when those Catholic students are, for the most part, uncatechized.
In addition to worthless Catholic schools, those students’ parents and grandparents have contributed to the almost $18 trillion in Great Society programs (so loved by the bishops) mostly to deleterious effect. Is neglect or service really the problem here?