Guest Editorial for the Atchison Daily Globe
by Sister Anne Shepard, Prioress
October 4, 2006

As prioress of Mount St. Scholastica I am so very pleased that Benedictine College will be dedicating a building to the memory of our community of women religious and the thousands of students who attended Mount St. Scholastica College. The building is well situated on campus. It is lovely on the exterior and well furnished inside. Sister Paula Howard was pleased to present the college with a beautiful icon of St. Scholastica, patron of the dormitory last February. It is well situated in the foyer of the residence hall. The timing of this dedication cannot be better in that it is family weekend. Many parents will join the students in participating in the eucharistic celebration with Archbishop Joseph Naumann, a blessing of the hall by Abbot Barnabas Senecal and Sister Anne Shepard and a noon lunch with parents, sisters, guests, and fellow students.

The fall date is important to us in another way. October is designated by the Catholic Church as Respect Life month. The Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica support life one-hundred percent in all forms, from conception to death. To do otherwise would be less than true to the gospel and the Rule of St. Benedict. The sisters have engaged in various activities to support life over the years: prayer vigils and protests for the unborn and for an end to abortion, for soldiers and all involved in wars, for an end to capital punishment, for the rights of the mentally challenged, for an end to terrorism and acts of terror, for an end to discrimination against immigrants and more. Many of our ministries reflect our support for life: teaching, counseling, administration, health care, chaplaincy, spiritual direction and social work, to name a few.

The late Joseph Cardinal Bernardin challenged Catholics in the United States to adhere to a consistent ethic of life, an ethic he liked to call the seamless garment. He thought it incomprehensible that a Catholic could be an anti- abortion advocate and not hold that same reverence for life after the child is born. Likewise he thought those who wanted an end to the death penalty also had to support anti-war efforts. In his biography of Cardinal Bernardin, Eugene Kenney wrote: "Bernardin would hammer out the mesh shield of his consistent ethic of life whose links included not only opposition to abortion but the defense and promotion of life in a range of other questions, including those of modern warfare, genetic engineering, and capital punishment."

The late John Cardinal O'Connor, once the chair of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) office of Pro Life, often preached that it was never enough to fight abortion if we didn't also provide for the services for the young woman before and after the delivery of the child, particularly if she came from a poor family. His very first assignment as a pastor included ministry to the mentally challenged adults.

In 1983, the NCCB voted 293-5 to accept their pastoral "The Challenge of Peace: God's Promise and Our Response". The document contains a theology of peace and nonviolence, a statement of the sacredness of life at all levels. In the first section, paragraph fifteen we read: "At the center of the Church's teaching on peace and at the center of all Catholic social teaching are the transcendence of God and the dignity of the human person. The human person is the clearest reflection of God's presence in the world; all of the Church's work in pursuit of both peace and justice is designed to protect and promote the dignity of every person."

I heard a sermon once on the gospel that says, "It is easier for a camel to enter an eye of a needle than it is for the wealthy to pass the gates of heaven." The priest said but a few words: "today we'll hear the sound of galoshes as preachers try to water down a very obvious message of Christ. I won't do that" and then he sat down.

We can try to water down the gospel of peace. We can be tempted also to excuse ourselves out of reverencing life at all stages, but that is not what Catholic social teaching is telling us. That is not what the God of the scriptures tells us. Life is ours to protect, every life, all lives.