St. Mary’s students discuss pro-life

    Twelve St. Mary’s Academy seniors participated in a focus group on life issues Oct. 13 for the Committee of Cultural Diversity of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The bishops hoped to learn from young people what they knew and believed about pro-life issues and to solicit suggestions about the best way for the bishops to communicate with youth.
    “Our students discussed what ‘pro-life’ means to them, the issues involved in pro-life and what they know about the church’s teaching on pro-life,” Holy Family Sister Judith Therese Barial, moderator, said. “They agreed with the church’s teaching that ‘all life is precious’ and articulated  views on abortion, euthanasia, the death penalty and the recent phenomenon of desperate young parents killing their own babies and tots.”
    The group gave suggestions, sent by audiotape to the bishops, to help them develop resources to promote education on pro-life issues. They suggested that the bishops encourage speakers who can relate to youth visit parishes and schools to speak on pro-life issues, and to put messages on Facebook and Twitter. Billboards and TV ads also were suggested as good places to explore.  Surprisingly, most of the young ladies expressed how excited they would be to actually receive “real” mail from their bishops.