When Shepherds Lead

By Christina

We all know the importance of having our bishops and priests be actively involved in the pro-life movement, leading us in helping to end abortion in America.

The power that these spiritual leaders have, being the ones that we trust and depend on in our spiritual lives, is frankly amazing! I have seen some wonderful instances of them leading their people in pro-life work, and I am always surprised at what they can bring about, even by giving only a little encouragement to their people.

It’s a part of us to look to our priests and bishops for leadership and guidance. So when they show no interest in pro-life work, their people automatically go the same way. It’s up to the priests and bishops to instill in their people a love for pro-life activism.

Abortion is a spiritual battle, an intense battle between good and evil. This gives our priests and bishops an even greater responsibility to take an active interest in it. And imagine their responsibility to protect their young people from the evil of abortion!

I often truly wonder why they don’t do so very often. I honestly can’t come up with an answer to this one. If I was a priest or a bishop, I would take full advantage of my position to help end abortion. I will never understand otherwise.

After all the long years of study, all the hours of prayer and discernment, all the zeal and dedication that it took for our priests and bishops to get where they are, wouldn’t they be more than ready and eager to do all they can to eliminate the great evil of abortion?! Wouldn’t they be burning to fully excercise their sacred offices?! Wouldn’t they be on fire to do all the good they can?!

I don’t understand.

I think, however, that it is very important for us lay people to very specially help our priests and bishops with pro-life work. We need to be more dedicated to working with and for them, and not just asking and expecting them to do it all. I’ve been recently working with my pastor to do more pro-life activist work at my parish, and he has been very supportive! While asking him for a lot of support and help, I have been taking on a lot of the actual work and personally doing some of the time-consuming jobs. This is very helpful and encouraging to him because he can be involved in pro-life work but does not have to use up all his time on it.

One area that priests and bishops can assist the pro-life movement in a very special way is the 40 Days for Life. There is an incredible story about the success of a bishop leading this campaign in Texas. Wow! He had 89 different churches and 800 people all involved in the 40 Days for Life at one abortion mill! And yes, this mill just shut down! The story can be read here. It is an excellant example of the power that our spiritual shepherds have in leading their people in doing great things for the Church.

May we all do our best to encourage and support our priests and bishops in pro-life activism!

God bless.