The mission of the Respect Life Ministry is to promote an active respect for human life at all ages and stages. With much prayer, we work to maintain sensitivity and awareness of current human life issues: abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, ethical medical treatment and advances. To this end, one of our goals is to educate, motivate and inspire parishioners so that we can further the building up of the Culture of Life, both within the Church and out into the wider community. All of us are called to participate at some level because these issues affect us all. Join us at our monthly prayer vigils, in supporting our local crisis pregnancy centers, and in encouraging those wounded by abortion to find healing and restoration in the mercy of Jesus Christ. Contact us at Respect_Life@StStephenCatholic.org.
"It is impossible to further the common good without acknowledging and defending the right to life,
upon which all the other inalienable rights of individuals are founded and from which they develop."
Pope John Paul II, in his encyclical - The Gospel of Life
Respect Life Current Events
Join us on the second Saturday of each month for a prayer vigil outside the abortion mill in Tampa. All Women's “Health” Center of Tampa is located at 3330 West Kennedy Blvd, Tampa, FL 33609.
Join us on the second Saturday of each month to pray the Pro-Life Rosary after the 8:30 a.m. Mass.
For Natural Family Planning and Fertility Care Services please contact Linda MacKenzie at lmackfl@aol.com. You can also learn more about the program by emailing Fertilitycaretb@aol.com or call (813) 541-8517.
Respecting Life from Conception to Death
Tentative Schedule for the Year
January
Memorial Flag and Cross display on church property in honor of the unborn children aborted since the 1973 Supreme Court decision of Roe v Wade which legalized abortion for any reason through all 9 months of pregnancy.
Annual Baby Shower for local pregnancy care centers to assist pregnant and parenting mothers and families in need.
March for Life – Washington DC, St. Augustine and Tampa Bay.
February
March
Spiritual Adoption starts on the weekend celebrating the Annunciation.
Pro-Life Stations of the Cross during Lent.
April
Yard Sale for Life.
Easter.
Divine Mercy Sunday – Promote post-abortive healing opportunities for those wounded by abortion.
May
Mother's Day.
National Day of Prayer.
June
Father's Day.
July
August
September
Stewardship Fair.
October
Respect Life Month – Pro-Life decade of the Rosary at every Sunday Mass.
40 Days for Life.
Life Chain.
November
Elections – Parish education on LIFE issues.
Foundations of Life Gala.
December
Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Novena to St. Joseph, Protector of the Innocents.
Christmas.
Feast of the Holy Innocents.
Prayer for Life
Mary, bright dawn of the new world, Mother of the living, to you do we entrust the cause of life: Look down, O Mother, upon the vast numbers of babies not allowed to be born, of the poor whose lives are made difficult, of men and woman who are victims of brutal violence, of the elderly and sick killed by indifference or out of misguided mercy. Grant that all who believe in your Son may proclaim the Gospel of life with honesty and love to the people of our time. Obtain for them the grace to accept that Gospel as a gift ever new, the joy of celebrating it with gratitude throughout their lives and the courage to bear witness to it resolutely, in order to build, together with all people of good will, the civilisation of truth and love, to the praise and glory of God, the Creator and lover of life. ~Pope John Paul II