Prayer and sacraments help build culture of life, priest says

Msgr. Joseph Schaedel, center, and Servants of the Gospel of Life Sister Diane Carollo, second from left, pose for a photograph with archdiocesan Sanctity of Life Award recipients, from left, Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary parishioner Jerry Mattingly of Indianapolis, St. Mark the Evangelist parishioner Diane Komlanc of Indianapolis, St. Patrick parishioner Tom McBroom of Terre Haute and Father Glenn O’Connor, the pastor of St. Ann and St. Joseph parishes in Indianapolis, after the March 3 awards dinner. (Photo by Mary Ann Wyand)

By Mary Ann Wyand

How do we build up the culture of life in the midst of so much evil in the world?

“Prayer, preaching, teaching, fasting, almsgiving, witness and the sacraments are the life-changing weapons or means of non-violence that we have been given by God,” Father Thomas Aschenbrener told pro-life supporters during the archdiocesan Sanctity of Life dinner on March 3 in Indianapolis.

“They have been given to us to bring hope to a fallen world,” said Father Aschenbrener, the associate pastor of Holy Name Cathedral Parish in Chicago and the author of One in Christ, a marriage preparation program based on Church teachings and presented in many dioceses.

During his keynote speech on “The Transformative Power of God’s Life-giving Grace in Marriage, the Family and the World,” Father Aschenbrener noted that God has implanted the desire for happiness in every human heart.

“Through the virtues of faith, hope and love,” he said, “all people will experience the transformative power of God’s grace that is ever life-changing and unconditionally life-giving.”

Quoting Pope Benedict XVI, he noted that, “We suffer on account of God’s patience, and yet we need God’s patience. … The world is redeemed by the patience of God. It is being destroyed by the impatience of man.”

The Holy Father’s words strike to the heart of what it truly means to be a people of hope and patience, Father Aschenbrener said. “God always brings good out of evil, … light out of darkness [and] … hope out of despair. We are his instruments. We are his vessels of grace, and we need patience in order to see God’s Providence unfold before our lives.”

God’s transformative moments happen in life every day through repentance and conversion, he said, which lead to abundant life.

Father Aschenbrener said he prayed to God for guidance about how he could best help bring about the culture of life in his parish and in society.

“I thought if I could start with the evangelization of the young adults and engaged couples then we can have holy marriages,” he said, “and from holy marriages we will have holy families and holy children and holy vocations and, of course, the sanctity of society.”

With the support of Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago, Father Aschenbrener began evangelizing fallen-away and lukewarm Catholics as well as non-Catholics who marry Catholics “so they can experience a faith-deepening conversion and an awakening to the beauty, the truth and the goodness of marriage.”

Set within the context of marriage preparation, One in Christ teaches engaged couples to appreciate and honor the sanctity of human life.

When he started the program, Father Aschenbrener found that 90 percent of the couples who attend marriage preparation courses in the Church are not attending Mass regularly.

Many young adults have not been to confession since their first experience of the sacrament of reconciliation, he said, and many couples do not have a regular prayer life or know how to pray together.

“Ninety percent of them are using some form of contraception, mostly the pill,” he said, “80 percent are engaging in premarital sex, 50 percent are cohabitating and many of them are pro-choice.

“The Lord obviously had plans for me,”

Father Aschenbrener said, “[because] none of these practices are life-giving.”

One in Christ was created to lead people back to God, the priest said, to bring them hope, and to enable them to experience God’s life-giving and life-transforming grace.

The three-day program provides sacred time for engaged couples to learn how to grow closer to God and each other, he said, discuss and reflect together, encourage and support one another, and pray and challenge one another.

In these ways, Father Aschenbrener said, engaged couples discover what it means to love and forgive, and they gain skills in communicating, problem-solving, raising a family and practicing the Catholic faith.

“This is what is going to transform society,” he said. “Many of these couples are extremely hungry for the Truth. … [Now] they’re excited to go to Mass together and pray together. This is the transformative power of God’s grace.”

The pro-life event also recognized four archdiocesan Catholics for distinguished service to the cause of life.

Father Glenn O’Connor, the pastor of St. Ann and St. Joseph parishes in Indianapolis, received a Sanctity of Life Award for his assistance with Project Rachel, a post-abortion reconciliation ministry for women and men.

Other Sanctity of Life Award recipients are St. Mark the Evangelist parishioner Diane Komlanc of Indianapolis for her help with the archdiocesan Birthline ministry, St. Patrick parishioner Tom McBroom of Terre Haute for his pro-life service in Vigo County, and Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary parishioner Jerry Mattingly of Indianapolis for his volunteer work in the archdiocesan Office of Pro-Life Ministry, which sponsored the event. †