Little Rock Catholics Take Respect Life Prayers Into the Streets

Hundreds of Catholics walked through downtown Little Rock on Sunday, October 4, in a Respect Life Sunday eucharistic procession, Arkansas Catholic reports. Seminarians led the way from the Cathedral of St. Andrew to St. Edward Church, and the day ended with a record crowd at the diocesan Respect Life Mass. The report ran October 16.

The day began with prayer and adoration at the cathedral, with more than 125 people present, according to Arkansas Catholic. The procession moved from Louisiana Street down Seventh Street and onto Sherman, with five stops for prayer along the way. People knelt in the streets as each station marked an issue that threatens life and human dignity. Seminarians, Knights of Columbus, sisters, priests and lay Catholics sang in several languages as they walked, and Deacon Matt Glover carried the monstrance the whole route.

As the procession came down Seventh Street, a homeless man standing with several friends outside a soup kitchen looked up to watch. Joggers, dog walkers and shoppers stopped and watched in silence, the report says. A woman near a bus stop asked a volunteer what was going on. "It's Respect Life Month, so the Catholic Church is celebrating with a Eucharistic procession," the volunteer answered. One man asked if they could join, and some of the people living on the margins of downtown did, Arkansas Catholic reports. Some limped, and others pushed their friends' wheelchairs on the way to St. Edward.

"The Eucharistic procession gives public witness to how Jesus is present with us today," Catherine Phillips, director of the Respect Life Office at the Diocese of Little Rock, told Arkansas Catholic. She said the diocese celebrates a Respect Life Mass on the first Sunday of October each year to open a month of prayer, reflection and action for the God-given dignity of every person.

At St. Edward, Bishop Anthony B. Taylor concelebrated the Mass with vocations director Father Jeff Hebert for more than 350 people. Lunch followed, and winners of the Respect Life Month art contest were announced from more than 200 entries. Phillips said each entry represents a conversation an adult had with a child about the gift of life. Genesis 1:27 gives the reason behind it all: every person bears the image of God.

Read Genesis 1:27