In building this plan I was heavily influenced by two Bishops. I was fortunate enough to work for a relatively short time with Bishop Britt in the Grand Rapids diocese many years ago. He had a vision and a sense of purpose that is rare. Unfortunately he died before being able to get his vision in motion.
The other was Bishop Burbidge from Virginia. He has the same characteristics as Bishop Britt. He knows that empowering our young people is vital to creating a new wave of leaders who give back and leave things better than they found them.
Bishop Burbidge leads the pro-life movement among the Catholic Bishops in America. "Lead" is a verb. An action word, not just a title. He recognizes what our young leaders in the Pewamo Protect Life team know and demonstrate over and over. Pro-life means all life. It also means more than forming committees or an occasional sermon reference. It means doing the work.
He recently stated, " I think that in their heart of hearts, so many of our young people, they don’t want to see the violence that comes to the child within the womb. I think we have to continue to educate on what is at stake here.
We want to make sure that every mother, every father knows that they’re never walking alone, that we’re walking with them. We don't want them to be afraid. We want to be there for them; and if they’re having difficulties with finances, we want to be there to help them. If they need counseling, we want to be here to help them. If they can’t afford medical care, we want to be there to provide the medical care,........
I think if you invite young people to help us, to say, 'Help us to walk with parents so they don’t need to choose an abortion-be part of that effort', I think we can do a better job of inviting our young adults to help to us give parents every reason to choose life and to make abortion unthinkable. I know when we invite our young adults to serve, they come forward. And when we can say, 'Listen, you know so many lives are going to be saved if parents are assured that they’re going to have the care and the necessities, all they need. Why don’t we be part of that solution?"
The team leaders within the Pewamo Protect Life team recognize this and have been doing the work for a year. We are looking for more young people who want to be part of the positive solution. Pro-life servant leadership gives back.
Ralph Willemin
Advisor to the Pewamo Protect Life team