Loving Life, One Campus at a Time
Almost half the abortions in America are chosen by young women of college age. Ironically, polls from the Pew Research Institute, Gallup, and the Knights of Columbus reveal 18-29 year olds as a strongly pro-life generation. This means that college age students are pro-life until they encounter a tragic situation and their pro-life beliefs are put to the test. Often, those beliefs are not solid enough to stand firm. That makes the college campus the most dangerous place to be for an unborn child today. The Love Life campaign is an opportunity to transform campus culture, through the work of FOCUS missionaries, into a culture of life. Kristine is a FOCUS missionary who crossed paths with ‘Mary,’ a young student who had just found out she was pregnant. Mary had been weighing her options. She said later: “When I found out I was pregnant, I was so ashamed. Having an abortion seemed the easiest way to go. Then I sat down and talked with Kristine. Even though I wasn’t a Catholic, she was interested in helping me. Kristine helped me to consider the weight of this decision, both on my own life and health, and that of the baby inside of me. She helped me to have the strength and courage to consider life and to get help to keep the baby. “ That baby is alive today because FOCUS was there to help a young mother make the right decision. Much like FOCUS is not primarily a religious vocation organization—yet fosters many, many vocations—FOCUS is also not primarily a pro-life organization, yet we do make a significant impact on building a culture of life. No pro-life Catholic organization has greater access to these women than FOCUS. “Love Life” was specifically developed to bring the pro-life message to young men and women at colleges and universities across the nation. The goals of this initiative are first, to communicate to the world the great impact FOCUS is having on the pro-life front and proclaim our commitment to helping college students value life from conception to natural death. Second, we hope to develop resources to help missionaries on campus be more effective when the Lord puts them in a position to help young men and women in the difficult situation of an unplanned pregnancy. Watch our new commercial about our “Love Life” initiative. You’ll be able to catch it on EWTN this month as well.
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