WASHINGTON (CNS) — It is not enough to be pro-life intellectually and politically, said Bishop William E. Lori of Bridgeport, Conn.

“We must embrace the Gospel of life in the depth of our souls in such a way that it continually transforms us: bringing us to our knees in repentance for our own failures against human dignity; filling us with joy and gratitude for God’s gift of human life; permeating our minds and hearts with bedrock convictions, born of faith and reason, about the inviolable dignity of human life at every stage,” he said.

Bishop Lori was the homilist at a Jan. 21 Mass celebrated in conjunction with the Cardinal O’Connor Conference on Life at Georgetown University. The conference is named after the late Cardinal John O’Connor, who was archbishop of New York from 1984 to 2000.

In recalling the Old Testament story of Jonah bringing the ancient city of Nineveh to repentance, which was used as one of the readings for the Mass, Bishop Lori said that Nineveh was an “apt symbol” for the United States.

“In spite of a growing secularity, Americans remain, overall, a religious people,” he said. “Years of pro-life witness have also moved the needle. More Americans account themselves as pro-life today than at any time since the Supreme Court’s toxic Roe v. Wade decision in 1973” that legalized abortion virtually on demand.

“Young people, in particular, are now casting a critical eye on the culture of abortion, maybe asking themselves if they were once considered a choice rather than a person,” Bishop Lori added.