Bishop Daniel R. Jenky, CSC, leads a rosary outside the former abortion clinic in Peoria in this file photo. In a message for the 2020 Respect Life Month, the bishop says the right to life is the first of all our human rights, and "the destruction of human life in the womb is an intrinsic evil." (The Catholic Post file photo/Tom Dermody)

EDITOR’S NOTE: Following is a letter released Oct. 5, 2020, by Bishop Daniel R. Jenky, CSC, to mark Respect Life Month:

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Human beings are made in the very image and likeness of God.  It is for this reason that, although abortion is not the only evil that afflicts human society, the right to life is the very first of all our human rights, and the destruction of human life in the womb is an intrinsic evil.

As is well recorded throughout the nearly 20 centuries of our religious history, Catholic believers have always opposed abortion and considered the act to be unjust and gravely sinful.  Catholics may not in any way cooperate with this crime against humanity, and Catholic voters and politicians are not exempt from the shared obligation to protect innocent human life from conception until natural death.  Despite the well-funded propaganda of the abortion industry, it is an obvious fact that abortion is horrifically painful to the child in the womb, and late term abortion is  most especially cruel and barbaric.

Organized abortion providers in America have also intentionally and disproportionately marketed their brutal business in poor neighborhoods and among racial and ethnic minorities.  Catholics should therefore readily reach out to other believers and even non-believers to promote a culture of life and tirelessly oppose a culture of death.

For those in our Church, it is also certainly providential that October is not only Respect for Life Month but also the Month of the Holy Rosary.  I urge all the faithful of the Diocese of Peoria not only to work tirelessly for the Gospel of Life but also to ask the Blessed Mother, especially under her title of Our Lady of Guadalupe who is always reverently depicted as being with child, to pray with us and for us in the face of terrible evil.

May our good and just God always guide and protect us.

Most Reverend Daniel R. Jenky, C.S.C.

BISHOP OF PEORIA