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Center of New Life The teachings of the Catholic Church fully encompass the total care of every individual, and are described most beautifully and courageously in the document, Evangelium Vitae. As medical professionals we are obligated to care for the health of a person from conception till death and to provide health care which looks for the good of the entire person, body and soul. The culture of death is ferociously strong in many parts of the world today. But as we read in the book of Wisdom: “God did not make death, and He does not delight in the death of the living. God created man for incorruption, and made him in the image of his own eternity, but through the devil’s envy death entered the world, and those who belong to his party experience it.” (Wis 1:13; 2:23-24) The Church’s teachings give life, not death, to all who hear them and put them into practice. In Evangelium Vitae the Holy Father pleaded: “To all the members of the Church, the people of life and for life, I make this urgent appeal, that together we may offer this world of ours new signs of hope, and work to ensure that justice and solidarity will increase and that a new culture of human life will be affirmed, for the building of an authentic civilization of truth and love.” (EV, 6) One example of how implementing the Church’s teachings on the Gospel of life is bringing new hope into the world is the story of our young friend Tatiana, who many months ago had started coming to our center for street kids in the former Soviet Union run by members of our Epiphany Medical Mission. Like so many of the others, after leaving her broken family, Tatiana had fallen into drug abuse and prostitution. Then her boyfriend, Sasha, decided to bring her home to live with him in his mother’s communal apartment (one small apartment shared with other families). When she announced to her friends that she was pregnant, they asked, “Well, what are you waiting for?” For most pregnant street girls, abortion is considered the only option. It is not uncommon among them to have had five or six abortions by the age of 18. For them, to go through pregnancy and to have a child is something unimaginable. When Tatiana’s stepfather found out about her pregnancy, he gave money to her mother to pay for the abortion. But her mother spent the money on alcohol and did not tell him about it. After that Tatiana had to take to the streets again. When Tatiana disclosed to us that she was pregnant and was considering aborting her child, we promised to support her the whole way through her pregnancy and afterwards for as long as she and the baby would need our help. She and Sasha had both been coming to our center for a long enough time to have developed a trust in us. So, thanks be to God, Tatiana decided not to abort her child and now has a beautiful girl, Natasha. She is the first baby of our center. She is in this world today because her mother was confronted with the truth and beauty of the Gospel of life. Now that Tatiana and Sasha are parents, their outlook on life has changed. They are starting to become more responsible, trying to get rid of their bad habits, and are more serious about getting jobs. The other girls at our center saw how we were faithful to our promise in helping Tatiana. Now they know we will help them if they find themselves in the same situation. Another girl who had been coming to our center, Sveta, became pregnant a short while after Tatiana and also sought our assistance. She had been considering abortion until we promised her support, and then she too kept her baby. Thanks to this baby girl, she and her boyfriend Peter have changed their lives for the better. They moved away from the city (a source of temptations for them) to a village where Sveta’s parents live. Peter now works with Sveta’s father in a factory making a living. Sveta stays home with her mother and her child. Amazingly they have both stopped narcotic use and are trying to give a good life to their baby. “The Church knows that this Gospel of Life which she has received from her Lord, has a profound and persuasive echo in the heart of every person—believer and non-believer alike—because it marvelously fulfills all the heart’s expectations while infinitely surpassing them.” (EV, 2) Please pray that the Lord might continue to bring new life into the darkness of this world assailed from every side by the culture of death. And let us pray to the Blessed Mother: “The one who accepted ‘Life’ in the name of all and for the sake of all…; she is thus most closely and personally associated with the Gospel of Life. Mary’s consent at the Annunciation and her motherhood stand at the very beginning of the mystery of life which Christ came to bestow on humanity (cf. Jn 10:10). Through her acceptance and loving care for the life of the Incarnate Word, human life has been rescued from condemnation to final and eternal death.” (EV) Her Child “is also a figure of every person, every child, especially every helpless baby whose life is threatened, because—as the Council reminds us—‘by his Incarnation the Son of God has united himself in some fashion with every person.’ It is precisely in the ‘flesh’ of every person that Christ continues to reveal himself and to enter into fellowship with us, so that rejection of human life, in whatever form that rejection takes, is really a rejection of Christ. This is the fascinating but also demanding truth which Christ reveals to us and which his Church continues untiringly to proclaim: ‘Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me’ (Mt 18:5); ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to Me.’ (Mt 25:40)” (EV) May He be the center of all human life! |