Hundreds take part in Respect Life Mass and Life Chain

St. Joan of Arc parishioner Patricia Yeadon of Indianapolis, left, holds the 2010 Archbishop Edward T. O’Meara Respect Life Award and Cardinal Ritter High School senior Alyssa Barnes, a member of St. Malachy Parish in Brownsburg, displays the 2010 Our Lady of Guadalupe Pro-Life Youth Award following the Respect Life Mass on Oct. 3 at SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Indianapolis. (Photo by Mary Ann Wyand)

By Mary Ann Wyand

Life is God’s greatest gift to his people, Msgr. Joseph F. Schaedel, vicar general, told more than 600 pro-life supporters at the archdiocesan Respect Life Mass on Oct. 3 at SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Indianapolis.

“Respecting life, protecting life, is God’s work,” he said in his homily, as well as our calling as Catholics.

“Christians choose God,” Msgr. Schaedel said, “but that does not imply that God will make our lives easy. So we wonder. We doubt. On Respect Life Sunday, we can be tempted to ask why we have to go through all this [work to end abortion]. … God asks all of us at times to do what seems mighty unreasonable.”

God also gave us the ability to choose, he said, which we call free will.

“This right to choose is a cherished American freedom,” said Msgr. Schaedel, who also serves as the pastor of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary Parish in Indianapolis.

“It makes no sense to choose anything but the God of Life,” he emphasized. “Then we really have everything.”

As the principal celebrant, Msgr. Schaedel represented Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein, who was leading an archdiocesan pilgrimage to Austria and Germany until Oct. 4.

At the conclusion of the Respect Life Mass, Msgr. Schaedel presented the Archbishop Edward T. O’Meara Respect Life Award to Patricia Yeadon, a member of St. Joan of Arc Parish in Indianapolis, for her distinguished volunteer service to the cause of life as a faithful pro-life sidewalk counselor outside abortion clinics for 24 years.

The vicar general also recognized Cardinal Ritter High School senior Alyssa Barnes from St. Malachy Parish in Brownsburg with the Our Lady of Guadalupe Pro-Life Youth Award for her dedicated volunteer service in several pro-life programs and activities during her high school years.

After the award recipients posed for pictures with their plaques, Yeadon said that she prays for her sponsor child in Africa every day.

“She’s from Kenya,” Yeadon explained. “Her name is Anzazi, and she is handicapped. She is blind in one eye. She just turned 7, and she is in my prayers today.”

Yeadon’s mother, Dolores, who also is a member of St. Joan of Arc Parish, said she is “really proud” of her daughter, who grew up in a large family with 14 siblings.

“Patty well deserves this,” she said. “I just felt like crying [during the award presentation]. My late husband, Bill, would be so proud of her, too.”

Alyssa’s father, St. Malachy parishioner Bill Barnes, said after the

pro-life Mass that, “Both her mom and I are very proud of her. She is a very special young lady, and we really couldn’t be happier for her.”

Maria Barnes said later that Alyssa, their oldest child, helped “a lot when we fostered a medically fragile infant [for St. Elizabeth/Coleman Pregnancy and Adoption Services] a couple years ago, especially [by] walking the floor when he was difficult to calm. We went into that ministry as a family in order to put our pro-life beliefs into action. Since adopting our [youngest] son, who has severe asthma, we have taken a break from it.

“Alyssa is currently involved with me in the Gabriel Project,” she said. “Most impressive to her dad and me is her daily commitment to the unborn with [her] peers. She is well-known for her outspoken passion and defense of the unborn. Though she would never tell you, she has had a large impact on many young people.”

“The Measure of Love Is to Love Without Measure” is the theme for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Respect Life Program for 2010-11.

The annual Respect Life Mass, which begins the archdiocesan observance of the bishops’ national spiritual and educational effort, was concelebrated by Father Robert Robeson, the rector of the Bishop Simon Bruté College Seminary in Indianapolis; Father Guy Roberts, the pastor of St. Joan of Arc Parish; and Father Gerald Okeke, the associate pastor of the Richmond Catholic Community.

Archdiocesan seminarians also participated in the liturgy as well as the Knights and Ladies of the Holy Sepuchre, the Knights and Ladies of Malta, and representatives of many parishes from the 11 deaneries in central and southern Indiana.

After the archdiocesan Mass, Catholics participated in the ecumenical Central Indiana Life Chain in Indianapolis as well as Life Chain prayer vigils in Bedford, Bloomington, Brazil, Columbus, Connersville, Greencastle, Milan, Rockport and Terre Haute. †