This October, several Catholic high schools’ Respect Life Clubs spent a day outside the classroom to engage in service and learn more about efforts to respect life in the community.
They visited a pregnancy center, food pantry, clothing donation center and a maternity home.
“We are called to honor and cherish each life as sacred,” said C.J. Taylor, a junior at Trinity High School, who said he attended the service day to grow in his understanding of human dignity.
The goal of the service day is to teach the students about the dignity of human life by revealing “an array of respect life issues,” said Stuart Hamilton, the Archdiocese of Louisville’s pro-life event coordinator.
Beginning their experience at Little Way Pregnancy Resource Center, 515 W. Oak St., students toured the facility and learned about the challenges of the center’s clients and their stories of success.
Students then volunteered for Catholic Charities of Louisville — some sorted donated clothing and others distributed food through the Father Jack Jones Food Pantry, 2914 S. 3rd St.
They concluded their day at Lifehouse Maternity Home, 2710 Riedling Drive, where they learned about life in a maternity home and toured the facility.
“These experiences create a memory” and “expose the students to the dignity of human life,” said Hamilton.
Little Way Pregnancy Resource Center helps women “make a decision for life,” he said. “That’s one end of the respect life spectrum.”
“But then you go to Catholic Charities and you’re helping people that are new to our country and those that are poor in the food pantry. So, the goal is to show the kids the wide spectrum of the dignity of life,” he said.
He hopes the students left the event with the knowledge that “these ministries are out there. The church does provide for people, and you are a part of that.”
Students from Assumption High School, Mercy Academy, Sacred Heart Academy and Trinity High School participated in the experience, organized by the archdiocese’s Family and Life Ministries Office, on Wednesdays in October, Respect Life Month.
