Annual Day of Prayer for Life – Support Life Sunday 2024 (13 October)
Each year, on the second Sunday in October, the Catholic Church in Aotearoa New Zealand holds an annual Day of Prayer for Life, otherwise known as Support Life Sunday. The theme approved by the bishops this year is “Infinite Dignity”.
This year’s focus picks up on the recent Vatican document, Dignitas Infinita – On Human Dignity. In the preamble to this significant publication, the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith describes the impetus for it as arising out of “the indispensable nature of the dignity of the human person in Christian anthropology” and the urgent need to illustrate “the significance and beneficial implications of the concept in the social, political, and economic realms” which are currently characterised by so many grave violations of human dignity.
The document’s title traces back to a speech given to disabled people by Pope St John Paul II in 1980 in which he emphasised that God, in Jesus Christ, has shown how he loves every person in an “unsurpassable” way and that this thereby bestows upon every individual an “infinite dignity”.
To quote directly from Dignitas Infinita: “Every human person possesses an infinite dignity, inalienably grounded in his or her very being, which prevails in and beyond every circumstance, state, or situation the person may ever encounter.”
In line with the focus of Dignitis Infinita, the campaign tagline for this years Support Life Sunday is “Every Life Matters … Always!”
Liturgical materials in the form of a suggested Welcome/Introduction and Prayers of the Faithful have already been distributed to parishes, along with suggestions for hymns.
Other materials, including a social media posts made up of quotes from Dignitas Infinita and a special developed Prayer for Life, are still being worked on, says Dr John Kleinsman, director of the Nathaniel Centre for Bioethics, which is responsible for developing the campaign content in close collaboration with the six diocesan Pastoral Care Offices.
