Print Issue: July 4, 2002

Jeremiah's Call Campaign To Heighten Awareness Of Pro-Life Issues

ATLANTA - The value of life is underscored in Georgia Right to Life commercials - from the preborn to the elderly, from women and men who experience the loss of abortion, to the lives of children and adults who are "differently-abled." The nationally produced commercials reflect poignant yet simple portraits of lives at all stages in the 30-second and one-minute segments, underscoring the message, "you are valuable."

The commercials' television air time - and a heightened awareness of the respect life message throughout the Catholic community - will be funded through a special archdiocesan campaign called Jeremiah's Call, which will run Sept. 1 through November. The campaign, with a goal of raising more than $100,000, will culminate with a special fund-raising dinner hosted by Archbishop John F. Donoghue on Nov. 18. Designed to raise awareness of respect life issues through a targeted media campaign, Jeremiah's Call is a fund-raising effort to pay for TV ads produced through Georgia Right to Life, and an evangelization tool to proclaim the gospel of life message. According to the campaign organizers, abortions have decreased by 40 percent where these TV ads are aired.

Recently, members of the pro-life community in the Archdiocese of Atlanta officially kicked off the Jeremiah's Call campaign with training sessions involving representatives from 25 different parishes.

The sessions will continue during the summer at various parishes throughout the diocese, said Mary Boyert, archdiocesan pro-life director. From just getting the respect life message out, to financial support through businesses, "the project has a way for everybody to get involved, from the people who attend Mass on Sundays to those who want to get deep into it," said Boyert.

A specially produced video is part of that effort. The video, featuring a message from the archbishop, was distributed to pro-life leaders attending the training session. In the video, the archbishop asks for parish and pastors' support of the Jeremiah's Call effort, calling the campaign, "an opportunity to make great strides in spreading the gospel of life. "We as a nation, we as a people of faith often thrive when facing a crisis ... this is a crisis, an evil often met with indifference or passivity. This is an attempt to meet this head on ... we must stop the ceaseless destruction of unborn lives ... we must make the choice to take action." He quotes the scripture in Leviticus which says, "do not stand by idly when your neighbor's life is in jeopardy."

The archbishop continued, "It is clear our neighbors' lives are in jeopardy."

For more information about Jeremiah's Call, or to receive training, please call Mary Boyert at the archdiocesan Pro-Life office at (404) 885-7442.