Cardinal echoes papal exhortation 'Be not afraid!' at pro-life vigil

Published: 2004-01-22

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- During a Jan. 21 Mass celebrated as part of the National Prayer Vigil for Life, Cardinal William H. Keeler of Baltimore echoed the words Pope John Paul II uttered shortly after his elevation to the papacy: "Be not afraid!" "As we prepare to mark the 31st anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe vs. Wade decision, he (the pope) calls to us again, this time out of his own physical suffering. 'Be not afraid,' he tells us. 'Be not afraid!'" Cardinal Keeler made his remarks during a homily at a Mass inside the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. The cardinal, who is chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee for Pro-Life Activities, was the principal celebrant. "Those who give their lives to Christ can live beyond fear because Christ took all the world's fear upon himself, on the cross," Cardinal Keeler said, "and in offering all the world's fear to God in a perfect act of obedience, Jesus made it possible for all of us to live with fear -- and to live beyond fear." He added, "And so, dear sisters and brothers in the great cause of the sanctity of life -- the sanctity of each and every human life -- I say, be not afraid!"

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