Culture of Life

The Respect Life Program of the Office of Human Life & Dignity bases all of its advocacy, education, and ministries on the foundational principle of respect for life from conception until natural death.

As St. John Paul stated in "The Gospel of Life," (the encyclical Evangelium Vitae):
"Even in the midst of difficulties and uncertainties, every person sincerely open to truth and goodness can, by the light of reason and the hidden action of grace, come to recognize in the natural law written in the heart (cf. Rom 2:14-15) the sacred value of human life from its very beginning until its end, and can affirm the right of every human being to have this primary good respected to the highest degree. Upon the recognition of this right, every human community and the political community itself are founded.

"In a special way, believers in Christ must defend and promote this right, aware as they are of the wonderful truth recalled by the Second Vatican Council: 'By his incarnation the Son of God has united himself in some fashion with every human being'.² This saving event reveals to humanity not only the boundless love of God who "so loved the world that he gave his only Son" (Jn 3:16), but also the incomparable value of every human person."

The Respect Life Program works under the leadership of the Archbishop, the USCCB Pro-Life Secretariat and the California Catholic Conference. We offer resources to priests and religious, parishes, schools, religious education programs, anyone within the Archdiocese seeking to promote the culture of life, other organizations supporting the life issues, and service providers within the Archdiocese of San Francisco.