Press Room

March 19, 2003

Contact: Peggy Hamill, State Director
Matt Sande, Director of Legislative Affairs
(262) 796-1111, (414) 416-0489 or info@prolifewisconsin.org

Pro-Life Wisconsin Concurs with Archbishop Dolan:
Civility Consists of Respect for Human Life


Pro-Life Wisconsin is grateful for the life-affirming words spoken by Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan Tuesday before the Wisconsin Legislature. Pointing out that “. . . religion, morality, and the Churches have had a defining role to play in all the great dramas of our nation’s history, from independence itself, to abolition, civil rights, respect for life . . .,” Archbishop Dolan called for “civility” within our society.

Describing respect for others as fundamental to civility, he called for the recognition of “life itself” as “sacred, as we believe that each of us is created in the likeness of God, that every one of us matters, that no person is defined by someone else’s choices, that no life exists only as a means to someone else’s ends.” Referring to the current pivotal debate in Wisconsin over “how to pursue new scientific technologies,” the Archbishop pointed out that “technology serves life and does not master it.”

“It is encouraging to have a clergyman of the stature of Archbishop Dolan advocate for respect for human life in the political arena,” stated Matt Sande, Pro-Life Wisconsin’s Legislative Affairs Director. “Naturally we agree with Archbishop Dolan – civility demands that the human person never be treated as a commodity.”

In addition to Sande, attending Archbishop Dolan’s address to the Legislature were Pro-Life Wisconsin’s legislative committee members Mary Matuska, Betty Lobenstein and Katherine Ribnek.