Special to The Message
The Diocese of Evansville’s Office of Marriage, Family and Life will host the 2024 Respect Life Celebration Oct. 17 at St. Benedict Cathedral in Evansville.
Bishop Joseph M. Siegel will begin the event by celebrating Mass at 5:30 p.m. CDT in St. Benedict Cathedral. Dinner and a keynote speaker will follow in the Woodward Center on St. Benedict’s campus.
Father Jonathan Meyer of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis is this year’s keynote speaker. Father Meyer was ordained to the priesthood June 28, 2003, and he served as the Director of Youth and Young Adult Ministry for the Archdiocese. He served at several parishes before he was named pastor of All Saints Parish in Dearborn County in 2021, where four historic parishes — comprised of seven churches — became one under his leadership.
Father Meyer maintains a presence on the internet with his weekly homilies and other teachings. In 2022, he began ministering as a National Preacher for the Eucharistic Revival. For the past 13 years, he’s spent his spare time coaching track and cross country at public schools.
This year’s Respect Life Celebration is collaborating with Pregnancy Care Centers and Red Bird
Ministries throughout the Diocese of Evansville to focus on respecting life from conception to natural death. Attendees are encouraged to donate an infant sleep sack or consider making a monetary donation to help purchase sleep sacks for local pregnancy resource centers throughout the Diocese. The goal is to help promote safe sleep practices and to help reduce the number of infant sleep-related deaths in our area.
A Table of Remembrance will also be set-up to honor loved ones who have passed away, and attendees are invited to bring a photo of their loved one to place on the table.
Groups who purchase a table can submit a logo or photo to be printed and placed on their table to reserve it.
Reservations for the event close Oct. 1. Scholarships to assist with the cost of attendance are available by contacting Director of Marriage, Family and Life Megan Knies at [email protected].
For more information, visit https://www.evdio.org/respect-life.html.