Contact

Mr Len Horner
266-270 Stanley Street, (PO Box 6149) Townsville, Qld 4810
Phone: (07) 4726 3210
Fax: (07) 4726 3211
Email: lhorner@tsv.catholic.org.au

Some Information and Resources

• Charter of the Respect Life Committee
• Australian Bishops' Statement about RU-486
• Questions & Answers about RU-486
• Open Letter to Women from the Australian Bishops
• Catholicism and Capital Punishment - Cardinal Dulles
• Poster - Respect Life Sunday
• Poster - A Consistent Ethic of Life
• Prayer for Life

NB: Copies of the two posters mentioned are available from the Townsville Diocesan Office.

Respect Life Sunday

The next Respect Life Sunday is scheduled for 10 September 2006.

Some Links

• Pregnancy Problem Centre
• Southern Cross Bioethics Institute
• Queensland Bioethics Centre
• Melbourne Respect Life Office
• Bioethics Centres in Australia

Respect Life Lecture

On Thursday, 2 November, 2006 Fr Bill Uren sj visited the diocese at the invitation of the Respect Life Committee to present a public lecture on "The Catholic Church and Stem Cell Research", which included the status of the embryo and related issues, including the current state of legislation on these matters.

Father Bill Uren is a Jesuit priest and is the Rector of Newman College at the University of Melbourne. He is a graduate of the Universities of Melbourne, Sydney and Oxford and the Melbourne College of Divinity, and has lectured in moral philosophy and bioethics at the University of Melbourne, the University of Queensland and Murdoch and Edith Cowan Universities in Perth. Among other commitments in the field, he has just completed a six year term on the Australian Health Ethics Committee, one of the four principal committees of the National Health and Medical Research Council.

Aim

The Respect Life Committee, drawing on the teaching of the Catholic Church, seeks to promote within society, especially among the young, the sanctity and dignity of all human life in order to build up an authentic civilization of truth and love.

Functions

• To organise Respect Life Sunday once a year in the Diocese of Townsville

• To be a contact point for the public on life issues and a referral service to other agencies

• To provide information, resources, publications and presentations on life issues to schools, parishes, organisations and groups

• To involve the media in promoting the culture of life and in changing attitudes

• To explain through the media and in other ways why the Church holds a particular position on any life matter in order to spread this knowledge among individuals and groups

• To invite experts from time to time to present seminars and talks

• To bring together people and organisations involved in related matters to share ideas and offer mutual support

• To co-operate closely with other pro-life agencies, such as the Queensland Bioethics Centre, independent Catholic groups and other Christian Churches

• To promote prayer as a means of changing hearts and minds through the power of the Holy Spirit in building up the culture of life.

Members

• Dr Chris Kennedy (Chairperson)

• Bishop Michael Putney

• Mrs Karen Jones

• Mrs Pat Watt

• Sr Catherine Cuddihy rsm

• Mr Gerard Hore

• Mr Len Horner

• Mr Matthew Campbell

• Ms Paula Washington