Today Bishop John Gaydos will lead the Rosary to safeguard embryonic human life at St. Joseph Cathedral (my parish) in Jefferson City, MO. I know that most of you can’t physically be there, but I hope you can join us spiritually by praying with us today in your own homes.

The Rosary Crusade to Safeguard Embryonic Human Life was started in 2006 by then St. Louis Bishop Raymond Burke as a response to the campaign to enshrine into our State Constitution the right to clone and kill human embryos for medical research. Because the measure (barely) passed, many would like for the cloning debate in MO to be over with, but as I mentioned here, that is not the case. And although pro-lifers have so far been unsuccessful in getting our own measures on the ballot, even our losing efforts have proven effective. Our unwillingness to concede defeat has caused the powerful cloning leaders who bought their own Constitutional amendment to so far abandon many of their efforts to build research facilities in our State citing a “hostile environment” toward research on human embryos (they’re also holding out for more state funds).

This prayer is not just important for Missouri. Three other states will be voting on stem cell issues in a few weeks. Not only that, but both men running for president are in favor of research on human embryos and will almost assuredly both expand federal funding for such research when they are in office.

Thankfully ethical stem cell research continues to prove to be more effective at being used to treat disease and disability, causing many scientists to abandon their work with embryos. But, there’s more to ESCR than just therapies and cures and some scientists are finally admitting to what the real future of embryonic stem cell research is.

So we’ve got to keep the pressure on against this life destroying research and using our tax dollars to fund it. We’re not standing in the way of scientific progress. We’re standing up for ethics and human dignity.