PRO LIFE QUOTE OF THE WEEK [SUNDAY 25 NOVEMBER 2012 TO SATURDAY 1 DECEMBER 2012]

QUOTE: Abortion and euthanasia have become preeminent threats to human dignity because they directly attack life itself, the most fundamental human good and the condition for all others. They are committed against those who are weakest and most defenseless, those who are genuinely 'the poorest of the poor.' They are endorsed increasingly without the veil of euphemism, as supporters of abortion and euthanasia freely concede these are killings even as they promote them. Sadly, they are practiced in those communities which ordinarily provide a safe haven for the weak -- the family and the healing professions. Such direct attacks on human life, once crimes, are today legitimized by governments sworn to protect the weak and marginalized. [U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Living the Gospel of Life: A Challenge to American Catholics, 1998.]

AUTHOR: The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is the episcopal conference of the Catholic Church in the United States. Founded in 1966 as the joint National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) and United States Catholic Conference, it is composed of all active and retired members of the Catholic hierarchy (i.e., diocesan, coadjutor, and auxiliary bishops and the ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter) in the United States and the Territory of the U.S. Virgin Islands. In the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the bishops in the six dioceses form their own episcopal conference, the Puerto Rican Episcopal Conference (Spanish, Conferencia Episcopal Puertorriqueña). The bishops in U.S. insular areas in the Pacific Ocean — the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Territory of American Samoa, and the Territory of Guam — are members of the Episcopal Conference of the Pacific (Latin, Conferentia Episcopalis Pacifici).

The USCCB adopted its current name in July 2001. The organization is a registered corporation based in Washington, D.C.. As with all bishops' conferences, certain decisions and acts of the USCCB must receive the recognition, or approval of the Roman dicasteries, which are subject to the immediate and absolute authority of the Pope.