(CNSNews.com) – Sister Constance Veit, communications director for the Little Sisters of the Poor in the United States, spoke with CNSNews.com Friday at the annual March for Life about a new initiative the sisters have begun called Youth and Aged for Life.
The group aims to bring together youth and the elderly for prayer and socialization to foster a culture of life and combat the recent cultural push to legalize euthanasia.
The Little Sisters of the Poor run homes in the United States and more than 30 countries around the world to care for the elderly poor.
They are part of the Supreme Court case Zubik v. Burwell, in which the Little Sisters and other Christian organizations took the Obama administration to court over a federal mandate, issued under Obamacare, which required almost all health care plans to cover abortion-inducing drugs and devices, as well as sterilizations and contraceptives.
Veit started the prayer initiative with Janis Clarke, a consecrated virgin and evangelist in the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. after the Supreme Court in May voted unanimously to send the Sisters’ case back to the lower courts in hopes that the parties could reach a settlement.
“Last year, after the positive result in our Supreme Court case it just welled up in both of our hearts,” Veit explained. “Both of us had the same inspiration really that we wanted to channel the prayers of the elderly, because they’re such a powerhouse of prayer, and so we wanted to do something for the culture of life - something that would highlight the elderly and give them a sense of purpose and mission - and so we came up with the idea of Youth and Aged for Life.
“It is a play on words on euthanasia - youth and aged - and so what we do is we meet up on a regular basis with our residents. We invite young people to come join us from like little kids all the way up to college students from CUA come over,” Veit added.
“We come together. We give them updates - good and bad news about the culture of life and death,” Veit said of the D.C. Youth and Aged group.
“We pray the rosary together. We give them a little bit of catechesis sometimes about the rosary, spiritual life - you know respect for life, dignity of the human person - and then our meetings also always include an aspect of socialization, because it was our conviction that if young people could get to know the elderly personally and engage with them and learn from them then when they become adults, they wouldn’t be tempted to vote against the elderly or you know worse neglect the elderly in their own families but that we could build positive bonds,” she said.
By Lauretta Brown
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