Today’s the 30th Anniversary of Pope St. John Paul II’s Amazing Evangelium Vitae
In March 1995, long before I came home to the Catholic Church, Pope St. John Paul II released the amazing Evangelium Vitae, one of the most important documents about life the Church has ever published. Even as a Protestant I knew and understood the value of this document and the message the pope gave the world.
The title for section 2 of the introduction is “The incomparable worth of the human person.” This title speaks volumes to me in more ways than one and it brings me back to the day in 1987 when I was witnessed to by a doctor in the hospital after I had overdosed on drugs.
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It was late July and after spending the morning snorting crystal meth and smoking pot, my then-girlfriend dropped me off at Anaheim Stadium in California for a concert. The rest of the day was a drawn-out drug fest for me as I also took LSD and ate some psychedelic mushrooms. The night ended with me in a phone booth, screaming to the operator that the phone melted into my head. Polie and emergency workers pulled me out took me to UC Irvine Medical Center.
At the hospital, a doctor pulled me aside to talk to me, choosing me from the more than 20 others who also were there after overdosing. I was handcuffed to a wheelchair so he wheeled me outside. There he said three things to me that will stick with me forever.
“God Loves you.”
“You are precious to God.”
“You are worth more than this life you’re living, and have immense value.”
I was so skeptical because I just assumed God hated me and I was as worthless as I had always felt. After I had left the hospital, I was swimming in a harbor about an hour’s drive from the hospital when a boat approached me. The man in the boat said he remembered me from the phone booth; he was the first responder who took me to the hospital. He then said to me the exact same thing the doctor had said.
I came to Christ the following week and decided to get sober. A few days later, at a punk and metal concert, the rest of my life was shaped as I learned the incredible worth of the human person in the womb.
One of the bands playing was a punk band called The Crucified and they sang a song called “Silent Scream.” The singer talked about the baby in the womb and what happened in an abortion and it reminded me of myself and learning my value and worth in Christ.
It would be several years later when I received a call from a young man named Andrew telling me about going to see then-Pope John Paul II at World Youth Day in Colorado and the call for young people to stand for life in the womb. Shortly after this, Evangelium Vitae was released and it all made so much sense.
Our world has devalued and dehumanized God’s most precious and vulnerable gift, the human person in the womb. So many have been fooled into believing the lies that strip away the incomparable worth of these precious children. Evangelium Vitae is a powerful teaching on human life and worth and I pray that everyone – Catholic or not – reads this document and embraces the truth within.
LifeNews Note: Bryan Kemper is the street activism coordinator for Priests for Life and the founder and director of its youth outreach Stand True.
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