Daily Reading & Meditation: Friday (June 30)
June 30, 2017A Syllabus of Errors: An Update In Ninety-Five Sentences
June 30, 2017
By Doug Mainwaring, LifeSiteNews, June 29, 2017
AVE MARIA, Florida, June 29, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) — Ave Maria University is a bright, beautiful beacon of hope and joy on the Florida landscape, where a vibrant pro-life culture is cultivated, lived and channeled into heroic activism. One recent graduate proclaims, “Ave Maria students are the pro-life future, the generation that will bring an end to abortion!”
Situated on a beautiful new campus, this Catholic liberal arts institution of higher learning is “devoted to Mary the Mother of God, inspired by St. John Paul II and St. Teresa of Calcutta, and dedicated to the formation of joyful, intentional followers of Jesus Christ through Word and Sacrament, scholarship and service.”
Brietta Haynes, a newly minted Ave Maria University graduate, told LifeSiteNews, “There is something special about the Ave Maria pro-life community; I have not been to another place where the movement is not only so alive and enthusiastic, but is organizing pragmatically to defend life.” Brietta is now working for Students for Life of America. She was also a recipient of Ave Maria’s Jon Sharfenberger Pro-Life Scholarship.
Brietta continues, “Clearly, among Catholic institutions of higher learning, Ave Maria is a leader in the pro-life movement, an unabashed and unapologetic leader whose networks in the movement and day-to-day leadership are impressive and influential.”
Corinne Zay, a rising senior at Ave Maria, is president of the University’s Students for Life club and is interning this summer at the March for Life organization in D.C. She describes how she and her fellow students are determined not just to end abortion, but to protect and honor human dignity at every stage of life. Their dedication has led to amazingly creative efforts to reach out to those who face imminent, weighty life issues.
“In cultivating a culture of life on campus we work to defend life from conception to natural death. Our club is not just focused on the issue of abortion, but all life issues. We currently have an initiative where students can write to a death row inmate. About fifty students have pen-pals on death row and communicate with them regularly to support them in prayer.”
“One of the most exciting things we have just launched . . . is our Pregnant on Campus initiative. It is in this initiative that we were able to open the discussion and dialogue regarding pregnant and parenting students, something many people ignored as a need. By recognizing and opening the opportunity to discuss pregnant and parenting students we have created a culture that supports and loves mothers and their children. Ave Maria is a place where life is valued and never a mistake.”
Nora Anderson, a rising junior at Ave Maria, describes how her commitment to pro-life issues arose from personal tragedy: “I am pro-life because I have experienced the destruction and anguish that the culture of death inflicts on a family when it marginalizes and disregards human life. When my great-aunt was euthanized by the denial of food and water, I made her a promise that I will keep until I die: I will never allow the injustice of euthanasia and abortion to continue without fighting them with all the energy I have. As long as they are happening, I cannot pretend that they are not.”
In a wonderful Facebook video, Nora tells viewers “Any way you choose to do it, we’re called to live pro-life every day.”
She didn’t stop there. Nora was just getting started: “To be pro-life means to love life, to embrace life, to encourage life and to encourage the joy of life and the joy that it is to live in Christ, in His mercy and His love.”
Brietta sums up the high-energy pro-life campus environment, “The pro-life movement is deeply rooted at Ave Maria University. Positive and energetic, it is an integral part of the campus, and is very much alive. In fact, the majority of the student body are members of the Students for Life club, which hosts activities that range from helping local crisis pregnancy centers and praying outside of abortion clinics to participating in the annual March for Life in Washington, DC. Ave Maria’s internship program offers opportunities to work in the pro-life movement as crisis pregnancy center counselors and as development/fundraising interns in New York City for the Sisters of Life! I was blessed to participate in both those internships, which advanced my own pro-life advocacy as well as that of many other students.”
A culture of vibrant Catholic life thrives at Ave Maria. The University has approximately 1,100 students and offers 33 majors as well as graduate studies in Theology. Students from 45 states and 20 countries comprise a student body that is approximately 85% Catholic, 25% minority, and evenly-divided between men and women. Ave Maria’s state-of-the-art campus includes residence halls with a capacity for 1,300 students and rests on a tract of over 300 acres. AMU’s affordability is unmatched among its peers with fall 2017 tuition and fees remaining under $20,000, and virtually every student receiving generous scholarships to offset much of these costs.
For more information on Ave Maria University, visit https://www.avemaria.edu.
