Respect Life – Useful Resources

1.a.)  Evangelium Vitae, The Gospel of Life (25 March 1995):
(The great document itself on the Vatican website, with translations in 9 other languages readily available.)

1.b.) The Gospel of Life: Evangelium Vitae.  Pauline Books trade paper edition, 1995

1.c.) The Gospel of Life (Evangelium Vitae).  Three Rivers Press trade paper edition 1995

2.)  John Paul II’s ‘Evangelium Vitae’ Gave a Voice to Those Promoting Respect for Life by Helen Alvaré:
(Short piece by a Catholic scholar on why after 25 years EV is more important than ever.  Published 25 March 2020.)

3.). Fr. Richard John Neuhaus editorial in the Wall Street Journal on the significance of EV:
(A contemporaneous piece [3 April 1995] by Fr. Neuhaus immediately recognizing the import of this encyclical.  Stored on EWTN’s website.)

4.)  “Resisting A Throw-Away Culture” by Rev. John Paul Kimes video talk
(Rev. Kimes, who holds a Doctorate in Canon Law, served as an Official of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 2009 through 2019 and is currently the Raymond of Peñafort Fellow in Canon Law of the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture. His spirited discussion is built on EV, and was just delivered on 19 June to the Notre Dame Vita Institute 2020.)

5.)  Evangelium Vitae Notable Quotations by Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis:
(Nine EV quotes from the translation by Joseph Donders in the book titled John Paul’s Encyclicals in Everyday Language.)

6.)  The Vatican’s Summary of Evangelium Vitae (30 March 1995)
(Although we encourage everyone to read the full text of EV, we know this is not always possible.  The Vatican released this quick summary when it released the full text.  It is stored on the Catholic Culture.org site.)

7.)  Evangelium Vitae Summary by Deacon William Wagner
(A very detailed summary of EV by the Pastoral Assistant at St. Bartholomew the Apostle Catholic Church in Katy TX, 2 November 2003.  Stored with other condensed papal documents on the St. Bartholomew site.)

8.)  A Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together
(Stored on the Vatican website, this declaration signed by Pope Francis on 4 February 2019 contains text which continues the work expressed in EV, and very significantly, it is acknowledged by the signature of a leading Sunni Islam leader, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar.  For example, “The first and most important aim of religions is to believe in God, to honour Him and to invite all men and women to believe that this universe depends on a God who governs it. He is the Creator who has formed us with His divine wisdom and has granted us the gift of life to protect it. It is a gift that no one has the right to take away, threaten or manipulate to suit oneself. Indeed, everyone must safeguard this gift of life from its beginning up to its natural end. We therefore condemn all those practices that are a threat to life such as genocide, acts of terrorism, forced displacement, human organ trafficking, abortion and euthanasia. We likewise condemn the policies that promote these practices.”  The text in 9 other languages is available.)