Sacred Heart seminarians plan, cook and serve meal to support pro-life ministries offering 'hope for those who are hopeless'
DETROIT — Seminarians at Sacred Heart Major Seminary continued a 15-year tradition Feb. 21 by hosting their annual Dinner for Life, a fundraising dinner planned, hosted, served and cooked entirely by the seminarians.
Chaired by seminarians Jim Musgrave and Charlie Bemiss, this year's dinner began with Mass celebrated by Detroit Auxiliary Bishop Robert J. Fisher, followed by a dinner complete with a musical serenade from a seminarian-led band, "The Ultrasounds," and a 50/50 raffle that raised donations for the Lennon Center, a pregnancy care center in Dearborn Heights. The center's founders, Deacon Joe Lennon and his wife Beth, were present at the event.
Before leading grace, Fr. Charles Fox, vice rector and dean of seminarian formation at Sacred Heart, said the Dinner for Life is an annual opportunity for seminarians to get involved in the pro-life work of the Church. While in seminary, the seminarians spend most of their time in one building, he noted, applying themselves to prayer, study, and fraternity.
“The seminarians work hard to put on an excellent dinner, and this dinner gives them an opportunity to be connected to all of you who are on the front lines of the cause of life, taking on the culture of death, promoting and proclaiming the culture of life," Fr. Fox said. "The seminarians long to be there with you, but know that they need to spend these years preparing for their priestly service."
Mariann Bolton, executive director of the Lennon Center, thanked the seminarians in her remarks and assured them of her prayers. At the Lennon Center, the mission of supporting both the mother and baby is lived out through services including pregnancy testing, ultrasounds, counseling, parenting classes and more, Bolton explained.
Bolton said that the center’s passion and mission is “protecting the life of the unborn.”
“Through God’s grace, we are providing hope for those who are hopeless and feel frightened and hope for those who find themselves alone and feel very confused,” Bolton said. “Our staff wraps their hands, hearts and minds around this woman and assures her that together we’re stronger and what looks like an impossible task really is attainable.”
Bolton said the most common phrase she hears from women considering abortion is just two words: “I can’t.”
“Our passion is to let her know that she is capable of far more than she believes, to let her know there's a higher power up there that cares about her, and to let her know being afraid is OK,” Bolton said. “We want to make her feel understood and supported and make her aware of what she can do. We want to be there when she changes her ‘I can’t’ to ‘I can.’ We’re walking beside her, and your generosity tonight will make that possible.”
Being pro-life is counter-cultural, and it can be a challenge to live out one's faith in a world that sees things differently, Bishop Fisher said. Yet, hope dwells in the hearts of all Christians, and that is what sustains and gives us courage, he added.
“Our Christian hope is different from just wishful thinking that says, 'I hope it will snow tomorrow,' or other simple kind of requests like that," Bishop Fisher said in his homily. "Our Christian hope is foundational, and it's based on this belief that nothing will separate us from the love of God unless we choose to do so on our own.”
Bishop Fisher reminded the seminarians and their guests that 2025 is a jubilee year, during which the Holy Father, Pope Francis, has called the Church to be “pilgrims of hope” and to renew its hope, faith and resolve.
Bishop Fisher likened a jubilee year to a “spiritual reboot.”
“We have all had that experience when we had problems with our computers, and the experts tell us to reboot and start over again when we are in doubt,” Bishop Fisher said. “A jubilee year is very much like that. It’s a spiritual reboot.”
As pilgrims of hope, Catholics are called to find the courage to change the things that are counter to God’s plan for the world and to search for truth while being “challenged by God’s dream” of a new world where peace and justice reigns supreme, the bishop said.
“My brothers and sisters, we are given the mission of bringing about a reboot — a reboot of our world back to God’s original design, including and perhaps especially a respect for life at all stages from conception until natural death,” Bishop Fisher said. “So it is with this kind of hope that you and I continue in this battle in the defense of life — life at all stages. Let's do so happily and joyfully, knowing that God is at our side and that nothing will separate us from Him.”
