The Holy Father has asked all Catholics to hold a vigil for Life on this last day before the Advent Season.
"Today, Pope Benedict XVI has called Catholics worldwide to a special prayer for the most vulnerable persons in the world with a profound conviction that our attention to them is the cornerstone to peace on earth.
He asked every bishop to lead his diocese in a Vigil for Nascent Life.
This prayer will be prayed in Catholic churches around the world, invoking God's protection on all human beings who have been called into existence.
Our Holy Father Pope Benedict recently said, "when the promotion of the dignity of the human person is the primary inspiration of political and social activity that is committed to search for the common good, solid and enduring foundations are created for building peace and harmony between peoples."
In our world today, those who were just conceived and those who are in the womb of their mothers are often not shown peace, but the opposite. Their lives are ended.
We pray today for the many ways that human life, the very gift of God, is threatened and often deemed useless.
We pray to end abortion; we pray for the embryos stored at fertility clinics; and we pray for those newly created human persons in research clinics whose fate is destruction.
In this prayer, we also pray for ourselves, that we might be instruments of God's love to ensure all lives are treated as sacred.
It is important for us to remember not only the fetus and the embryo, but also those who are in a position to bring dignity to the very delicate life of the unborn person.
In our prayer this evening, we ask for the protection of pregnant women who are vulnerable to physical violence that they might be safe from harm and their child might be safe as well.
We pray for those parents who have received a diagnosis of a fetal abnormality of their unborn son or daughter. May these parents receive the grace and support to celebrate the life of their very special child or children who may have special needs so that they choose life for their loved ones without falling to the pressures of abortion.
Our prayer extends to medical research and science.
May God's natural law be applied in all testing, remembering that every human person is precious to God.
As the Judeo-Christian Scriptures proclaim in Psalm 139 (13-14), "You formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother's womb. I praise you, so wonderfully you made me; wonderful are your works!"
May our medical treatments using adult stem cells continue with the great success we have already achieved, so that cures continue to help those afflicted while no emerging humans or nascent life is destroyed in the treatment of disease.
I have invited the pastors in our diocese to share in this Vigil for Nascent Life at our Sunday Vigil Masses this evening." (quoted article from Cleveland Catholic Diocese)
