ELLENVILLE — The Ulster Deanery Respect Life Committee (UDRLC), which coordinates the Catholic pro-life movement in Ulster County, engaged the marketplace of ideas through its booth at the annual Blueberry Festival in Ellenville.
“We were greatly blessed with good weather for the event and a wonderful turnout,” said Deacon John Carr, deputy moderator-spiritual director of the UDRLC. “We were able to distribute information that ranged from help for parents who need assistance with basic needs, all the way to comforting parents suffering from the effects of aborting their child,” he added.
The UDRLC enjoyed practical and prayerful support locally from St. Mary and St. Andrew’s Parish in Ellenville, which had its booth located next to the UDRLC’s this year. “At the festival, we evangelized our neighbors and visitors not only with devotional items and materials of the Catholic faith but also with face-to-face interaction to reach people of other faiths and of no faith,” Father Kenneth L. Riello, pastor of St. Mary and St. Andrew’s parish, said.
Both the UDRLC and St. Mary-St. Andrew booths distributed palm cards and fact sheets in English and Spanish to urge New Yorkers to vote “no” on Proposition 1, the so-called “Equal Rights Amendment,” on November. 5. “Proposition 1 would insert abortion-on-demand and gender theory into our state constitution, thus entrenching New York’s hostile legal framework to the preborn child in the womb as well as enabling further attacks on parental rights in the medical treatment and upbringing of their children. Furthermore, New York should leave girls’ sports for girls and boys’ sports activities for boys without confusion or unfair interference. All New Yorkers should vote ‘no’ to Proposition 1 on November 5,” said Father Arthur F. Rojas, moderator and spiritual director of UDRLC, said.
The UDRLC and various Catholic parishes in Ulster County are cooperating with the Coalition to Protect Kids – NY, which is the statewide “NO” campaign to Proposition 1. “We gave out so much information on Proposition 1 that at one point I had to quickly run home and make more copies,” Deacon Carr said.
The UDRLC coordinates the Catholic pro-life movement in Ulster County on several fronts, including prayer, advocacy, and education. The committee has worked with other organizations such as the Pregnancy Support Center of Ulster County, also known as the Bravo Center, in Kingston on different aspects of the pro-life cause.
St. Mary and St. Andrew’s Church serves the village of Ellenville, the surrounding town of Wawarsing, and the neighboring towns of Shawangunk and Rochester in southwestern Ulster County.