Right to Life is Notre Dame’s pro-life club on campus, and, since Monday, has been sponsoring and participating in the various Respect Life Week events.

Victor Saenz, Development Officer of Right to Life responsible for alumni relations and publicity, said that Respect Life Week is a particular "witnessing to the sanctity and dignity of human life." Saenz continued, "Through education and prayer, and especially prayer, we hope to achieve this goal." Respect Life Week, according to Saenz, aims not only at raising awareness, but also at giving people the tools to witness in their own lives. Together with prayer, the goal is to effectively call upon God and bestow his grace.

At the beginning of the week, there was a roundtable discussion between the leaders of Right to Life, Human Rights ND, ND Against State Killing, and the Peace Fellowship.

On Tuesday, Right to Life devoted their efforts to prayer, hosting three Rosary recitations, a Chaplet of Divine Mercy, and a half hour of adoration. Students flooded the Coleman-Morse Chapel for one of the Rosaries and to participate in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. As Saenz stressed, prayer is the most important part of Respect Life Week.

Yesterday, the pro-life club hosted their regular meeting at which Professor Charles Rice, of the Law School, gave a presentation. And today, Dawn Parkot, the first Notre Dame graduate with multiple disabilities, will give a presentation entitled "Fight for the Soul of a Country." This presentation is at 7:30pm, 155 DeBartolo. If the reader so wishes, it is excusable to lay down the Rover to attend.

Also today, students should already be chatting about the Cemetery of the Innocents, one of the more visible events of Respect Life Week. In an effort to "bring us into contact with the realities of life," as Saenz put it, the Right to Life club will have put up 600 crosses and 3600 flags in memorial of aborted babies.

In recent years, there has been quiet controversy over the display, which has often provoked Letters to the Editor in the Observer and subtle debate on campus citing both its alleged ineffectiveness and misplaced poignancy. To any objectors Saenz asserted, "[The Cemetery of the Innocents] is a visible reminder of the horrors of abortion that can be a sign of hope." Saenz also pointed out, the memorial affirms that "as a Catholic university, we’re not indifferent to the realities of abortion."

Lastly, tomorrow there will be a Theology of the Body discussion with Professor Adrian Reimers at 6:30 in the CSC Coffee House.