Homily: A Jesuit approach to being pro-life

The following homily was delivered by Brendan Gottschall, S.J., at the 2026 Ignatian Mass for Life at St. Aloysius Church in Washington, D.C. It has been edited for clarity and length. 

Like any movement toward justice, there are heroes, stalwarts who advanced the pro-life cause little by little, who become inspirations for those who follow in their paths. The Jesuits and our colleagues are not without our share of leaders in this regard, and their example can show us a particularly Ignatian and Jesuit way of being pro-life. Thus, I want to highlight briefly three heroes of the pro-life movement who are inspirations to me, one laywoman and two Jesuits: Jeanne Mancini, Thomas King, S.J., and Joseph Koterski, S.J.

Jeanne Mancini was for many years the president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, the foundation that organizes the March for Life. As a Catholic, Ms. Mancini grew up in a family with a strong sense of social justice. But in an interview a few years ago, she spoke of a moment during her experience in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps that helped deepen that understanding: 

[W]hen I was working for the Jesuit Volunteer Corps after college, I was working with young people who had very tragically been the victims of abuse or neglect. They were in a youth crisis shelter before they would go to new adoptive parents or to a foster home or to a residential treatment center. Even though I was Catholic, I was grappling with questions of the faith a lot…and thinking, “Maybe it would be better if some of these kids were never born.” I was really struggling through that, and then I had a devout Catholic say to me, “Who are you to judge the quality of anyone’s life?” And that was a bit of a game-changer for me. In that moment, I thought, “Every person has inherent human dignity from the moment of conception, and even if they suffer terribly, that doesn’t make them less dignified. We should never judge the value of someone’s life.”

This moment of encounter with suffering and her engaging it within the community and tradition of the church are essential elements of an Ignatian approach.

The life of Tom King, S.J., also reveals something of the Ignatian, Jesuit contribution to the cause of life. Father King was a professor of theology at Georgetown University for almost 50 years. In his theology, he was a devotee of the Jesuit paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Thomas Merton. He was an active member of Pax Christi, an organization that opposes war and capital punishment, as well as the founding president of University Faculty for Life.

Father King is probably best remembered for the 11:15 p.m. candlelight Mass that he would celebrate each weekday night on campus at Georgetown. Father King died after my freshman year at Georgetown, so I did not get to know him well, but I remember the void that he left. Father King combined a rarified sanctity and passion for the divine with a deeply intellectual engagement, especially with creation. He recognized the activity of the divine in the world. We might call such a combination incarnational.

Finally, Joseph Koterski, S.J., whom I knew a bit better, was also a Jesuit priest and professor of philosophy at Fordham University. Father Koterski had served on the board of University Faculty for Life and was a man remarkable in his generosity. Pretty much any religious sister or priest of a whole generation on the Eastern Seaboard had Father Koterski as a teacher or spiritual director at some point. 

After his death in 2021, Kathryn Jean Lopez recalled working with Father Koterski on the Archdiocese of New York Pro-Life Commission. She wrote that “his desire to defend, protect and nourish human life was not just right and just, but personal. He was born with a cleft palate; he knew others would see that imperfection as a rationale for abortion. His parents cherished him, and he was always aware [of that] and boundlessly grateful.” Father Koterski’s life of self-offering shows us the sacrificial element of an Ignatian, Jesuit approach to being pro-life. We are called to offer our whole selves with Jesus in response to the many self-gifts of God.

Encounter. Incarnation. Sacrifice. These are elements of an Ignatian and Jesuit approach because they are elements of the life and mystery of Jesus Christ. He is the ultimate example and source of our strength to continue on in this tradition, this community, to protect and enhance the sacredness of all human life. We now turn to receive him in his holy body and precious blood, to be drawn deeper into communion with God and one another and to receive his strength to carry on. As we receive this gift and go out into the streets, we remember that we are part of something greater than ourselves, namely the church, the mystical body of Christ. May we remain always faithful.

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