WOODSTOCK -- At the Ulster Deanery Respect Life Committee's general meeting held on June 18 at St. John's Church, Woodstock, the three winners of the Committee's 2024 Respect Life Essay Contest -- Brennen Banbury (7th and 8th Grade section), Luke Railing (High School section), and Michael Patrick Griffin (College section) -- were announced. In addition to certificates for the occasion, our winners will be awarded cash prizes for their prize-winning compositions.
Deacon John Carr, deputy moderator of the Ulster Deanery Respect Life Committee (UDRLC), "Praise God for these young men and all the other participants for striving to make the case for the pro-life cause to the best of their ability."
About 30 delegates from various Catholic parishes in Ulster County along with representatives of the Divine Mercy Adoration Chapel (Kingston) and the Bruderhof Communities were present for the meeting, which included the awards ceremony.
"Thanks to the hospitality of Father Thomas Kiely, pastor, and the delegates of St. John's Church at Woodstock, our organization will have met at 13 out of 14 Catholic parishes in Ulster County over the last three years, thus spreading the reach of the Catholic pro-life movement in our county," observed Father Arthur F. Rojas, moderator and spiritual director of the UDRLC.
Pursuant to criteria set forth by the Essay Contest Team (Colleen Toder, chairwoman) and approved by the committee, contestants wrote essays in answer to questions oriented specifically to categories of 7th and 8th graders, high school students, and college students who were parishioners of Catholic parishes in Ulster County. The high school section was opened also to all students of the Mount Academy, which is an institution of the Bruderhof Communities, which are allies of the UDRLC. Thus, Banbury's essay was directed to "What lessons from the saints can help young people understand what it means to respect human life from conception to natural death?"
Railing's composition addressed the question, "How can respect for human life at all stages of development help a young person understand how to respect his or her sexual powers?" In light of the controversial Proposition One planned for the November ballot in New York, Griffin's paper focused on "How can you help persuade your peers that respect for human life requires that we protect the unborn while loving and helping mothers in need?" The actual essays are available on the UDRLC's website.
Banbury is a parishioner of St. Joseph's Church in Kingston and a student at Kingston Catholic School. Railing is a parishioner of St. Augustine Church at Highland and a home-schooled student at the high school level. Griffin is a parishioner of St. Mary and St. Andrew's Church at Ellenville and a student at SUNY-Ulster. He is also Vice President Emeritus of the Ulster Community College Students for Life, which is an affiliate of the UDRLC. Of the winners and participants, Toder remarked, "The Essay Contest Team was thoroughly impressed with the quality of all the entries and is encouraged by their passion and eloquence. The future is pro-life, and our students are already taking the lead."
The UDRLC coordinates the pro-life activities of Catholics from various Catholic parishes of the Ulster Deanery of the Archdiocese of New York, which is coterminous with Ulster County. It has a working relationship with the Bruderhof Communities and other groups such as the Divine Mercy Adoration Chapel, which is located on the grounds of Immaculate Conception Church (Kingston) and is the northernmost Perpetual Adoration chapel of the Archdiocese of New York.
Learn more about the UDRLC., including future announcements of the 2025 Essay Contest, at www.ulsterdeaneryrespectlife.org