Dear Parents,
St. Thomas the Apostle School is pleased to be participating in Respect Life Week, Oct 17-21, an Archdiocesan-wide project for students in grades K-12 presented by the Office of Life, Justice and Peace and the Department of Catholic Schools.
In this Year of Mercy, Pope Francis has challenged us to build a culture of encounter by looking at the dignity of the human person. He has called us to extend the mercy of the Father to the suffering, the prisoner, and the vulnerable in our communities.
This year’s Respect Life Week takes up the themes presented by Pope Francis: human dignity and mercy; abortion; death penalty and restorative justice; poverty; and disabilities and special needs. These topics are presented in an age-appropriate way to all grade levels and in complete accord with Catholic Social Teaching.
We encourage you to take a look at the curriculum, which can be viewed in its entirety at http://archla.org/respectlifeweek. One goal of Respect Life Week is to stimulate conversation beyond the classroom and encourage positive action to create a Culture of Life in our communities, beginning in our own families.
Respect Life Week will immerse our students in these social topics so that at the end of the week they will have a fuller understanding of the incomparable worth of every person and our corresponding responsibility, at every age level, to respect everyone.
Should you have any questions or concerns about Respect Life Week at St. Thomas, please contact me or feel free to contact Kathleen Domingo, Associate Director of the Office of Life, Justice and Peace at KDomingo@la-archdiocese.org or 213-637-7236.
Thank you,
Mr. Michael Santa Maria
Principal