Bishop Thomas John Paprocki will celebrate the annual diocesan Respect Life Mass at 9 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 1 at Holy Family Church in Granite City. After Mass he will lead a rosary walk to Hope Clinic for Women, to hold a prayer vigil outside the place where medical and surgical abortions are performed.

After the vigil, a light luncheon will be held at Holy Family Parish Hall. Dr. Calvin Bell, an emergency room physician in Springfield, will deliver the keynote address. The title of his speech is "Culture of Life: The answer to what ails America."

Two weeks later, on Oct. 15, Bishop Paprocki will be on the far opposite side of Missouri, running in the Kansas City Marathon to raise money for charity and various pro-life causes. He will be running with a group called LIFE Runners (LIFE – Living in Faith Exchange).

Bishop Paprocki has pledged to donate some of the money he receives to causes designated by LIFE Runners, as well as to other pro-life causes in the Springfield diocese, including scholarships to assist deserving diocesan youth to attend the March for Life in Washington, D.C.

At Bishop Paprocki's first rosary walk and prayer vigil in the diocese last year, he called abortion a "defining issue" of our times.