Baltimore Archdiocese’s Life is Beautiful Mass honors Alvaré, Clarksville couple

The Archdiocese of Baltimore celebrated the annual Life is Beautiful Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Jan. 24. Archbishop William E. Lori led a smaller gathering than previous years, due to the pandemic, but the Mass was livestreamed on the archdiocese’s Facebook page and website.

“We gather to celebrate and to give thanks for the gift of human life and to proclaim and give thanks for its beauty,” Archbishop Lori said, “and to honor those who are apostles and missionaries of the message that life is beautiful.”

The archdiocesan Respect Life Committee honored Helen M. Alvaré with the Life is Beautiful Award, and John and Cathy Stefano with the Culture of Life Medal of Honor.

Alvaré is a law professor at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, an author and frequent media contributor on pro-life issues who has represented the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. She said that studying facts and applying reason as a lawyer prompted her toward a career in defense of the unborn and the vulnerable.

“I couldn’t understand how we could say we were a good country and defenders of the defenseless, and then defend abortion,” Alvaré said. “My affection for Catholic pro-life teaching, whether vis a vis abortion or taking care of immigrants, was so moving that it confirmed my reason had reached the right conclusion.”

Click play below to watch the Life is Beautiful Mass. Story continues beneath.

The Stefanos are parishioners of St. Louis in Clarksville. They have been ambassadors for the Maryland Catholic Conference and organizers for both the National March for Life and Maryland March for Life. They became involved in pro-life issues after Cathy Stefano volunteered for a political campaign, which inspired them to work together to bring pro-life issues to legislators and promote those issues when bills related to them were discussed.

“You need to get people in the legislature who are pro-life, and (who) not only say something about it but do something about it,” John Stefano said. “We need people to get involved in the process. That’s how you get things changed.”

The Stefanos said they share the Culture of Life Medal of Honor with others.

“We may be getting the medal but we’re sharing it with all the pro-life groups praying and working as hard, and harder, than we did,” Cathy Stefano said.

In his homily, Archbishop Lori reflected on the message of repentance in the day’s Gospel, Mark 1:14-20. Repentance, turning away from sin and toward the face of God, is beautiful, he said.

“It is this process of repentance and purification that opens our eyes to God’s love and frees us to embrace God’s truth in love and to embrace our neighbor in love,” Archbishop Lori said.

“It is a courageous and beautiful exercise of our freedom of expression to proclaim to those in power and to our fellow citizens that life itself is beautiful, and that as a nation we need to repent of the destruction of the unborn,” the archbishop said. “These little ones have the preeminent claim on our consciousness, not because of political ideology but because they are the smallest and most vulnerable of all.” 

This repentance, he said, would create a moral reawakening leading to justice for the unborn and others who are vulnerable.

“A reawakening to the beauty of the unborn will awaken our love for their mothers, will help open the eyes of our nation to the dignity of the chronically and terminally ill, to the dignity of immigrants and the victims of racism, even to those slated for capital punishment,” Archbishop Lori said. “How beautiful if we were to become that society that leaves no neighbor behind?”

The Life is Beautiful Mass is the traditional start to the week which includes the National March for Life in Washington, D.C. This year the Jan. 29 march will take place as a virtual rally; only a small group of national pro-life leaders will represent the movement. Archbishop Lori is scheduled to celebrate the 8 a.m. Mass which will close the Vigil of Life that morning, at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington.

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