For Kathy Conner, taking the position as respect life coordinator for the diocese is not really about starting a new job, but simply moving what has been her life’s work into a different office.

Before joining the staff at the Diocesan Pastoral Center Sept. 8, Conner had served since 2001 as executive director of the Sacramento Life Center. For the better part of 20 years, she worked in various capacities at the Life Center, including another 18-month stint as executive director in the mid-1990s.

“This is a natural transition for me,” said Conner, who made the decision to leave her job at the Life Center to take a new part-time position and spend more time with her children. “Respect life has been my story of faith and my journey,” she said.

Conner replaced Christine Cipperly, who had served for several years as respect life coordinator prior to her departure June 6.

Conner said one focus of her work will be as a visible and vocal advocate for “the power and vision” of Natural Family Planning.

“It’s really a best kept secret that has to get out. The trick is more people have to be educated,” she said. She hopes to spread the word to priests and parishioners by attending deanery meetings throughout the diocese.

She also anticipates her office will collaborate with the Sacramento-area Natural Family Planning advisory board and “the handful of doctors in the diocese who are NFP-only,” with the goal of recruiting other doctors to get on board.

Also on Conner’s agenda is carrying on work with Project Rachel, an outreach to women and family members touched by abortion. She said the diocese’s recent Rachel’s Vineyard retreat in Auburn in August was an important step in introducing more people to a spiritually rich and healing opportunity.

“This is a powerful weekend where there is a true feeling of forgiveness,” she said. “These women are able to grieve for the child they did not have and move forward with their lives.”

It is Conner’s hope in the months ahead to plan Rachel’s Vineyard retreats not only in the Sacramento area, but in the Northern portion of the diocese.

The new coordinator will also continue grassroots promotion of “the culture of life” at the parish level. Conner would like to see respect life coordinators and committees in all of the diocese’s 98 parishes.

Currently more than half of the parishes in the diocese have respect life coordinators. “There are practical things they could do on a regular basis, so there’s a little life in each parish,” she said.

She envisions wider parish-based support for such respect life ministries as the Bishop Gallegos Maternity Home in Sacramento, the Mother Teresa Maternity Home of El Dorado County in Placerville and the Sacramento Life Center.

A one-day retreat for parish respect life coordinators is being planned for this fall, she said.

Looking forward to the challenges ahead, Conner identified what will be crucial to succeed.

“So much of this work is one on one,” she said. “It’s getting out there and communicating the power of all these programs.”

For more information about diocesan respect life efforts, call Kathy Conner at (916) 733-0140.

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