Archbishop Samuel Aquila

Denver Archbishop Samuel Aquila’s own awakening “to the truth of the dignity of human life” came while he was a college student considering a career as a doctor.

After starting college in 1968, he also worked as a hospital orderly, and during a couple of work shifts, he “witnessed the results of two abortions and the memory haunts me,” Aquila wrote in a pastoral letter released Jan. 22, the 40th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions legalizing abortion virtually on demand.

“I have never been the same. My faith was weak at the time,” he said.

“My conscience awakened to the truth of the dignity of the human being from the moment of conception.

I became pro-life and eventually returned to my faith.”