Detroit — Testimonies from people whose pro-life commitment has made a difference in their lives added a personal dimension to last Saturday’s Life is a Gift conference at Sacred Heart Major Seminary.

While other speakers at the conference marking the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision approached the subject from the theological, philosophical or legal angles, several spoke from their personal experience.

Paul A. Wright, M.D., told of his experiences with Blessed Teresa of Calcutta — of how they met and how he worked with her as both her cardiologist and as a volunteer at her missions.

He first met Mother Teresa in 1991 when she was recuperating from a heart attack. It was his personal quest for meaning in his life that first brought him to see her. Her medical condition and the inspiration of her commitment to the dignity of all human life then formed the basis of a continuing relationship.

“Your purpose in life is very simple — it is to love,” she told him. And though he had been serving others as a physician, he was to learn from working alongside her in her service to the destitute and dying what it means to also love them.

“You are called to serve Christ in humanity in a selfless way,” she told him, and, “Give yourself to your patient.”

“She was breathtakingly simplistic, gentle and compassionate,” Wright said of Blessed Teresa.

Conference attendees heard from the parents of two special needs children in presentations by Dan and Sheila Argue and by Ellen Salter.

Sheila Argue told how she suspected something was amiss even during her pregnancy, and how — after delivery — her husband broke the news to her, “Sheila, our little boy has Down Syndrome.”

But the Argues, members of St. Andrew Parish in Rochester, though heartbroken, understood that all human life is a gift from God. “In that moment, we said yes to our baby, we said yes to God,” she recalled.

And although raising a Down Syndrome child is undeniably time-consuming and often trying, the Argues were convinced that somehow it was part of God’s plan. As she put it, that He was telling them: “There will be some aspects of this child that will show you Who I am.”

Dan Argue said they have come to appreciate their Joseph’s appreciation of music, and how if he likes the performance of their parish choir, he will give “not just a standing ovation, but a jumping ovation.”

And Joseph’s liking for Christmas music knows no season. “With Joseph, we live the gift of Christmas all year long,” his father continued.

He said Joseph, now 12, had given them “the gift of living in the moment.”

Sheila Argue said, “Perhaps the greatest gift is the impact he has on our other children,” adding that one of her daughters once wrote: “When I look at Joseph, I don’t see a ‘syndrome,’ I see a brother whom I love.”

The story of Meghan Salter, the now 8-year-old daughter of Mike and Ellen Salter of Dearborn, is one that it already familiar to many area pro-life activists, and has been told in the pages of The Michigan Catholic as recently as two weeks ago in connection with the airing of a television documentary on Catholic cable TV.

Ellen Salter told how she and her husband hand to stand fast for life against the proddings of medical professionals who were advising them not just to let Meghan die, but to essentially bring about her death by denying her oxygen or food. “We were not going to place ourselves in the position of playing God,” she said.

Salter also talked about another aspect to the saga of their daughter, whom she and her husband have cared for faithfully despite her undiagnosed illness – that of having to endure criticism from some who have excoriated them for preserving their daughter’s life.

She said of the overall experience of raising Meghan, “It has kept us simple and very prayerful.”

Personal testimony also figured into some of the breakout sessions, as Christine Elwart told of the role of the Rachel’s Vineyard retreats in bringing about spiritual healing for those who regret having had abortions or assisted in them.

And Dan Goodnow and Deacon Gerald Smigell told what they had learned from years of front-line activism, doing sidewalk counseling and taking part in vigils outside abortion clinics.

Goodnow, founder of Helpers of God’s Precious Infants, told how women who were influenced to turn back and not go through with having an abortion will sometimes see him demonstrating will sometimes stop and tell him how he influenced them to give their baby a chance for life.