BRAINTREE -- The annual Women Affirming Life Breakfast took place at the Pastoral Center on Dec. 6, the feast of St. Nicholas.

The event began with a Mass in Bethany Chapel, celebrated by Cardinal Seán P. O'Malley. In his homily, the cardinal reflected on the role of martyrs, which literally means witnesses.

He referenced recent polling about the declining birth rate in the United States and the increase in physician-assisted suicide in Canada.

"More than ever, the church needs martyrs, witnesses, people who coherently live the Christian life with a sense of mission," Cardinal O'Malley said.

This year, the Women Affirming Life Breakfast was also a celebration of the life of Mary Elizabeth De Winter, a pro-life advocate from Needham who passed away in July. Her husband Paul, her children, and some of her grandchildren were present.

Addressing the breakfast attendees, Mary Ellen De Winter shared the history of how her mother helped to found American University Women for Life (AUWL) over 40 years ago. Her mother had been part of the American Association of University Women, until she realized it had a strong pro-abortion stance. When she and other members failed to convince the group to take a neutral stance on abortion, they left and formed AUWL.

Mary Ellen De Winter said that for her mother, "being pro-life was never simply a position; it was a calling. A calling to protect, to uplift, and to love without conditions, from conception to natural death."

The keynote speaker at the breakfast was Dr. Jenny Driver, associate physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

She said that when she heard the theme of this year's breakfast, "Precious In His Eyes: Living In Hope," she looked up where the phrase "precious in his eyes" appeared in the Bible. She found a notable example in Psalm 116: "Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his faithful ones."

That resonated with Driver, a geriatrician and oncologist, who has spent her career affirming life at its end.

She quoted Pope Leo's recent remarks, in his Nov. 26 general audience, that "Life risks no longer representing a gift, but an unknown, almost a threat from which to protect ourselves so as not to end up disappointed. For this reason, the courage to live and to generate life ... is today a more urgent need than ever."

"People are afraid to live. They're afraid to die. They're afraid to marry. They're afraid to have children. So they need us out there more than ever," Driver said.

She recommended and shared excerpts from "The Religion of the Day," a book published by the University of Mary, which explores the values and beliefs of modern society.

"What we see in society in general is that we went from the prerogative to love the vulnerable, the sick and the old to a hatred for poverty, sickness and aging. And the life of so many people is ruled by fear right now," Driver said.

That fear, she said, leads people to seek a sense of control. This is why groups that advocate for euthanasia exist: to give terminally ill people a sense of control over their death.

Driver shared several stories about terminally ill patients who wanted prescriptions for drugs to end their lives, only to change their minds. In one such case, she convinced the patient, a woman whose life had been full of trauma, to simply wait one month before having that conversation. In that time, the woman was visited by kind hospice volunteers and eventually returned to the faith and received the sacraments before dying a natural death.

As a Catholic working in medicine, Driver works alongside people with very different stances on some issues, but they also find values that they have in common. She encouraged the breakfast attendees to try to understand the perspectives of people who support practices like euthanasia.

"They're not immoral, they just have a different understanding of morality. It's incomplete, it's sometimes false, but they are people with whom we can have empathy and even work together on things (on which we) have common ground," Driver said.

She urged the attendees to prioritize their spiritual lives, strive for holiness, and think like the early Christians who were persecuted for their witness.

"Don't be intimidated by the culture. The worse it gets, the more our light will shine," she said.

Sylvia Fernandez del Castillo, director of the archdiocese's Pro-Life Office, also addressed the assembly at the breakfast. She said that the Gospel reading during the Mass, about how "the harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few," used to always make her think, "We need more priests."

However, she said, "Now I realize that each one of us is a laborer. And I'm so honored to be with you here today, because I know each and every one of you is a laborer and are doing what you can for our Lord."