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By Priscilla Greear
Staff Writer
ATLANTA-Hundreds of Catholics gathered for a Mass at the Shrine of the
Immaculate Conception on Jan. 21 to commemorate the anniversary of the 1973
Supreme Court Roe vs. Wade decision to legalize abortion.
They came to mourn the silent slaughter of over 35 million nascent babies
resulting from that decision and to gain strength for their fight to overturn
it.
Zipping up their winter coats and putting on their armor of knitted hats and
mittens after the Mass, they braved the ripping wind and cold to join other
pro-life faithful at the Georgia Capitol. There, they participated in the
"Together for Life 2000" annual pro-life rally sponsored by Georgia
Right to Life. With somber, faithful spirits and T-shirts with signs such as
"it's a child not a choice" and "my abortion left one dead and
another wounded," participants then joined in the silent one-mile memorial
walk, suggesting the silence of a mother's womb.
Mary Boyert, archdiocesan pro-life director, commented on the significance
of the march.
"I think it's for the pro-life people to get together and pray
together, to ask the Lord to bless their efforts and stop this Holocaust. It
was not only for a public witness. It's also for the people who are
participating and then they're able to get involved in the pro-life activities.
It's wonderful to see all these priests here. That, to me, is an example to all
the churches."
The annual Mass for the Unborn, preceded by a rosary recitation, was
celebrated by Archbishop John F. Donoghue and concelebrated by some 25
archdiocesan priests. Singles and parents, many with babies and young children,
spilled out of the pews and into the aisles and the rear of the church to pray
for those who died at the hands of abortion doctors, their parents and others.
Former archdiocesan pro-life director Peggy Sinanian and Mary Ann McNeil,
founder of the Post Abortion Treatment and Healing nonprofit organization, gave
the readings. Deacon Loris Sinanian proclaimed the Gospel. Cantors Mary Welch
Rogers and Sam Hagan led the congregation in song.
In his homily, the archbishop said the Gospel story of Jairus, who mourned
his daughter's approaching death before Jesus miraculously healed her from
"the mortal wound of death," is a source of inspiration to prevent
apathy for those fighting against abortion.
"Are we now going to ignore the suffering of children dying in the
womb?--are we to sit at home and not raise a hand against this undeserved and
cruel death that marches with the protection of law across this land?--are we
to turn back before the hordes of people who say, 'Get over it, everybody has a
right to do with their own body what they want to do, it's the law of the
land?'" he said. "Or are we to look at the face of the Lord, who
turns to us, each of us, this very day, and hear Him say, 'Do not fear, only
believe?'"
The archbishop acknowledged the path they tread is rocky and long.
"The battle we fight is hard--the victims who have already fallen are
numbered in the millions, and all innocent children, murdered in what should be
the safest place on earth, the sacred womb of the mother. The numbers gathered
and organized against us are legion, and vocal and vicious in their struggle to
keep abortion legal. Why should we not fear--for the future of ourselves, our
children, and our civilization--for where there is such contempt for innocent
life in the womb, can any life really be safe, can any other right really be
protected?"
He said it is a battle against the culture of death.
"Let us renew our commitment today--to pay back just a portion of the
life He gives us, by giving some portion of our own lives, to fight the battle
for life, and against the culture of death. By prayer and example, by good
works-- by voting, and participating in the public debate--by standing with our
beloved Catholic Church and her Lord Jesus Christ, against apathy and cynicism,
and for the protection of human life as the natural and necessary basis for all
law and government."
St. Pius X High School students then carried white crosses forward with the
number of abortions performed each year since abortion became legal, ranging
from 744,600 in 1973 to 1,500,000 in 1999.
The event educated her five- and eight-year-old children, said Krista
Willis, a parishioner at St. Anna's Church, Monroe, who is also expecting
another child.
"It's very important for me to educate them ... my very little one says
things to me all the time (like) 'why don't people give their babies to people
who want them and don't kill them' so I think he does understand even though
he's only five," she said. "I'm very pro-life ... Every aspect of
(abortion) is disturbing. It's so sad to think about all those people dying
especially when there are people everywhere who want babies," Willis
added.
Willis then joined an estimated 2,500 other Catholics and other pro-lifers
at the ecumenical rally and protest march. Speakers included the archbishop and
Reba Bishop, founder of Life Decision Ministries and director of ministry
development for Macon's Sav-A-Life. Bishop spoke of her own emotional trauma
and healing following an abortion. Meanwhile, about a dozen supporters of
abortion rights gathered inside the Capitol for a news conference.
On the Capitol steps, the archbishop spoke of how Christians, Jews, Muslims
and all world faiths are united in opposition to abortion. They share common
testimony to its deadly effects on society.
"Our testimony is the same-that if we look around us, at our own
society, American society, we readily see the horrendous effects, the dire and
deadly effects that legal abortion and contempt for life has wrought in our
midst-criminals who maim and kill for pocket change-mothers and fathers who
abandon and even murder their own children-and children who take guns into
their schools, seeking the thrill of murder and mayhem..."
He said Roe vs. Wade is one of this great nation's darkest moments.
"There is no more infamous anniversary, no more despicable memory than
what we mark today-the anniversary of the decision Roe vs. Wade. The whim of
short-sighted and unfeeling judicial minds, overturning the long-held custom of
a people, and encasing in the protection of hard-to-change law, the legal
murder and holocaustic extermination of millions of infant children in the
years since that shameful day, January the 22nd, 1973-27 years of slaughter
unparalleled in human history-the slaughter of innocents, and a mounting burden
of guilt which this country will bear until the last day of recorded
time."
The archbishop envisioned an end to abortion.
"That law may persist for a time, but I hope for a time when it too
will fall-fall before the righteous anger of ever-growing numbers of citizens,
who do not wish their lives to be plagued by this evil, and who do not wish
their children to grow up thinking that it is right to destroy life when it
becomes inconvenient and burdensome," he said.
The walk for life was both a physical and spiritual exercise. Francesca
Khalaf, a St. Pius sophomore who came with about 50 other students and who
attended the Life Chain walk last fall, said, "It means a lot because
we're standing up for what we believe in. There are so many babies being killed
and I want to help out as much as I can with stuff like this. Killing babies is
wrong and all those babies that have been killed could have helped us in some
way," she said, adding that she believes a some of her peers support
abortion simply because they are uninformed.
McNeil liked Bishop's willingness to share her abortion experience.
"I just think that people who've had abortions and have been healed
need to be heard. More and more, I think people are being heard and speaking
out. It might prevent somebody else from doing the same thing or it just might
encourage somebody else to get the help they need. There are a lot of people at
this march that have had abortions," she said. "It's people that are
healing and getting the message out."
Lori Matthews, a parishioner at St. Lawrence Church, Lawrenceville, and a
PATH volunteer who had an abortion 12 years ago, also attended the Mass where
she gained strength for the pro-life journey.
"Just seeing the state Capitol filled with people--that was just so
awe-inspiring, just looking at the people just silently marching."
Matthews said she'd bottled up flashbacks and feelings of shame, depression
and guilt for years following her abortion.
"Catholic women--they know this is wrong (but) they go ahead and do
this anyway and I think that way the guilt and shame are so intense when they
do it (and) they feel they have no other choice."
She eventually began attending the Project Rachel abortion recovery program
that fostered healing as she identified with other women, studied Scripture and
learned self-forgiveness. She joined PATH because "I see so many women
that are just in so much pain. It helps hearing a friend who knows what they're
going through."
Boyert said after the rally that her next major task is to form new parish
pro-life committees and equip those in existence so that Catholics can stay
informed on the many pro-life activities such as crisis pregnancy support,
education, prayer groups and working with teens.
"That's going to be my task here (that) is to work with the pro-life
committees in the parishes and to help them to carry out the bishop's
plan."
Until abortion becomes illegal, she said, another immediate priority is
advocacy for passage in Georgia of the Woman's Right to Know Bill, which
guarantees women are told basic information about the procedure so that they
can make an informed choice.
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