Reclaiming Our Children: A Blog About Healing After Abortion

on the "Afternoon of Prayerful Remembrance"

Before marching, prayer

Some religious and pro-life supporters spent the afternoon before the March for Life in prayer at the National Shrine.

Prior to last Thursday’s March for Life, a group of Sisters of Life
and representatives from Lumina/Hope and Healing after Abortion held an
afternoon of prayerful remembrance and intercession last Wednesday in
the Crypt Church of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the
Immaculate Conception in Washington.

Called “Healing the Hidden Wounds of Abortion,” the program
focused on prayer, forgiveness and reflection on the widespread pain
that abortion causes — not just to the child’s parents, but to
grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles and friends. More than 49 million
abortions have been performed in the United States since the passage of
Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, in 1973.

“The devastation to the unborn is obvious, but the far-reaching
implications are often not realized in a society where we’d rather not
think about what’s going on,” said Theresa Bonopartis, director of
Lumina. “It would be too overwhelming. We live in denial of the real
impact of one abortion — never mind thinking of over 49 million.”

“We have all been affected by the loss of each individual
child,” said Sister of Life Sister Lucy Marie, respect life coordinator
for the Archdiocese of New York, where the sisters are located. “We
gather together … acknowledging abortion’s universal impact.”

Presided over by Franciscan Friar of the Renewal Father Mariusz
Koch, the service included reflections, talks, adoration, benediction
and Mass. Though similar events had been held for several years in the
Archdiocese of New York, this was the first in Washington.

“This afternoon we come into your presence to be reminded of
your love, to be consoled by it, to be encouraged by it and to be
healed by it,” Father Koch said in the opening prayer. “We come in
humility, we come in our weakness, we come in our brokenness. But we
come in confidence in that love that is present in our midst this
afternoon.”

“As we reflect on the pain and suffering abortion causes, let
us also be thankful for the merciful warmth of (God’s) healing love
that makes our souls and all things new,” said Susan Wills, assistant
director for education and outreach of the U.S. Conference of Catholic
Bishops.

Holding a rosary in her hand, kneeling in the shine’s crypt, it
was Kinslow Bailey’s prayer that women “rethink” — both the choice to
have abortions and the choice to engage in pre-marital sex in the first
place. The children given up may be their only ones, Bailey said.
Instead, she said, she hopes women consider “another option — a better
option.”