Reclaiming Our Children: A Blog About Healing After Abortion

This year, the Sisters of Life celebrates its twentieth birthday. The Sisters of Life is a religious order established in 1991. They exist “to protect and enhance the sacredness of every human life.” If you visit the Sisters of Life’s website, you will read stories about pregnant women receiving help from the compassionate nuns, either at one of the housing facilities they provide, or in the form of strollers and baby clothes. The website paints a pretty picture of nuns in their habits, but it is a very incomplete picture at best.

The language that the Sisters of Life use may seem woman-centric on the surface, but if you dig a little deeper, you realize that they are only concerned with the fetus, not the woman. The tactics they use are very similar to those at crisis pregnancy centers. When women approach them for help, they are given biased information against abortion and are only offered assistance if they continue their pregnancy.

Sisters of Life currently serve under the supervision of Archbishop Timothy Dolan, who is the president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. The archbishop has been very vocal about his positions on birth control and abortion. During his installation as the president of the USCCB, he stated that he would use the post to “to embrace and protect the dignity of every human person, the sanctity of human life, from the tiny baby in the womb to the last moment of natural passing into eternal life.” Archbishop Dolan and the USCCB have been in the news recently criticizing the Department of Health and Human Services’ announcement that it supports no co-pay birth control, despite the HHS exception for religious hospitals and insurance programs.

I think it’s important to compare Sisters of Life to the group Catholics for Choice, which serves as “a voice for Catholics who believe that the Catholic tradition supports a woman’s moral and legal right to follow her conscience in matters of sexuality and reproductive health.” Catholics for Choice argues that abortion and birth control are a matter of individual conscience, and that each woman has the ability to make her own decisions about what is best for her health and her family.

I’m not a Catholic myself, but I really respect the work of Catholics for Choice. They use Catholic theology to justify their position, and they educate pro-choice advocates about the best way to reach out to the Catholic community. CFC trusts and respects women, while the Sisters of Life assume that the Pope ultimately knows what’s best for women’s lives.

Although I think it’s commendable that the nuns who belong to Sisters of Life have dedicated their lives to serving others, I think their message cannot be taken at face value. Abortion and birth control are ultimately a personal decision. The fact that 98% of Catholic women say that they have used some form of birth control should be a sign to the Catholic hierarchy that they are out of touch with their parishioners’ lives.

my response:

Well, it is beyond obvious that the person who wrote the above post knows nothing about the Sisters of Life. Perhaps a little research would prove advantageous before posting!

In addition to helping countless women have their children, for 15 years, I,along with the Sisters have ministered to women who have been lied to and have had emotional, spiritual and physical damage as a result of a prior abortion. I know you do not like to hear it, but there are countless numbers of us out here.

You also say “Catholics for Choice argues that abortion and birth control are a matter of individual conscience, and that each woman has the ability to make her own decisions about what is best for her health and her family.” In case you did not know,if you support abortion, you are not truly Catholic, so they can call themselves anything they want, but they do not live the Catholic faith.

One has to wonder why it disturbs you so much that these Sisters are aiding pregnant women…I thought you were for free choice every woman’s ability to make her own decision? These women want their babies.

You say the Sisters think the pope knows what women want, well, you obviously think you know too, but you do not because you certainly do not speak for me as a post abortive person, nor the thousands of other women we have served in our post abortion ministry.

In reality, your name says it all..The “Abortion Gang”!

 Ok..technically I stand corrected in my post by my friend Ed 🙂

One suggestion.  It's not really accurate to say that one ceases to be a Catholic if one is "pro-choice". 

 Incorporation in the Church is a consequence of our Baptism, which is indelible. Once a Catholic always a Catholic, unless you make an affirmative public act to defect from the Church (which is surprisingly hard to do, under the Canon Law).  

 Those baptized Catholics who disagree with the Church in matters of belief (e.g., those who believe that it's morally acceptable to kill children) are usually not in that situation.  They remain Catholic, but their communion with the Church (and thus with God) is impaired. 

 The USCCB, in its document "Happy are Those Who are Called to His Supper", but it this way:

 As Catholics we believe what the Church authoritatively teaches on matters of faith and morals, for to hear the voice of the Church, on matters of faith and morals, is to hear the voice of Christ himself.  To give selective assent to the teachings of the Church not only deprives us of her lifegiving message, but also seriously endangers our communion with her….  If a Catholic in his or her personal or professional life were knowingly and obstinately to reject the defined doctrines of the Church, or knowingly and obstinately to repudiate her definitive teaching on moral issues, however, he or she would seriously diminish his or her communion with the Church.

 In fact, the Holy See has said that even an act of heresy, apostasy, or schism, by itself, is not enough to constitute a formal act of defection from the Church.