Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Mobilize women who regret their abortions

January 12, 2009


Ten days to go, and we will again mobilize women who regret their abortions and men who facilitated abortions. They will stand in front of the vast crowd in Washington DC gathered for the March for Life. They will stand publicly, holding signs saying “I Regret My Abortion” and “I Regret Lost Fatherhood.”

They will be the voice that greets the new Presidential Administration and the new Congress!

Would you please help us get as many such people together as possible? There are two ways you can do that.

1. Invite anyone you know who has lost a child to abortion to join the Silent No More Awareness Campaign. This does not mean they have to “go public.” It simply means that they let themselves be counted as someone who regrets the so-called “choice” of abortion.
The place to go is www.SilentNoMoreAwareness.org


2. Join in a teleseminar tomorrow night, Tuesday January 13, from 9 to 10pm Eastern Time, to hear from the co-founders of this campaign, which is the largest mobilization of post-abortion men and women in history. Janet Morana and Georgette Forney will guide and inspire us regarding how to grow this campaign even more. Go to www.SilentNoMoreAwareness.org/conferencecall/index.aspx to sign up.

On other matters, please note:


* Our Novena in Reparation for Roe vs. Wade begins this Wednesday, January 14. Pray in spiritual preparation for January 22. See http://www.prayercampaign.org to download the prayer and sign up!

* Any parish that is willing to distribute in their parish bulletins our insert “You Can Save Someone’s Life Today” can receive from us as many as they need free of charge! See the bulletin, and how to request it, at http://www.priestsforlife.org/bulletin

* Are you organizing a bus to Washington DC for the March for Life or to San Francisco for the Walk for Life? If so, then as we have done in the past, we are offering videos that can be shown on the bus and prayer cards that can be given to each traveler. Contact Liz at our Resource Department for more details ( mailto:orders@priestsforlife.org ). Please let Liz know the video format you need (VHS or DVD), and how many different videos you may want. As for the prayer cards, let her know the quantity.

Let me also provide you with the upcoming schedules for our own TV shows and Radio programming:

Fr. Frank will host the “Pro-Life Open Forum” on Friday, January 16th at 7pm (Eastern) on Catholic Answers Live. Call in with your questions at 1-888-318-7884. Go to http://www.catholic.com for station information and to listen live on the internet.

Listen as Fr. Denis Wilde, OSA debates Kutztown University professor and pro-choice advocate Dr. Deb Sieger on Wednesday, Jan 21 at 2PM EST on KY Radio-88.3FM/1670AM - The Radio voice of Kutztown University, KUR. You can also listen on line at www.kutztown.edu.

James Pinto, Jr., MEV, National Coordinator of the Lay Missionaries of the Gospel of Life and his wife Joy Pinto, MEV will appear on Life on the Rock with hosts Father Mark Mary and Doug Barry on EWTN, Thursday, January 22, 2009 at 8pm ET. Be part of the live show by calling 1-800-221-9460 or email mailto:rock@ewtn.com . Show repeats on Friday, January 23 at 1am and 1pm and Sunday, January 25 at 11pm. For more information or to watch online see http://www.ewtn.com .

Hear us on EWTN radio on Catholic Connection with Teresa Tomeo. Fr. Frank Pavone is her guest every Wednesday at 9:30am ET and Janet Morana is her guest every Friday at 9:10am ET. For radio station information and to listen to the live show on the internet, go to http://www.avemariaradio.net .

Defending Life: Watch on EWTN every Friday at 10pm ET and Saturday at 2:30am ET. Listen on EWTN radio every Friday at 1am ET, Saturday at 6:30pm ET and Sunday at 5am ET. For more information or to listen online go to www.ewtn.com .

January 16-18: Facing Hard Truths. How brutally honest should we be with each other about difficult topics like abortion, especially when trying to help those who have had one?

January 23-25: Abortion Isn’t Medicine. Guilt is one of our most common emotions. Its relationship to abortion, across cultural and religious lines, is the topic of this discussion.

Gospel of Life: Airs on "Angel One" Channel 101 on Sky Angel IPTV and channel 262 on Dish Network every Wednesday at 11:30pm ET. It also airs on Catholic Familyland (www.familyland.tv) - Sunday at 1am, Monday at 9am, Wednesday at 3:30am and Thursday at 11:30 pm. (All Times Eastern). Listen to Gospel of Life episodes online at www.gospeloflife.com.

Week of January 11: Clergy Confront Congress

Week of January 18: King, Roe and Unity

Please tune in and spread the word! In fact, you can help us – and your whole parish -- by asking your pastor to place in the parish bulletin an announcement about our TV shows. Thanks in advance!

Blessings and prayers,
Fr. Frank Pavone

Silent No More

Fr. Frank Pavone

Priests for Life

Abuse victims often use the phrase "Silent No More" to indicate their response to being victimized. It may be surprising to some in our society that as our nation reaches another anniversary of the abortion decisions Roe vs. Wade and Doe vs. Bolton, that women from coast to coast are uniting under the banner of "Silent No More" because they have had abortions.

Not illegal "back alley" abortions, but abortions in legal “clinics.”

These women do not consider themselves freed, empowered, or ennobled because of their abortion. Rather, they testify that they were enslaved, weakened, and wounded. They were, in short, given a false promise, which is the essence of all temptation. They were told that this "procedure" would solve their problems. Instead, it brought more problems than they care to think about, namely, the whole range of physical and psychological wounds often described by the term "post-abortion syndrome."

What are these women doing to express their message? In Washington and in cities across the country, they will gather publicly at rallies and prayer events and hold signs that say, "I Regret My Abortion." The Washington gathering will, in fact, be at the steps of the Supreme Court, on the very date, January 22, that abortion was legalized.

This campaign is organized worldwide by Priests for Life and Anglicans for Life, and is the largest mobilization ever of women and men who have lost children to abortion. Along with public gatherings, they speak in legislative assemblies, in the media, and in Churches.

But why do this? If abortion is so painful, some will ask, why make a public display out of one's experience?

The answer is understood only if one knows how shameful and painful the silence of abortion is. The grief that follows abortion is, in the words of Dr. Theresa Burke, a "forbidden grief." The grief is not acknowledged; it is not validated. People don't send sympathy cards or talk about it openly. In fact, those who grieve their child killed by abortion are often made to feel silly for feeling sad. After all, they are told by society that they exercised a choice that solved a problem. Why grieve over that?

Such questions, of course, reveal a complete blindness to the fact that killing one's child hurts, and leaves a wound that Mom or Dad does not ever forget.

These men and women are tired of having pro-choice advocates pretend to speak for them. They want to tell the world, in their own words, that what is too easily celebrated as a "choice" and a "right" is in fact a painful burden.

Not every post-abortive person has found enough healing to be able to participate in these public rallies or hold these signs. But the participants in the Silent No More Awareness Campaign pray that their presence will assist their sisters on the road to healing, and give them some measure of comfort to know that their grief is no longer forbidden.

This Column can be found online at http://www.priestsforlife.org


Fr. Frank Pavone, Priests for Life