One day, about three years ago, while I was stationed at the cathedral basilica, I received a startling phone call in my office. On the line was a young lady: desperate, tearful, frightened. She told me she needed help and she was near the cathedral. Now, we received calls on the phone and at our door constantly, with most people asking for money and rejecting any other type of assistance. Dealing with this on a daily basis can make you a little hardened and skeptical when someone tells you that they need something. Because of this experience, I was already on guard and prepared to tell her to call the St. Vincent de Paul society and wait for them to contact her. I asked where she was and what I specifically could do to help her. She told me that she was sitting in the parking lot of the planned parenthood on the corner of Forest Park Parkway and Boyle Avenue, about a half mile away. She was pregnant and alone and could not see how she could provide for this child. An abortion seemed like the most logical choice and the best solution to her unplanned pregnancy. But this young woman had a conscience that was making her hesitate. And she had a maternal instinct that told her that somehow, this just wasn’t right, that what was happening inside of her was life, human life.
As I listened to her predicament, I had chills going up and down my spine. I asked her to please leave that parking lot right away and come to the cathedral so that we could work something out. By the grace of God, she left Planned Parenthood and came to my office. Her needs were indeed real, substantial and not easily or quickly resolved. There was no way she, by herself, would be able to provide for the baby that was being formed in her womb. I could see why she felt that abortion was the way out. Although she didn’t realize it, that young woman’s call and visit to my office that day challenged me to consider what I myself was willing to sacrifice in order to stand up for life.
After listening to her story, I put her in contact with one of the pregnancy crisis centers that we are blessed to have in St. Louis. They helped her come up with a plan for her pregnancy and prepared her for the task of taking care of this newborn baby. They offered her counseling to support her in straightening things out in her life and in her relationships. They also helped her find other charities that provide clothing, food, and other essential items for both moms and babies. While this addressed her immediate needs and fears, this young woman had significant financial challenges that also had to be addressed. Through prayer and the help of generous people, we found some donors who helped with her bills and payed down her debt. I promised to cover her transportation expenses until she was back on her feet and working. In the end, she gave birth to a beautiful, healthy, baby girl. I felt privileged to be invited to the hospital afterwards to hold the baby and share in the mother’s joy. And I couldn’t help but marvel at how many good, pro-life people played a part in making it possible for her to carry this child to term and choose life instead of the seemingly easier path that abortion promised. All of the financial sacrifices that I had made to help this woman were completely worth it in that single moment.
But in the midst of this joy, I also felt sadness. This baby girl was lucky; her mom had hesitated before walking through the doors of Planned Parenthood, her mom had reached out for help before doing something that was irreversible and tragic. How many other babies that day had not been so lucky? How many young lives were lost because their moms didn’t know about crisis pregnancy centers or didn’t think to call a church or maybe just didn’t have a person that cared enough to help them find an alternative to abortion?
This past Tuesday marked the 40th anniversary of legalization of abortion in this country. In those 40 years, some 55 million babies have been killed and countless moms and dads have been wounded and haunted by a decision that was supposed to make their lives easier. Every day around 3200 abortions are performed in our country. To put that in perspective, that’s the equivalent of 160 Sandy Hook Elementary shootings taking place every day for forty years. But numbers alone don’t fully convey the horror of abortion. In each and every case there is the loss of an innocent life that was meant to be something unique, lovable, and beautiful. Each and every one of those 55 million babies was intended by God to be born, to have birthday parties, to be a brother or sister, to go to school, to make friends, cure diseases, and start families of their own. And while the unborn are the ones most profoundly wronged by abortion, the living suffer from this evil as well. Whether they be the mother or father, grandma or grandpa of the unborn child, a nurse or doctor performing the procedure, all who participate in the taking of innocent life, even the society as a whole, is damaged with every baby aborted. 55 million people, 55 million fellow U.S. citizens are missing and have not been given the opportunity to contribute to the fabric of this nation!
In many ways I know I am preaching to the choir. I have been impressed by the pro-life spirit that is present here at St. Joe’s. I can tell you that there was a much more divided congregation at the cathedral when it came to this issue, which I still cannot understand, that some people consider themselves Catholic and still advocate for abortion.
What I want to ask you to reflect on today is not just the overwhelming stats or the evil nature of abortion; you already know these things. Rather, I want to ask each of you to consider what you are doing to make sure the evil of abortion is eliminated from our country. What sacrifices are you willing to make? How hard are you prepared to pray? How far will you agree to go in order to reach out to those considering an abortion or those struggling and hurting after their decision to terminate the young life entrusted to them. There are many ministries devoted to saving the lives of the unborn and protecting men and women who think that abortion is their only option. You and I need to support those ministries like Birthright, Thrive, Our Lady’s Inn, Coalition for Life, and Mary Queen of the Angels, to name a few in this area. We need to support them, whether that be through the sharing of our time as a volunteer, with our material resources, with our prayers, or by knowing what they do and where they are, in case someone ever comes to us in need. I wanted to share my personal story of helping someone choose life because it helped me to see that to be truly pro-life, means sacrifice and commitment. We must get involved in the struggle to save lives that are incredibly real, just like that baby, who is now two years old and brings a smile to my face whenever I get to see her. We cannot think of the issue simply in terms of numbers or laws or arguments.
My prayer today is that the many pro-life people of this parish and in this country take up an even more active role in the struggle to end abortion and restore the right of every human person to be born. May none of us run away from our responsibility to protect these innocent lives and promote the dignity that is theirs. My hope for all of you is that you will be as blessed as I was three years ago to see how beautiful and delicate life really is. And that in a very special way you will believe and embrace the potential each of you can have in building up a culture of life. May God bless the work before us and use us to bring about the only choice that really matters: choose life!
