By Sister Patricia Marie

Forty years of legalized abortion have desensitized people in our country to the massive horrors of millions of abortions. It has offered a quick “solution” to a human problem that destroys the human person instead of embracing the human in love: mother, father and baby.

How do we face these challenges? We must support one another in prayer and work together in a spirit of cooperation. These challenges require great courage and trust in God to remain strong and faithful.

♦ Be the bright candle in these dark times. The more candles there are, the lighter the world becomes. ♦ Be a person of hope. Stay strong in your beliefs. ♦ Stand your ground. Be at peace with who you are and what you believe. Be a joyful believer who radiates the gifts and truth given us by God to others. ♦ Be merciful. Blessed John Paul II wrote “True mercy is … the most profound source of justice.”

Love is the most powerful tool to win the victory of the culture of life. This mercy and love must extend to all people — the ones who are wounded by the culture of death, and the misguided ones who promote the culture of death.

It is easy to lose sight of personal responsibility and personal morality. If the state says these attacks on life are legal, and society says there is no reason to grieve the loss of this human child, then how are the wounded to find their way to legitimate grieving, to healing, to wholeness?

The wounds become even deeper because people are lied to by professionals. In the anonymity of the assembly line, the patient becomes a non-person and the professionals want nothing to do with their pain and suffering afterwards.

Not only do women and men suffer from the trauma of the abortion itself, but many try to deaden the pain through addictions, and many suffer from depression, anxiety and isolation. The rate of suicide is much higher for women after abortion.

When a husband and wife decide to abort their own child, the internal bond of marriage is broken by mistrust and betrayal of the gift of total giving one to another. A mother’s relationship with her own child is broken through a choice for abortion. The bond of trust between doctor and patient is broken by the choice for abortion. Siblings may suffer from survivor guilt.

There are so many men and women suffering from the wounds of abortion who are afraid to come forward for help. They are ashamed, they are afraid of being rejected, they are fearful of being judged. They are in our families, in our places of work, in the grocery store where we shop, in our church pews on Sunday, in our neighborhood.

As people of life, we are called to create an atmosphere of welcome. The wounded need mercy, love, forgiveness, understanding and compassion now more than ever. We are already into the third generation of legalized abortion. The acceptance of this evil is carried from one generation to the next, through denial and failure to admit the sacredness of the human child in the womb.

People need someone who will listen to them without judgment, accept them as a person of great worth, as one for whom there is great hope to enter into the joys of life again, of human relationships.

The culture of life starts with each one of us. Be ambassadors for the love of life; promote life-giving attitudes and activities. Free up your energies for life; don’t be overwhelmed by the darkness that is around us.

We are guaranteed that God’s love and grace are greater than any evil. We are called to live in the victory of the cross of Christ by promoting the culture of life. The culture decayed little by little, day by day. It will be healed and restored little by little, day by day.

This column is excerpted from a speech given by Sister Patricia Marie, R.G.S., director of Heart of Mercy Post-Abortion Healing Ministry in Baltimore, at the National Right to Life Convention in Dallas. Contact her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. document.getElementById('cloak04a1a04dc6c735be78831e9445ad6d4b').innerHTML = ''; var prefix = 'ma' + 'il' + 'to'; var path = 'hr' + 'ef' + '='; var addy04a1a04dc6c735be78831e9445ad6d4b = 'heartofmercy' + '@'; addy04a1a04dc6c735be78831e9445ad6d4b = addy04a1a04dc6c735be78831e9445ad6d4b + 'heartofmercygs' + '.' + 'org'; var addy_text04a1a04dc6c735be78831e9445ad6d4b = 'heartofmercy' + '@' + 'heartofmercygs' + '.' + 'org';document.getElementById('cloak04a1a04dc6c735be78831e9445ad6d4b').innerHTML += ''+addy_text04a1a04dc6c735be78831e9445ad6d4b+''; .

Posted July 16, 2013