Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor,

Ernest Ohlhoff's excellent piece in the Jan. 2002 issue of NRL News, dealing with Abortion and the Pulpit, addressed the reluctance of many pastors to preach on abortion.

Some time ago a close priest friend of mine told me of his reluctance to preach on abortion due to his experience of two women breaking into tears during his homily. I asked him to reconsider, as I am asking all pastors to so reconsider, because their gift of teaching/preaching could be extremely helpful to women and girls either considering having an abortion or who have had abortions.

The tears of the women were a sign of the hurt they continue to experience since their abortions. That hurt won't go away if pastors cease to preach on abortion. Rather it will only go away if pastors and others help the women open themselves to the healing love of God. For whatever reason, they have taken the human lives of their children - - but these children continue to exist and their mothers need to be reconciled with them. I have read several letters from women who have aborted, and who indicated healing for them came when they told their aborted child that they were sorry, that they loved their child, and that they looked forward to being reunited with their child in heaven. For Catholics, having a mass said for the child was part of their healing process and one woman wrote that she gave her child a name.

What the woman/girl who has had an abortion needs is not avoiding the matter but the love of God, and pastors can be a beautiful channel for that love to flow to her.

Pastors can be a beautiful channel as well to those women/girls who have never aborted but may be tempted to do so sometime in the future. We know the implications of an abortion: spiritually; the physical damage; and the emotional trauma, sometimes for a lifetime. Whatever can be done to spare women/girls this, needs to be done, including the pastor's call to choose life in the future.

God Bless,

Deacon Mark Gallagher

St. Mark's Catholic Church

Hyattsville, MD