Friday, August 15, 2014

September 13 Marks National Day of Remembrance for Aborted Children at Gravesites





 
Citizens for a Pro-life Society, Priests for Life, and Pro-life Action League Host Memorials

Contact: Tom Ciesielka, TC Public Relations, 312-422-1333, tc@tcpr.net

MEDIA ADVISORY, Aug. 11, 2014 /Christian Newswire/ -- The National Day of Remembrance for Aborted Children on Saturday, September 13, 2014, was first marked in the modern era last fall, but memorialization of society's tiniest innocent victims is not a new idea. Citizens for a Pro-life Society, Priests for Life, and the Pro-life Action League have reached back to ancient Rome for the inspiration behind this solemn national event. Dug into the walls of the earliest Christian catacombs in the outskirts of Rome are countless small tombs, only a foot or two across. These are the burial places of infants cast out of their pagan homes and left to die of starvation and exposure - a common practice of that time. Members of the early church, charged by Christ to love all their neighbors, offered these newborn sacrifices to Roman cruelty the only act of love they could - that of burying their little bodies and mourning for them in prayer.

This tradition of mercifully burying abandoned children continues in our own day with the National Day of Remembrance for Aborted Children, taking place on September 13. Mourners across the country will visit the gravesites of aborted children, whose broken bodies were recovered from trash dumpsters and pathology labs and solemnly buried over the four decades of legal abortion in the United States.

Under the director of three national pro-life groups - Citizens for a Pro-life Society, Priests for Life, and the Pro-life Action League - simultaneous memorial services will be held at more than forty such gravesites, as well as at scores of other memorial markers set up in memory of the aborted unborn at churches and cemeteries.

Eric Scheidler, Executive Director of the Pro-life Action League, stated, "It's sobering to realize that grave markers for the unborn victims of abortion list only a date of burial. They have no birthdays because they were never allowed to be born. We can list no date of death, because those who killed them discarded their bodies like garbage. But they are not garbage to us. They are our brothers and sisters. That's why we buried them, and that's why we visit their graves to mourn for them and testify to their humanity."

Monica Miller, Director of Citizens for a Pro-life Society, added, "Since 1973, 55 million innocent unborn children have been killed with the sanction of law. A fraction of these victims of the American slaughter have actually been buried. The graves of these victims are scattered across America - graves of sorrow and graves of indictment on a nation that permitted the killing of the innocent. As we visit these graves on September 13, we call upon our nation to remember these victims and bring an end to the injustice of abortion."

"Abortion is not an abstract issue," explained Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life. "Having a memorial service where these babies are buried reminds us that abortion is not merely about beliefs, but about bloodshed; not just about viewpoints, but victims. By visiting the graves of the aborted unborn, we allow our hearts to be broken for them, and we recommit ourselves to protecting other children from suffering the same fate."

The first National Day of Remembrance was held last September on the 25th anniversary of the solemn burial of several hundred abortion victims in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Prayer services were held at over 100 locations, with thousands of mourners participating. Response was so great that the National Day of Remembrance has been established as an annual event, to be held on the second Saturday each September.

For more information about the National Day of Remembrance, including the stories behind the gravesites of aborted children and the locations of memorial services being held September 13, visit AbortionMemorials.com.

To arrange an interview with Monica Miller, Eric Scheidler, or Fr. Frank Pavone, contact Tom Ciesielka at tc@tcpr.net or 312.422.1333.

Learn more about the sponsoring organizations by visiting their respective websites:

Citizens for a Pro-Life Society: http://ProLifeSociety.com
Citizens for a Pro-life Society is an activist organization, founded on Catholic principles of morality and social justice, dedicated to advocacy of the sanctity of human life, especially protection of the right to life of unborn children through the organization of public demonstrations, pickets, educational programs, literature distribution, conferences, seminars, workshops and lectures as well as reaching out to mothers in crisis pregnancy and offering them material and spiritual aid. The organization's goal is to work to end the culture of death and restore a culture of life, to re-establish respect for human life created in the image and likeness of God.

Priests for Life:
PriestsForLife.org
Priests for Life works to galvanize the clergy to preach, teach, and mobilize their people more effectively in the effort to end abortion and euthanasia. Priests for Life also represents a family of ministries that reach and enrich every aspect of the pro-life movement, for clergy and laity alike, in a wide variety of activities via Gospel of Life Ministries, which include Deacons for Life, Seminarians for Life, Missionaries of the Gospel of Life, Rachel's Vineyard (post-abortion healing), Silent No More, African-American Outreach, Hispanic Outreach, Stand True Ministries (youth outreach), Parliamentary Network for Critical Issues (civic action), Life on the Line (radio, television, and internet broadcasts), Prayer Campaign, Political Responsibility, Networking Leaders.

Pro-Life Action League:
ProLifeAction.org
The Pro-Life Action League was founded by Joe Scheidler in 1980 with the aim of saving babies from abortion through direct action. Not content to await a political or judicial solution to abortion, the League seeks to stop the killing of unborn children right now through all available peaceful means, including public protest, sidewalk counseling, education, youth outreach, and national leadership.