Pro-life Pumpkin

In honor of the 353 babies spared from abortion through 40 Days for Life I carved this pro-life pumpkin.

Well done, Church Militant!

Please pray for Bernadette Kelly and her family

Please pray for a homeschooling mother from NJ who is scheduled to deliver her daughter tomorrow by c-section. The baby, who has already been named Bernadette Kelly, is not expected to live long. She has anancephaly and the diagnosis has been known for some time. The mom's name is Barbara. Barbara has four other daughters. She is scheduled to have the c-section at 1pm.
Please pray for this family tomorrow and for the near future as they travel their own road to Calvary.
Thank you

Many of you have been praying for Stacy

During the fall 40 Days for Life campaign, we sentout a prayer request for a couple named Stacey and Joe Persichetti, and their unborn son, John. Stacey, the mother, had been diagnosed with serious brain cancer. During the course of hertreatment, it was discovered that she was pregnant.
The family and their doctors tried to determine how best to treat her and Baby John.Throughout the entire ordeal, Stacey selflessly demonstrated a willingness to risk her own life togive her baby a chance to live.Thousands of people around the world have been praying for the Persichettis, and we asked thefamily for an update.
We received this tragic news from Stacey: "John Christian was born on Saturday, November 3rd and lived only for a short time. He was beautiful and we were able to have him baptized and hold him for a few minutes. Thank you for all the support and love that have been showered on us during this time. Our consolation is that we have a saint waiting and interceding for us."Not long after Stacey and Joe experienced the darkness of the loss of Baby John, God provided them with a glimmer of light.
Stacey e-mailed me a few days ago to say: "After over a year of treatment, the doctors at Duke see no signs of cancer and have officially ended all treatments. They are very optimistic about my prognosis and will continue to monitor me. God has been with us through this journey and I see firsthand His love. Thank you again for the many prayers."

Have you lost an unborn child?

I have lost three children to early miscarriage, on St. Patrick's Day, Good Friday, and St. Padre Pio's Day. Why do I know the dates? Because these children will always remain part of me until I can see them in heaven.
If you have had difficulty finding books to read while mourning your little ones, you might find comfort in Karen Garver Santorum's book, "Letters to Gabriel". In it, she published her actual journal entries during her pregnancy with her son Gabriel, whom she lost due to an infection caused by inter uterine surgery to save him from a fatal anomaly. The extraordinary lengths which Karen and her husband Senator Rick Santorum went through to save Gabriel's life while the Senator was defending the Partial-Birth Abortion ban, is truly poignant. The babies killed by this gruesome procedure, were the same gestational age as the Santorum's son, who was fighting to live. Once, during a particularly tense moment of Senator Santorum's speech, the cry of a baby pierced the silence of the Senate chamber. Senator Santorum felt it was the voice of Gabriel, pleading for innocent lives.
Gabriel's brief life was full of love from his family, and his legacy, which we now see, is the uplifting of the dignity of all human life, and the eventual decision by the Supreme Court to uphold the Partial-birth abortion ban.
Thank you, Senator and Mrs. Santorum, for allowing us a look into this most painful episode of your private life, in order to give us a glimpse of true courage in suffering.

Baby Pictures

Images of Fetal Development
The following images were presented to Fr. Frank Pavone, at the time he was working at the Vatican, by a team of experts from Poland. The experts presented them also to Pope John Paul.
Priests for Life is grateful to Professor Andrzej Skawina (Collegium Medicum Jagiellonian University, Krakow) and Dr. Antoni Marsinek, MD (Czerwiakowski Gynecological and Obstetrics Hospital, Krakow) for making these images available, and to the Zrodlo Foundation, Wychowawca Department, for the permission to use them.
We encourage pro-life groups and individuals to use these images, keeping in mind the words that pollster Harrison Hickman spoke to the 1989 conference of the National Abortion Rights Action League,

"Nothing has been as damaging to our cause as the advances in technology which have allowed pictures of the developing fetus, because people now talk about that fetus in much different terms than they did fifteen years ago. They talk about it as a human being, which is not something that I have an easy answer how to cure."

Pray for an end to abortion.