Standing for Those Who Have No Voice
Layered rain clouds, dark and threatening, were poised above the Greater Boston Planned Parenthood on Commonwealth Avenue on August 22, 2015. The sky above signaled for me the sad state of aborting our unborn children. The complicated issue of denying the right to life drew thousands of concerned citizens—young and old, black and white, Asian and Hispanic—to participate in hundreds of rallies across the nation. Sister Tania Santander Atauchi—director of religious education for St. Paul's Catholic Church in Hingham, Massachusetts—participated in the rally with her parish and invited me—a long-time advocate of the Right to Life movement—to join her. As witnesses, we stood, all of us, to denounce Planned Parenthood's mission of promoting abortions. Reverent prayers and songs, interspersed with occasional speakers, kept the focus of the crowd on the seriousness of the vigil.
Recent appalling public videos exposing the practice of selling body parts of aborted children for profit has jarred awake the consciences of the American people. To defund this organization of millions of government money is the cry heard everywhere. Congress needs to act and reapportion tax payer money to clinics who believe in the sanctity of life guaranteed in our U.S. Constitution in the Bill of Rights. As Sisters of Divine Providence, daughters of Bishop Ketteler whose Charism of Justice and Compassion is for the most vulnerable of God's people, we embrace this opportunity to prayerfully stand in protest. We cannot allow this inhuman practice to continue.
