Mark McKeon of Fresno, California is honoring the memory of his late wife with the gift to their parish church of a replica of Slovak artist Martin Hudacek’s famous post-abortion sculpture. The full-size replica is the first anywhere outside of Europe.
The dedication ceremony will be at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Fresno, California on February 25, the one-year anniversary of the death of Susan Shayne McKeon, Mark’s wife.
Mark hopes the sculpture will touch others the way it has touched him. In a beautiful tribute to Susan and her dedication as a wife, mother and hospice nurse, Mark also relates Susan’s difficulty over many years struggling to come to terms with an abortion she had had as a young woman.
“I am donating a replica of this sculpture to Holy Spirit because I believe there are many women in Susan’s exact situation who need to know that forgiveness is possible, that God’s Divine Mercy can reach even them. This sculpture spoke to me in a powerful way about that…
“I believe that when Susan left this earth, she was greeted by her loved ones, including her mother and father, and by busloads of her hospice patients whose last days of suffering she helped ease… I believe the sweetest reunion, however, was between Susan and Claire Grace (the name Susan later gave to her aborted baby). I like to believe that it looked like this statue. And that when she greeted her, Claire Grace said, “I forgive you Mommy, and God forgave you a long, long time ago. So come on! Get up and let’s go into the next room! There’s a huge banquet waiting for us, and you are the guest of honor!”
Mark’s complete tribute and reflections on the sculpture can be found on his Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/mark.mc.773/posts/10155633523338698 And is copied below in its entirety.
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Photographic images of Martin’s sculpture have been circulating widely throughout the world with very positive results, but there are only a few smaller replicas in the U.S. and Latin America. One of the smaller replicas was given to Pope Francis in 2015 who declared it, “Muy hermosa!… Muy hermosa!” (Very beautiful!)
Sculptor Martin Hudacek will be coming from Slovakia to be present for the dedication, and will be honored then for this powerful work of art.
For more information about the sculpture go to: www.4life4family.org/sculpture and www.4life4family.org/post-abortion
