Catholic pro-life advocates honored in death 39 unborn babies by giving them a proper burial last month at the Mount Olivet Cemetery in Chicago.
The Catholic News Agency reports Catholic bishops, local authorities, students and pro-lifers gathered to bless and bury the babies and 163 indigent and unidentified people whose remains were unclaimed.
The Rev. Lawrence Sullivan, director of Catholic Cemeteries of the Archdiocese of Chicago, reminded those in attendance that each individual was one of God’s children, according to the report.
“It is all our responsibility to take notice of when there is suffering, to take notice of when there is need, of when we can use the gifts given to us by God in service of one another,” Sullivan said. “We do so in the firm belief that these 202 souls have now been returned to the presence of God, where they will know the fullness of God’s peace, the fullness of God’s love.”
For many years, the archdiocese has offered its cemeteries to bury people who are ignored or rejected by society. In the past decade, 1,496 unborn babies and 2,988 adults have been buried there, including aborted babies and homeless people, according to CNA.
At the service Oct. 26, Sullivan said it’s important “to recognize the face of God not only in the beauty of nature but in the faces of all those who we meet.”
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“These are sisters and brothers. These are extended family members,” the priest said. “We not only remember these souls who have returned to God but all who are suffering, all who are feeling alienated, all who are feeling alone.”
Here’s more from the report:
Area funeral directors and other volunteers accompanied each person’s remains until the burials were completed, according to a media brief from the archdiocese. Groups of students from several Catholic high schools also attended the ceremony.
The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office is responsible for the remains of the indigent or unidentified deceased and fetal remains. The Archdiocese of Chicago Catholic Cemeteries helps to provide burials as a public service. The Cook County Funeral Directors Association, Worsham College of Mortuary Science, and Malcolm X College all helped with the burial effort.
Often, aborted babies’ bodies are discarded as medical waste or dissected and sent to scientists for research. However, some states now require that aborted babies be buried or cremated, just like other human beings.
Catholic churches and pro-life organizations have buried thousands of aborted babies across the world. According to the National Day of Remembrance for Aborted Children, there are 56 known grave sites for aborted children and hundreds of memorials for them in the U.S.
