The Church is clear about valuing the sanctity of life from conception until natural death, support and counseling women in crisis pregnancies, and offering post-abortive women healing through resources offered by the Church and through the mercy of God, panelists of “Justice & Mercy: A Conversation on the Realities of Abortion” expressed Monday night in the Bronx.
Organized by the Archdiocese of New York’s Office of Hispanic Ministry and Public Policy Office, the event was hosted by Alexis Carra-Tracey, Esq., of the Public Policy Office, and Fr. Richard Marrano. Pastor at St. John Chrysostom, where the bilingual panel discussion was held.
“We’re blessed in New York to have the Sisters of Life,” said Father Vincent Druding, parochial vicar at Holy Cross parish in the Bronx. He thanked God “for every person working in this pro-life movement here in the Church in New York.”
The questions addressed included: What does the Catholic Church teach about abortion? How can we help pregnant women? How can post-abortive women seek healing? What can we do to build a pro-life future in New York?
In her opening remarks, Sister Mariana Benedicta, S.V., of The Sisters of Life, said, “You are chosen by God. God chooses you. He chooses each person, each life to come into existence. Your worth doesn’t come from what you do, how much money you make, if you have (immigration) papers and are here legally or not, God loves you for you…You are looked upon with love, with mercy. And this is why as Catholics we believe in the dignity of life.”
Krismely Garcia, a panelist and patient liaison at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. “God is love; just choose the love of God…The love of God transforms,” Garcia said. She cited a moment from several years ago in the hospital emergency room, in which she guided a young woman in a crisis pregnancy toward Church resources. The young woman nevertheless later went to an abortion clinic, ready to have her baby aborted. But she thought about Garcia’s guiding words, left the clinic and carried the baby to term.
Nicole Moore, director of Pregnancy Help, Inc. a crisis pregnancy center in Lower Manhattan, also sat on the panel. Moore noted that many of the center’s clients go there “because they think they’re not loved, they don’t feel love in their lives; they don’t feel support.” She said that when we encounter someone in this situation (daughters, sisters, friends…), “we need to tell them: you are loved. God loves you.
”In an interview after the meeting, Maria Pena, 53, an attendee who is a parishioner of St. John Chrysostom, told The Good Newsroom that she’s pro-life but had not previously participated in the cause. “I definitely will now,” Pena said in her native Spanish, noting that she learned a great deal during the Justice and Mercy gathering.