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Alejandra Correa, The Pastoral Call for Post-Abortion Healing and Reconciliation in the U.S.

The Response to a Need: Project Rachel

We have seen that PAS affects many women in many situations at any given time of their lives. We have also seen that Catholic women who seem to have strong convictions may still come to have an abortion and suffer negative reactions as well. Although up until now we have generally looked at the affects of abortion on any woman, herein I would like to focus on Catholic women. Although the program we will be looking at helps all women who seek healing and reconciliation I will focus on their Catholic outreach. Essentially this program was the Church's response to its own call of healing and reconciliation. It was founded by and for the Church's faithful to help them return to the sacraments. From here on I will refer to the studied program as "ministry." Ministry is defined by the Catechism of the Catholic Church as a "lay apostolate" made up of a lay individual or a lay group association that works to spread the divine message of salvation.1

1. The beginnings of Project Rachel

A little over ten years after the 1975 USCCB plan, Vicki Thorn, the Director for Respect Life in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, began to coordinate efforts that would soon bring about what is known today as "Project Rachel" (PR), a ministry of the USCC. While the USCCB had written about the affects of abortion, she had personally witnessed the consequences on many women for over a decade. In addition, in working for Respect Life she had already seen the other parts of the plan, the educational and legislative, already taking shape. But at a certain point she found herself concerned with how the healing and reconciliation aspect of the plan would be applied. Furthermore, she had first handedly witnessed a friend who had both placed a child for adoption and aborted another. This friend had come to express to Thorn how she could admit to live with the adoption but she could not bear to live with the abortion.2 Thorn knew that like her friend, many women were searching for healing and reconciliation from their abortion experience. All of this would help spur efforts and make the USCCB call a reality.

Thorn began inquiring those who were at the source of healing and reconciliation, priests and therapists. She noted different experiences priests were having with abortion in the confessional. She wrote: "The overwhelming response was that indeed they had encountered it and that they did not feel satisfied that they knew enough to truly be of help to the woman."3 She realized that many priests were not only uncomfortable with abortion but in many cases they had never been informed as to how to help aborted women through the sacrament of reconciliation. Many priests were not aware of the "far-reaching consequences" of abortion on women both psychologically and spiritually.

Next Thorn approached several therapists. She examined some of their encounters with aborted women. Here too she found that many were "confused and conflicted" when faced with aborted women whom were looking for an answer to their suffering, something that was not acknowledged by society.4 From this point Thorn's initiative was straightforward. She knew that one of the keys to helping aborted women would be to train and educate priests and therapists on post-abortion. The other aspect, which would be the corner stone of a healing program, would be its centering on the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

2. What is Project Rachel?

PR is "first and foremost based on a sacramental model and not a psychotherapeutic model."5 It is recognized as the post-abortion healing and reconciliation ministry of the USCC. As the first of its kind, PR sought to reconcile all women who had come to regret their abortion with God, the Church, their child and ultimately with themselves. At the same time it was designed as a holistic effort that would also integrate psychological aspects of healing.6 It would combine the healing graces of Christ through the sacraments with the healing tools of psychotherapy. It would be a complete healing of both body and soul where the woman would have a place to grieve her loss and ask for forgiveness. The reconciliation aspect made it unique. Indispensable to PR were the healing graces of the Sacrament of Reconciliation and the Word of God.

2.1. Importance of Scripture

PR is also based on the richness of Sacred Scripture. In every part of the healing journey there is reference to Scripture. It is essential in bringing the solid foundation of the Church's teaching to the woman. As John Paul the II pointed out in Evangelium Vitae: the formation of conscience and education are essential in building a renewed "culture of life". PR helps to bring this formation and education to aborted women. The Sacred Word becomes a healing tool. The training manual given to PR team members refers to hundreds of scripture passages that can help the woman identify her pain and suffering with many characters from both the Old and New Testament. Through a series of worksheets and scriptural meditations the woman is able to appreciate the richness and hope found in God's living Word.

Fr. Michael Mannion, a priest who has extensively written on post-abortion healing and reconciliation, indicates that women who come to PR should compose her story in light of the Word of God. "It is helpful if at first the story is written, then told, and perhaps even retold, each time identifying its events with comparable scriptural events."7 In identifying with different scripture passages the woman begins to find truth and hope in her own story. Her going deeper into her own struggle with faith, truth and life can help her to find her path to reconciliation with God. Scripture can open up the first encounter with the living God that may eventually lead her to reconciliation. Scripture is an integral part of the message of PR and also the healing process.

The name "Project Rachel" is also scripturally based. Rachel was taken from Jeremiah 31, 15-17 in the Book of Consolation. Rachel, who is 'the ancestor of the deported tribe of Benjamin'in the Northern Kingdom, is found mourning the loss of her children who are no more. The passage indicates a hope found in returning from exile and a more underlying meaning of the conversion of oneself.8 The Lord brings a message of hope to Rachel by telling her to cease her lamenting. He declares a new hope for her future where her children will return to their homeland (Jer. 31, 16-17). It is this message of hope that PR gives. It becomes an invitation to return to God and invitation to conversion of heart. Integral to this is the Sacrament of Reconciliation and the priests that dispense this sacrament in the name of Christ.

2. 2 Project Rachel and priests.

In their 1985 plan, the USCCB posed a special call to all priests. They declared that priests have a "privileged opportunity to serve others by offering the unconditional and efficacious love of Christ in the sacrament of penance and fostering conversion and healing in women and men who have been involved in the destruction of innocent human life. They asked that clergy education should reflect this reality, especially by training seminarians and priests to understand the painful experience of women who have had abortions."9 PR had already noticed priest's privileged opportunity. In fact, Thorn was aware that not only were the priests vital to PR but that PR in many ways was essential to priests.

Thorn explains in a recent phone interview:

Project Rachel also enhances the priesthood and the lives of priests. It is perhaps as much for them as for women. There are priests who are still priests today because they took one last phone call before leaving the priesthood and it was from a Project Rachel woman. Because they felt they couldn't abandon her, they stayed to help her and in that staying rediscovered what the priesthood meant to them and why they loved it. Priests say most eloquently that "this" is what they were ordained to do-help the sinner come home and experience the unconditional love and mercy of God. Is it not just like God to start a ministry for women and men broken by abortion, but also for His priests?10

PR also gives the opportunity for priests and therapists to come together in alliance. Where otherwise these two worlds would rarely convene, PR gives them the chance to learn from one another in their experiences in dealing with aborted women. This occasion provides them with an understanding of PAS and all it entails both spiritually and psychologically.

There is also another element of healing that usually goes unnoticed, that therapists and priests discover together: many women are also healed of their wounded outlook on the male figure. Therapists understand that many aborted women are wounded by a husband, boyfriend, father or employer. There are deep psychological ramifications to these past unhealthy relationships that are made more acute through the wound of abortion. Here, priests enter a crucial role in their being men. Thorn notes: "for the aborted woman, this may be the first gentle, compassionate man she has ever encountered. His presence in her healing journey may facilitate the resolution of the hate she has toward men as a result of the abortion."11 This 'grudge'against man was something that Wojtyla had already pointed out in "Love and Responsibility."12 Through PR, therapists and priests can work together in understanding past wounds that may have been a great factor in the abortion experience.

2.2. The goals

In 1993, at a Post-Abortion Healing Summit that was held in Washington DC, the participants, among them Rue, Fr. Mannion and Vicki Thorn, wrote out their Vision and Principles. They declared the:

"uniqueness and depth of post-abortion aftermath" and compiled the USCC's response by listing the goals of PR. They wrote: "Project Rachel (1) seeks to help heal women, men, siblings, family members, abortion survivors and abortion providers who have been damaged by the experience; (2) is dedicated to assisting clergy, religious, therapists, and lay people to become more effective in their ministry to victims of abortion; (3) promotes research into root causes and evaluates results to determine the most effective methods of treatment; (4) works to raise awareness of the total Church community to their responsibility of leading and supporting victims of abortion during their ongoing healing journey; (5) is ultimately concerned with spiritual healing: the Sacrament of Reconciliation, integration into the full life of the Church, and spiritual support.13

There are many other important aspects of PR which make it unique. Here we will list some of them. PR has a confidential referral system. Because PR is a diocesan based program rather than parish based it allows for women to keep their anonymity and receive healing from priests and therapists outside their parish community. There is also an element of respect and confidentiality for priest's who serve through PR. For reasons of harassment, abuse, gossip and general availability of priests, the list of priests involved is kept strictly confidential. Furthermore, all staff, whether clergy, therapists, lay or religious are professionally trained rather then volunteers. This allows for the necessary professional care that aborted women need on a one-to-one basis rather than in a group setting.

Furthermore, each woman is assigned to a priest and or therapist according to her particular situation and needs. PR recognizes that aborted women cannot be labeled or stereotyped and that each one has her own history and is at a different stage of grieving. This is what allows PR to be so successful in both its outreach and healing. In addition, in 1990 PR established the National Office of Post-Abortion Reconciliation and Healing (NOPARH) which began to provide referrals for women from around the nation. This was a huge success in allowing more women to tap into the richness of PR, eventually leading many back home to the Catholic Church. Consequently PR began to stem out into other outreach programs.

In 1990, a letter from the Vatican was addressed to a PR outreach program called "Healing Vision Conference". In the letter was written:

His Holiness wishes to offer encouragement to those who are seeking to study the consequences of abortion for individuals and for society and striving to respond compassionately to those whose lives bear the moral and psychological scars of a decision to terminate the life of an unborn child. He is confident that the conference will create a deeper understanding of this great moral wound in the heart of modern society and will help lead all people of good will to guarantee the right to life and protect the human person... from conception until natural death.14

This letter helped to confirm that all the determined efforts that had been undertaken for so long in post-abortion research were not in vain. It gave hope in that the Universal Church herself believed that this could ultimately lead to bringing women and 'people of good will'renewed hope and a new vision on the sanctity of life. Let us now examine the ways in which PR heals.

2.3. Healing

On average the woman that finally comes for healing through PR is between 7 and 10 years past her abortion experience. She has typically arrived at a point in her life where something "has caused her to break her psychological denial" (trigger incident, aforementioned in both Rue and Burke's categories of PAS symptoms).15 At this point the woman has already entered a stage of grieving but many times is riddled with guilt and shame. As we are now speaking of Catholic women either culturally or by practice, we need to point out that many of these women also reach a point of needing to make sense of their abortion experience in light of their faith beliefs. In retrospect many, if not all, see their abortion as being the one sin that God cannot forgive. In reference to the social stigmas many women feel isolated and condemned to a life of silence. Morally and spiritually speaking, many women congruently face a spiritual isolation, feeling unworthy to approach God or the Church.

Yet after many years of denial and suppression many women come to an initiating point. There is a kind of awakening through the aborted woman's conscience. They realize concretely that their abortion was the taking of a life. They come to acknowledge a major death experience.16 But this is not enough to transform her life. It may lead her to realize a need for healing and that maybe she can come to terms with this shameful secret. She may also arrive at the threshold of desiring spiritual healing. Little by little as she places her experience within the context of sin, she then slowly begins to yearn for reconciliation and renewed hope. Hope, as Thorn points out, is something that most aborted women admit they no longer have.17 At this point where do they turn for this sense of hope? Could these women enter a healing journey by themselves?

Many women who would otherwise turn to the familiar: family, friends or even the Church, find that they are paralyzed with fear of rejection and judgment. This is why, from the beginning PR has made efforts to provide a message of love and compassion. Through this PR has slowly helped transform the stereotypically staunch pro-life face of the Church. A Church that has been seen as all too often forgetting the second life involved in abortion, the woman. Because PR was well aware of the poignant fear that many women had, they chose to bring a message of hope so that women would turn to the Church for healing and help. John Paul II proclaimed in Denver 1993, "this personal tragedy [abortion] must be met with concrete interpersonal acts of love and solidarity."18 Through PR, the Church is able to offer a refuge for all those who seek forgiveness and healing.

St. Augustine believed that very often love comes before revelation. He said that there could not be a way of 'thinking oneself'into a new way of living. Accordingly, Augustine believed that one could only come to 'live'into a 'new way of thinking'.19 Therefore according to Augustine's theory, love would have to precede the transformed life. PR envisioned the love and compassion being provided by priests, lay and therapists who could prepare a journey of healing and transformation. The Church understands the painful and sometimes shattering decision of abortion and the wounds that it causes.20 Let us take a look at some of the ways the Church through PR helps to heal.

Firstly the woman must begin by speaking about her experience, which is often a very difficult and laborious.

(1) The woman must tell her story with all its pain and anger; (2) she needs to forgive those responsible for and involved in her abortion. This is an act of the will on her part, done in concert with the grace of God, which empowers her to do this. In forgiving these others she comes to an understanding of self-forgiveness and its possibility; (3) She must put closure on her relationship with the aborted child/children which includes grieving her loss, naming her child, memorializing the dead child, establishing a new spiritual relationship with the child in light of the communion of saints and often having a Mass celebrated for the child and the family; (4) she must hear often of God is forgiveness and mercy so that she can be led to accept that forgiveness and celebrate it in the Sacrament of Reconciliation; (5) she must come to forgive herself; (6) and finally she must be helped to discern what activities to pursue that will allow her to have a positive impact on her world.21

There is a strong temptation to base all of PR healing on the psychological aspect of the wound of abortion. This is why PR makes it a point to center healing on the Sacrament of Reconciliation. In reality, many women who come to PR have already undergone many years of psychotherapy. They realize at a certain point that they still do not feel healed. Consequently, many have already commenced working through grief on their own. It is true that an abortion experience does not always mean a totally dysfunctional life. In fact, most women who come to PR usually ask to begin their sessions with a priest.22 This can serve as evidence for the strong desire of reconciliation and the importance of forgiveness within the healing process. Healing is incomplete until there is forgiveness.

2.4. Reconciliation and penance

Before speaking of reconciliation and penance we must first touch upon a typically misunderstood point of post-abortion healing and reconciliation. Coming face-to-face with a past abortion and naming it as a sin presupposes reconciliation and penance. To acknowledge one's sin is the essential first step in returning to God.23 Yet, many within the Church fear that bringing forgiveness to aborted women equates condoning abortion. PR recognizes that what happened remains terribly wrong.24 In light of Church teaching, the truth is never overshadowed by the graces of mercy and compassion. The Church promotes reconciliation in the truth. Reconciliation is not possible outside or in opposition to the truth.25 Without truth, the sinner cannot come to repent and reconcile.

The sin of abortion is never condoned. "It is not a matter of erasing it or hiding it, says Cardinal Trujillo, it needs to be overcome through conversion and forgiveness."26 One woman wrote of her experience in PR: "often when it pertains to anything concerning abortion, people are afraid of allowing women to experience 'hurt'and the truth is sacrificed to a sense of false mercy. There can be no true mercy without justice and no justice without the truth."27 PR allows women to face the truth within her own personal history so that she may come to understand what happened and face it honestly.28 Without facing the gravity of abortion, a woman cannot come to reconciliation.

The road to healing begins with an awakening of conscience, followed by the beginning of grieving process and finally the discovery of a desire for true penance and reconciliation. Penance is essential in the woman's journey to reconciliation with God, her child and self. There is a need of a pilgrimage from the mind to the heart. The fruit of this pilgrimage brings the desire to live "one's whole existence as penitential, directed towards a continuous striving for what is better."29 Her initial contact with PR is already evidence of a penitential effort. John Paul II wrote in Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, "penance is closely connected with reconciliation, for reconciliation with God, with oneself and with others implies overcoming that radical break which is sin. And this is achieved only through the interior transformation or conversion which bears fruit in a person's life through acts of penance."30

With God

But only the Lord can ultimately heal the wound of abortion. If the Church is not able to forgive the sin of abortion, than Christ's death on the cross was in vain. The woman now recognizes that only Christ in his Paschal Mystery is able to fully reconcile her with God. It is this personal meeting with love that which Saint Augustine referred to. This is the love that allows for the transformation of the woman's heart and eventually her whole life. In encountering this love through the priest, in persona Christi, the woman comes face-to-face with truth and finally makes sense of her loss and grief.

"The Father of mercies is ready to give his forgiveness and his peace so that the woman can understand that nothing is definitely lost."31 The once unforgivable sin now becomes an offering to God. Thorn writes: "Because they believe that they have committed the unforgivable sin, their encounter with God's love and mercy is monumental. These people undergo a conversion experience unlike anything I have encountered. They come to a profound sense of the power of the sacraments."32

This powerful encounter with God leads to a hunger for the content of revelation, says Fr. Mannion. A desire to know God more intimately through the person of Christ is born. The woman now embarks on a journey of coming to know the One whom she is reconciled with. She is able to give her cross over to Christ and at the same time witnesses the powerful sacrifice of Christ on the Cross of salvation. Fr. Mannion points out, "one does not come to Resurrection by bypassing the Cross."33 Through the mystery of the Sacrament of Reconciliation the woman is finally able to give up her burden of guilt and grief to the Lord and by facing her cross of abortion is able to resurrect with the living Lord.

With others

In Evangelium Vitae, John Paul II also points out the many external pressures that bring women to feel psychologically forced to have an abortion. Many of these were listed in the previous chapter. But it is important to note that as a whole, most women are influenced and pressured from many different directions. When it comes time for her to forgive others she finds herself before a long list of ensuing accomplices to her child's death. This aspect of reconciliation is essential to accepting God's forgiveness. As one who is forgiven much, she too must learn to forgive those who either by indifference or pressure were a part of her loss. The forgiveness of husband, boyfriend, friends, family, co-workers, employers, doctors, and nurses is essential to the woman's path to full healing and reconciliation.

With the child

PR also helps to bring the mother to reconcile with her lost child. Through her grieving the woman realizes that her child was never able to exist physically. This is perhaps the more complicated part of grieving in post-abortion trauma. The woman does not undergo a normal grieving process such as in a miscarriage or still-born birth. She grieves a life that will never be known. But through a series of steps, PR helps the woman to ask her child forgiveness for her selfish act.

First the woman acknowledges her aborted child. Next she recognizes that this was her own child and names it and may even indicate its sex, which is usually instinctive on her part. She then concretely asks her child for forgiveness. The same living Lord that has given her a renewed life helps her to communicate with child, in God, and through the Communion of Saints. And finally she offers her child to God bringing closure to her loss and grieving. Sometimes a Mass may be said in honor of the aborted child. This helps her come to the next step, which is reconciliation with her self.

With self

One of the most difficult tasks of an aborted woman's journey is coming to forgive herself. She is finally beginning a new found relationship with God and with her child and must also begin to see herself in a new light. Sometimes the memory of what she was capable of doing, a memory that remains for life may hinder her from completely moving forward. It is a burden that Pope John Paul II wrote about, noting how she must bear this almost entirely alone for the rest of her life.34 But PR helps her to reconstruct her past relationships by giving her tools for continued healing. With these tools the woman is able to slowly build a new self-image based on Christian values of hope and a future. As the Lord says to Rachel, he repeats to every aborted woman, "There is hope for your future after all." (Jer. 31, 17). This hope gives the woman an opportunity to build her life on a solid foundation. A foundation based on the sacraments and community to give her strength to continue healing her past, her memory and her self-image.

This journey allows many women to become great defenders of life. By their own experience and conversion, they come to see the value of life unlike any other. John Paul II encouraged them to become "eloquent defenders of everyone's right to life. Through their commitment to life, whether by accepting the birth of other children or by welcoming and caring for those most in need of someone to be close to them, these women can become promoters of a new way of looking at human life."35 They go on to give witness through their restored hope and renewed sense of living. Many aborted women do not go on to the public sphere to speak of their past abortion experience, but nonetheless their silent witness given in much smaller ways is many times more powerful. They witness in their families, to their friends, co-workers and faith community. They give witness to the joy of sacramental life and the beauty of their restored dignity through Christ.

3. Meeting an urgent need

As we have seen PR is bringing the mercy of the Lord to those who regret their abortion experience. "PR is meeting a very important need within the Church and the world today."36 We have seen how although many admit that abortion is the taking of a human life, they still continue to choose abortion as an option. Moreover we have observed how many women do not choose abortion freely. We have looked into how abortion brings about negative consequences to many women. PR and other programs like it are making more women aware of the dangers of abortion, psychologically, emotionally, spiritually and sometimes even physically. At the same time PR is bringing women to full reconciliation with God, community, their child and themselves.

Although PR came about over twenty years ago, many aborted women are still unaware of the renewed hope and life the Church offers to them through this ministry. Through PR "the Church seeks to replicate the life and ministry of Jesus Christ as it recognizes those wounded by abortion and seeks to reconcile them with God, the Church and themselves. Post-abortion healing ministry is a vital expression of the Church's identity as the Body of Christ."37 Like Jesus Himself, the Church through PR reaches out to those sinners who repent and long for reconciliation. It provides a clear statement of the Good News of the Gospel-the message of hope, healing and forgiveness. It balances the strong, prophetic teaching on the wrongness of abortion with an equally strong proclamation on the Church's care and concern for all involved.38

This healing brings a strong witness in that two lives are acknowledged in the wake of post-abortion aftermath. For years the Church has preached on the death of the unborn child in the crime of abortion. Now the Church prophetically seeks to acknowledge that indeed the mother is also wounded by the abortion experience. PR proclaims by her actions that abortion destroys women, men, children, families and society as a whole. PR calls all these people to come to the healing arms of the Church and her sacraments. Is this not a form of new evangelization? We will answer this question in the next chapter when we look at what exactly new evangelization is. We will see how post-abortion healing and reconciliation has become a response to the new evangelization. But before looking at this, let us first consider just what new evangelization entails.

Copyright © 2007 Alejandra Correa

Alejandra Correa. «The Pastoral Call for Post-Abortion Healing and Reconciliation in the U.S. A Vital Response to Today's New Evangelization. The Response to a Need: Project Rachel». vita9.org [in linea], anno 1 (2007) [inserito il 1º aprile 2007], disponibile su World Wide Web: <http://vita9.org/>, [37 KB].

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