Crosses for the Unborn Project

By Mike Girard

"The project is simple. It is the making of 115,000 small crosses, in remembrance of the approximately 115,000 abortions performed every year in Canada. The crosses are made out of popsicle craft sticks. A name is written on each cross ."

W e in the pro-life movement expend much energy fighting and opposing the culture of death, so prevalent in our society today. We direct time to political and educational work as we hope to change minds and hearts, laws and attitudes. We speak out and write about the atrocity of abortion, the intentional killing of an unborn child. A child, a person, has been killed and a life taken. We are doing very good and needed work, as we look outward at the lies, the indifferences, the immorality, and those who support and perpetrate the errors and crime. Perhaps it is time to take an inward look at ourselves and the pro-life movement and ask if there is something else we ought to be doing.

One day during a noon meeting of the Mount St. Joseph Students for Life, we talked about what people and society do when a relative or friend has died. First, it is acknowledged that the person has died. Family and friends are informed and public notice is given. Visitation and a funeral are arranged, burial takes place, and prayers and remembrances are spoken. A visible memorial is made and mourning and grieving happen. In short, acknowledgment and respect are afforded the person who has died, and private and public words and actions attest to the fact. The reality of the person is made clear by real words and actions.

In the case of the unborn children who are killed by abortion, there is nothing or very little that is done to acknowledge and respect their humanity. There is no public or visible display of the person and the life that once was. These babies are treated like non-humans, non-existent, with no value or worth. They are ignored and treated like "nothing." They are not treated with any respect, dignity, and value. Their very reality is denied and "deleted." But they are real-human beings and persons in their own right with a God-given right to life, waiting to enjoy basic human respect, dignity, and protection.

We believe that we must acknowledge and give proper respect to all the unborn children who have died, just like we would a friend. If we don't give them the treatment they deserve because they are persons, like you and I, then we too in a way, are also abandoning the little ones. We hear faint but clear voices, straining to be heard, "Please don't forget me. Where are my friends in my darkest hour?"

We believe that we must make one little cross for every little child who was abandoned and killed. We must give each of them a name, and in doing so, they become a "somebody" with some semblance of identity. We must display the crosses as a memorial visibly and publicly, as we do for the born who die. We must not treat the unborn as an abstract statistic but as a real and individual person. We must treat them as persons in a personal way.

As in all battles, we must take that time to attend to our fallen brothers and sisters, as we courageously face and fight the enemy. We must bury our dead, as we continue to defend lives. Although tens of thousands of tiny memorial crosses could be used for political and educational reasons, this is not the reason and focus of the project.The intention of the making of the crosses is for pro-lifers to publicly acknowledge the unborn children killed by abortion and treat them like human beings with respect and dignity. Whatever flows from the project remains to be seen, although one can imagine many educational and political possibilities of great impact.

We have provided the idea and inspiration for this wonderful project for the unborn, and we believe it is an idea whose time has come. But we could never complete the project without the work of many able bodies and hands. We need you. The unborn babies need you. God needs you. With many people, young and old, taking up the challenge for the unborn, this project will happen and it will be successful. Join us-get involved - do something beautiful for the unborn. Do something beautiful for God.

For further information on how to make the crosses and how you can be involved, contact:

Crosses for the Unborn Project
Sault Youth Pro Life & Sault Pro Life
949 Lake Street
Sault Ste. Marie ON P6B 6K4

Mike Girard is a high-school teacher at St. Mary's College inSault Ste. Marie, Ontario