On Saturday, September 13, thousands of people gathered at 132 locations throughout the United States for the second annual National Day of Remembrance for Aborted Children. Among these sites were 41 graves where the remains of aborted children are buried. Over 28,000 aborted babies have been given a proper burial at these sites, but they represent only a fraction of the more than 56 million children aborted since the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton Supreme Court decisions in 1973.
In the Diocese of Raleigh, services were held at Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Newton Grove, where 157 babies were buried in 1988. The babies were later moved to a site under the Marian Shrine of the Unborn. This is the only known cemetery in North Carolina that has aborted babies buried in it.
A group of children and a woman who is nine months pregnant led the procession at the beginning of the service and laid flowers on the shrine. Deacon Vince Parente of Our Lady of Guadalupe led the prayer service and gave a meditation. The service also featured scripture readings from Wisdom 7:1-6 and Luke 1:39-45, a blessing of the gravesite by Deacon Parente and Deacon Brian Phillips, and the joyful mysteries of the Rosary, led by the Knights of Columbus of Saint Mary Parish in Goldsboro. Ann Herring of Our Lady of Guadalupe served as emcee. Mary Beth Phillips, Respect Life Ministry Coordinator in the Office of Human Life and Dignity, gave brief remarks on behalf of the Diocese.
Along with Our Lady of Guadalupe, parishioners from Sacred Heart in Dunn, Saint Catherine of Siena in Wake Forest, Saint Michael the Archangel in Cary and Saint Mary in Goldsboro were in attendance, along with several non-Catholics.