Project Rachel Ministry: Healing the Trauma of Abortion
Br. Pier Giorgio Dengler, O.P. (right), at the 2015 March for Life
Project Rachel Ministry: Healing the Trauma of Abortion
By: Br. Pier Giorgio Dengler, O.P.
For years—as an avid pro-lifer—I’ve known the “day job” of the Good Shepherd as He leads us to green pastures and guards us from the enemy. Through Project Rachel, I have come to know why He rejoices so greatly over the one who was lost and is found.
Project Rachel Ministry is a Catholic apostolate to those who have experienced the terrible loss of abortion and seek healing. It is active in nearly all 50 states at the diocesan level and restores hope to thousands of women and men stricken with the deep wounds of abortion. Through retreats, days of prayer, and support groups, participants embrace the forgiveness, healing, and hope that our Divine Savior extends to each of us.
In sessions with participants, my own role is to get out of God’s way. I sit with them and answer questions about the faith, the afterlife, and God’s mercy. I listen to women and men revisit the fears and despair surrounding their experience of losing a child to abortion—and the anguish, isolation, and remorse that has pursued them since.
This past fall, I helped launch a broad outreach specifically to men inspired to counter the evil of abortion. We fast, pray, and offer spiritual works for each other and for those engaged with Project Rachel Ministry. Prayer, always vital for the Christian life, is paramount in the aftermath of abortion, since it is God’s grace moving in the hearts of wounded women and men that is the primary agent of healing.
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