MaterCare International, Saint John’s, Canada
Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, “Yes For Life” Foundation, Rzeszów, Poland
For several decades, MaterCare International (MCI), an organization of obstetricians gynaecologists, has been defending helpless mothers and their children who have been hardest hit by the lack of medical care and difficult living conditions in developing countries. To a large degree, this is driven by the little known fact that of the estimated 500,000 plus annual deaths worldwide from maternal causes, 99% occur in developing countries.1 Our organization also assists mothers in developed countries, who are prompted to aggression against their unborn children, offering life-giving alternatives to abortion.
The Foundation, “Yes For Life,” has mobilised public opinion to defend human life, organised conferences, and rung the “Voice of the Unborn” bell (Vox Nasciturus) for Poland, Ukraine, and Ecuador.
Jointly, we take the floor to resolutely defend the most helpless in Ukraine - mothers and their children, the frail and elderly- who are cruelly being displaced, injured or killed, in the current conflict. Tragically, the aggressor is targeting maternity hospitals and housing estates, massacring the innocent and condemning millions of people, mostly women and children, to trek for days in frosty weather in search of refuge. Men have largely stayed behind to defend their homeland.
To this barbarity we announce a loud and explicit “enough!” No political goal justifies the trampling of Ukrainian’s right to live peacefully in their homeland, and such an enormous toll of death and destruction.
As we approach the March 25th annual celebration of the sanctity of human life on the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord, let us add the suffering millions in Ukraine, especially the most helpless mentioned above, to our remembrance of the 73 million unborn who are deprived of life each year by the worldwide violence of abortion.2
Let us pray for all of them: may our merciful and loving Lord receive the souls of the dead in His heavenly home, and may He grant all the graces needed by the survivors to endure these hard times and return home for a safe and fresh start in post-war Ukraine.
Let us pray for all those helping and receiving Ukrainian refugees: countless, self-sacrificing, private citizens of enormous goodwill; non-government organizations and the governments of many countries.
Following the example of St. Stephen, the first martyr of Christianity, let us pray for the aggressors, that they may soon receive the grace of seeing the truth of their actions, beg God for his mercy, and work toward peace and harmony.
We entreat institutions, organizations, and all people of good will, to support and disseminate this appeal.
14th March, 2022.
References:
Hill K, Thomas K, AbouZahr C et al: Estimates of maternal mortality worldwide between 1990 and 2005: an assessment of available data. Lancet 370(9595), 1311–1319 (2007).
Unintended Pregnancy and Abortion Worldwide. Guttmacher Institute Fact Sheet. July, 2020. https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/induced-abortion-worldwide