At the Public Discourse this week, Helen Alvaré, Greg Pfundstein, Matthew Schmitz and Ryan T. Anderson gave an excellent rebuttal to the pro-choice claim that right-to-lifers don’t really care about life after birth. Check it out.
Being pro-life means loving all life, without exception – born and unborn, young and old, rich and poor, in sickness and in health…and even our worst enemies. The latter is probably the most difficult habit to get into and it’s certainly not something we see examples of too often. So I was happy to recently come across two great stories of love and forgiveness.
First, a woman who cared for husband’s executioners is on the road to beatification. From the Catholic News Agency, Maria Seiquer, married Angel Romero in Spain in 1914:
The couple built a public chapel on their ranch in Villa Pilar where Maria taught catechism to children and her husband provided free care for the poor once a week.
When the anti-Catholic persecution reached Murcia in 1931, Angel decided to enter politics to defend the Church. He soon became the target of violent attacks.
In August of 1936, he was captured and held in prison. Maria was able to visit him twice in jail where he told her: “They think they are sacrificing us, and they don’t realize that what they are doing is glorifying us.” She then revealed her intention to devote herself to God. “If they don’t kill me too, I promise you I will enter the convent,” she promised him.
Angel was shot and killed only weeks after he was detained.
Maria was forced to flee Murcia because of fear for her own life. While away, she met a woman named Amalia Martin de la Escalera who returned with her to Villa Pilar once the country’s civil war ended. Together they founded the first convent of the Apostolic Sisters of Christ Crucified.
“I forgive all my enemies, I pray for them and I desire to forgive all those who have done me wrong,” she wrote. The community of sisters took to teaching children, feeding the poor and visiting the elderly and the sick in nearby towns.
Among those they visited were the executioners of her husband.
Numerous witnesses confirm that until her death in 1975, Maria cared for one of the women who denounced her husband. She saw furniture that was once hers in the homes of the sick under her care, but never said a word. Maria cared for the son of the anti-Catholic militant who dragged her husband’s body through the streets, aware of who he was. She also frequently appeared in court pleading that her husband’s killers be spared the death penalty.
In her writings she said, “I have only done what Christ has taught me: Forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
Mother Maria Seiquer’s cause for canonization was opened in 1989 and members of the Apostolic Sisters of Christ Crucified are praying for a miracle to move the process along.
Next, CNA has another article about an interview with Brother Jean Pierre Schumacher:
Brother Jean Pierre Schumacher is one of two monks who escaped death in the massacre of Thibirine, Algeria in 1996. Since then, he has not ceased praying for the conversion of the Muslim extremists who killed seven members of his community.
…
“We must forgive. God calls us to love each other,” he continued, noting that the community’s prior, Father Christian, forgave his assassins.
Forgiveness is hard, but it’s not impossible. We have to remember that love is not a feeling, it is a decision – an act of the will, not of emotion. We don’t have to feel good about our enemies or even like them, per se, but we should always will them good. I explore this further in this previous post: Loving Our Enemies Also related: Loving Our Political Enemies
“To you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you…love your enemies and do good to them…Be merciful, just as also your Father is merciful…Forgive and you will be forgiven…For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.” (Lk. 6:27-28, 35, 36, 38)
Recommended: Forgiving Dr. Mengele
headquarters on January 24th, 2011 for 
After 38 Years and 52 MILLION deaths, may the United States of America finally reject the atrocity of abortion and stand up for life and its founding principles.
“Most merciful Jesus, I beseech You through the intercession of Your dearest Mother who nurtured You from childhood, bless my native land. I beg You, Jesus, look not on our sins, but on the tears of little children, on the hunger and cold they suffer. Jesus, for the sake of these innocent ones, grant me the grace that I am asking of You for my country.”
No doubt you’ve heard the horrifying news about Dr. Kermit Gosnell, the PA abortionist who has been 
On