Secret burial service held for 34 late-term aborted babies
In August, police made the gruesome discovery of 35 late-term aborted babies in a freezer at abortionist Steven Brigham’s (pictured right, speaking with one of his attorneys) Elkton, MD, mill.
According to Cecil Whig reporter Jacob Owens, with whom I spoke this morning, one of the babies was claimed by a Canadian family.
That left 34. Rev. Joe Piekarski of Immaculate Conception Church in Elkton applied to the MD Board of Medical Examiners to receive those babies.
Pro-life leader Jack Ames expressed to Fr. Piekarski via 2 in-person conversations, a phone call, and an email the pro-life community’s wish to hold a large memorial and burial service for the babies.
This would be akin to paying proper respect to martyrs, fallen soldiers, or Holocaust victims.
A large service would also help the public understand that abortions kill babies. And it would give pro-lifers who feel these tragedies so deeply a proper chance to mourn.
Ames told me Piekarski at first was amenable. Meanwhile, he held a Mass of Remembrance on October 21, before receiving the babies. But he quit taking Ames’ calls.
Ames and East Coast pro-lifers (and me) were thus shocked, saddened, and angered to learn yesterday that Piekarski held a secret burial service for the babies this past Monday.
Piekarski didn’t announce the upcoming service in the parish bulletin Sunday nor from the pulpit. He alerted no one in the pro-life community. There was no funeral Mass. The babies were buried together in 1 adult coffin.
Piekarski did notify a priest from the only other parish priest in Cecil County, who alerted a few of his members late Sunday. And despite their apparent best attempts, Owens from the Cecil Whig also got wind and showed up, providing the only record through a short story and YouTube video. In all, 30 people attended the cemetery service, which lasted 20 minutes according to Owens.
A receptionist at Immaculate Conception told me, ““They didn’t want the notoriety. They didn’t want the press involved.”
To which pro-life leader Monica Miller told me she would have responded, “Why not?”
Miller is orchestrating November 20 yet another of many funerals she has overseen since the 1980s of aborted babies. She wrote on this very topic in a chapter of her hopefully soon-to-be-published book, Graphic images – the untold story of the abortion war:
A religious graveside ceremony would draw attention to the reality of the violence and tragedy of legalized abortion. It would affirm to the world, as nothing else could, that these unborn children, killed by abortion and now laid to rest alongside the bodies of other human beings, were indeed full members of the human race.
Monica told me she is encountering less resistance these days to large public services than in the past. Interestingly she said the first large funerals for these babies, usually retrieved from the trash, were held at Protestant churches.
She wrote in her book she has determined there are many reasons pastors are resistant. Writing about Cardinal Bernardin’s refusal in 1987 to hold a public funeral for 500 aborted babies she wrote:
I had received definite vibes from everyone I’ve talked to in the Chancery Office about why the babies were buried in secret, why the Cardinal and the chancellors were entirely ill at ease at the thought of making a big deal about the fact that the babies were found in the trash and buried by the Church. I’m trying to find just the right words to explain their peculiar attitude.
I think the archdiocese refused to make the burial a public event – a vehicle for preaching against abortion, etc. – because it was afraid it would look as if the Church was exploiting or merely using the babies’ bodies, taken from the trash, in order to promote its “sectarian – narrow” beliefs that abortion is wrong. Somehow the Church did not want to be perceived as using this “abortion find” to preach against abortion. Somehow they found “exploiting” the situation repugnant.
Also I believe part of this repugnance flowed from a refusal to allow pro-lifers (especially us radical activist types who would actually dig in garbage dumpsters to find aborted babies) to “use the Church” as an instrument to condemn abortion because we happened to find the remains of the murder victims in the trash….
Somehow they got the weird idea that the public condemnation of these babies’ deaths and being thrown into the trash was a crass exploitation of the babies…. Indeed I know from chancery people I’ve talked to that many priests and employees down there… believed that us pro-lifers didn’t really have any care or reverence for these babies’ remains…..
Finally, the whole thing resides in churchmen not really understanding that abortion is not an abstract issue. It’s real – so real that you can actually get your hands on the bodies of the murder victims. But because abortion has not really broken the heart or gotten under the skin of the bureaucrats, they really didn’t know what should have been done when the babies’ bodies were right in the palm of their hands! Instead of preaching against abortion from rooftops and pulpits – and taking a leadership voice – they treated these 500 murder victims with no more real consideration than if they had died in their sleep.
Ultimately, as Cheryl Sullenger of Operation Rescue told me this morning, “that secrecy always works to benefit the abortionists because it keeps all their dirty business out of the public eye.”
As an aside, Owens told me 11 of the babies were issued death certificates, which means they were either considered viable or aborted alive and allowed to die or killed. Operation Rescue is working on getting to the bottom of that now.
[Brigham photo via The Star-Ledger; funeral photo via the Cecil Whig]
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
I am reminded of what Joseph of Arimathea did for Jesus. May those who recover the remains of these children and treat them with the dignity they deserve as human beings, and those who discard them and treat them like trash, remember that one day they will be divided into two groups, one which showed mercy to little ones in His name, and thus to Him–and one which saw Him thirsty and did not give Him a drink, saw Him naked and did not clothe Him, knew He was in prison and did not visit Him. He will not forget Joseph, who when all hope seemed lost and only His earthly body remained, showed Him still mercy, at great economic cost, and possibly social and political cost as well. Nor will He forget those that show such mercy to these tiny ones led to the slaughter.
If the pro-life advocates didn’t have a solid working relationship with Reverend Piekarski, why didn’t they apply to receive the bodies from the ME directly? It can’t be that only clergy are able to make those requests; such a policy would violate the Establishment Clause.
The church in general (as a bureaucracy) seems to have become less servant-like and more self-important. In thinking themselves more dignified than their parishioners in the pro-life movement, they show that what’s truly important to them is maintaining a certain reputation in the public eye, when they should be worried about how they are viewed in the Lord’s eyes. I just get so tired of seeing it. And I’m certainly not singling out the Catholic church here.
I expect there’s a certain amount of fear involved from what the pro-choice/abort side would do.
The Catholic Church is constantly in the public eye. Sometimes in a good way, and other times in a very difficult way. The priest scandal has been painful for everyone in the Catholic Community, myself included. Some priests have even been falsley accused, which is really rough on those who know and are friends with the innocent priests. It’s unfortunate the innocent suffer with the guilty. This could fuel all kinds of responses depending on who is in charge at each individual parish.
For some people, fear is a strong motivator. Not that that excuses behavors/actions, but it does contribute to how some people make decisions.
I’m not sure how the parishes around here would’ve handled it, I’m not on the administrative side of parish life, but I do know it’s a balancing act for many dicoeses.
Wouldn’t surprise me if it’s a balancing act for all churches no matter the denomination or faith background.
Some places/people are more willing to press forward and deal with the criticism, others are more afraid.
But, since I’m not involved with this parish, I couldn’t tell you their reasons.
There was a memorial service nearly 20 years ago in our community for some (aborted) babies that had been found in a partially burned trash bag on the property of a friend of one of the local abortionists. They had been found by two hunters. EVERYONE who was pro-life came for that service, Catholic, Protestant, priests, ministers, and of course, those of us who volunteered at the local CPC. It was televised on ALL the local news channels (I was on camera for about two seconds). It’s been so long now I can’t remember just how many babies there were…but I’m thinking somewhere between 25-40.
Ted Kennedy had quite a funeral mass.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/TedKennedy/story?id=8442072
I am speechless and sad.
A receptionist at Immaculate Conception told me, ““They didn’t want the notoriety. They didn’t want the press involved.”
Well they have it now.
Before we start judging them, see that Jill excerpted a long excerpt from Monica Miller’s book, dating from a 1987 incident and if you don’t read carefully you may miss the 1987 reference.
These babies were buried with dignity and prayer. They were indeed shown mercy. What more can anyone ask?
There is another burial coming up, where the babies’ remains were recently found along with their mothers’ identifying information. I just heard a long interview on Catholic radio and those remains will be buried in a much more public fashion.
Unfortunately there are other opportunities to make a more public event out of a funeral, but I for one am sad to see this criticism after the children were buried with respect, love, and prayer.
I believe we have to be careful to not judge the whole Catholic church for the actions of one individual priest, religous or lay person–or even groups for that matter. I can only accept what happened and pray to God to illuminate me as to why the priest chose this course of action. I must also pray for the priest and administrative people involved. I believe the important thing here is that these blessed babies received a proper burial.
Susie, I hope you are not pleased about the notoriety. It would please our enemies, would it not, to see pro-lifers fuss amongst themselves.
It would have been unfortunate if the burial service was attended by pro-abortion advocates trying to make a point.
As it is, the service seems to have been a peaceful and loving event.
I’m seeing the potential for a lucrative business here. These people want to give proper burials to medical waste–and clinics need to dispose of same. Why not work together for a mutually beneficial cause? Every week they could show up at local clinics, collect a couple hundred or so aborted fetuses in exchange for a fee that is less than what a proper medical waste removal company would charge, then whisk them away and give them a decent Christian burial. Everybody wins!
Wow, Joan. Way to dehumanize.
Joan, the abortion business doesn’t win in that situation for exactly the reason Jill and Cheryl point out: “secrecy always works to benefit the abortionists because it keeps all their dirty business out of the public eye.” They want to go on pretending that all our photos are fake and that unborn humans are blobs of tissue. That will never work if they openly and directly provide us with the bodies of the vicitms.
Joan, you are a sick excuse for a human being. These are human children.
You are neither Catholic nor Christian. God will judge you for your attitude toward His precious children. You will be paid back with harm for the harm you have done. (Not a threat. A Bible verse.)
I don’t know why you want to claim to be Catholic. What do you think that means? What do you think it will gain you? If the Catholic Church is established by God, and the leadership protected from error, your grave and vile sin means you will not benefit from your association with the church–in fact it will go worse for you, having so much truth revealed to you and yet denying it. And if the church is instead a flawed and failing institution established and run by men, what do you gain by claiming membership?
On the issue of those who buried these precious children–I don’t know their motives or much of how it was done. God will judge them on their heart.
So these fetuses are being given a Catholic burial. Interesting. Were all these fetuses Catholic? I never had an abortion; but if I did, I would be quite offended to know that the fetus had a “mass.” because I am not Catholic.
Good point, DD. What if some of these aborted fetuses were Jewish or Mormon or maybe Wiccan? Subjecting them to a Catholic burial without their consent is an abuse of their religious freedoms. This really should have been a multiconfessional ceremony with religious figures from a variety of different sects and faiths present.
And about Shelly Sullenger. She served two years hard time for, as she admitted, attempting to blow up an abortion clinic. Scott Roeder, Dr. Tiller’s murderer, claims that he had contact with Sullenger whose phone number was found on Roeder when he was apprehended. Just an FYI….
“Good point, DD. What if some of these aborted fetuses were Jewish or Mormon or maybe Wiccan”
My Catholic uncle was told that he couldn’t bury his wife, a Protestant, in his plot in a Catholic cemetary.
DD, I was thinking about that very question. It’s of course impossible to know what religion these babies would have eventually espoused if they had survived. The same is true of newborns and young children who die before their time. In those cases, we allow their parents to decide on the proper services, without regard to the hypothetical religious freedoms of the survivor-grown-into-an-adult.
But in the case of these aborted fetuses, their parents have quite clearly abandoned their care of them (except for the Canadian family). Ideally, abortion victims can be returned to a pro-life member of the extended family for burial. But, when that’s not feasible, the only possible guardians left are the people who found their remains. So it’s up to those guardians to decide how the bodies will be buried, including the religious or secular content of the service.
That’s just my personal opinion. I will ask other members of SecularProLife.org what they think.
I can’t believe I’m going to answer such a ridiculous comment: when a child is baptized, he is welcomed into the church. When he is around 8 or so ( if his family is Catholic and sending him to faith formation classes) then he makes his first communion. At around that age a child understands better what that means. Finally, when a teen or young adult, the same person can complete the processes through Confirmation. By now the teen or young adult has the intellectual capacity to understand the Catholic Sacraments. A five year old could tell you, “I’m Catholic” but he of course has a different intellectual and spiritual maturity than for example an 18 year old who tells you he’s Catholic.
Although a newborn child doesn’t have the intellect to decide whether or not to follow Jesus, it wouldn’t prevent the child’s family from having a Catholic funeral if the newborn passed away. It is the same with the pre-born. Since they are not adults, not of the age of reason, I can see nothing that would stand in the way of a Catholic funeral service.
And as for you being offended, why is it that you consider a human being expendible and disposable but you consider what someone does with the remains to be offensive? What offends me is the Margaret Sangerian notion that these children were not fully human beings worthy of dignity and care but instead, as Sanger herself said “human waste.”
Young CW, Ditto. That commenter is not a woman, not named Joan, and absolutely not a Catholic person. Its comments are so devoid of any humanity, I am tempted to agree with someone’s humorous assessment that it is a computer program. However, if said program did turn out to be a human being, it would deserve a proper and dignified funeral also, in due time, after living a full life and reaching a ripe old age.
Joan, wow…..
I guess some people just have those kinds of money making minds. I didn’t even think of something like that when I read this post. Money didn’t even come to mind. I’m happy someone cared enough for these babies to bury them, even if it wasn’t made public until now.
Its nice that they’re all being buried together considering they’ve all been together in that holding storage.
I hope some of the parents can be contacted in case they want to come visit their baby one day, I know from my friends expeirence that going to her aborted babies grave helped her heal and forgive herself.
D, My above comment addresses the question of why an adult might not be allowed in a Catholic cemetery. An adult is over the age of reason and consent. Had Catholicism been of any real value to the wife, she should have converted. If the husband could not convince her to convert, then he can sell his plots and buy two in another cemetery. Adults can do that, because no one killed them before they were born.
”But, when that’s not feasible, the only possible guardians left are the people who found their remains. So it’s up to those guardians to decide how the bodies will be buried, including the religious or secular content of the service.”
Under the law they are not legal guardians. In order to be a legal guardian, one must petition the court and be granted the guardianship. The fetuses are not wards of the state. If a child, under state custody (“ward of the state”), dies and there is no other relative, the state is not entitled to do a religious burial. And the “unknowns,” who die in war, are not given religious burials. But again, I find it interesting that the RC Church, which is very strict about the burial of “post born” non Catholics, has no problem with fetuses who, techinically speaking, aren’t Catholic.
And Ninek. A fetus that I would hypothetically abort is medical waste. As such, it is no more worthy of a Catholic burial than say any other surgically removed thing. But you do have a point. After it leaves my body, who cares. Prior to that, it’s mine to do what as I choose.
“If the husband could not convince her to convert, then he can sell his plots and buy two in another cemetery”
It’s not easy to sell plots. My uncle buried his wife in a tolerant Protestant cemetary (much nicer) where he was eventually put beside her. Funny, the Protestants didn’t care what he was. But seriously, is the “pro-life” movement, in conjunction with the RC church, going to spearhead a movement to bury aborted fetuses in Catholic cemetaries. Interesting…
And regarding the seeming secrecy about the burial. I suspect that there might have been some tricky legal issues regarding claims on medical waste. I don’t know. It would be interesting to speak with somebody from state’s legal community on this one.
“Ideally, abortion victims can be returned to a pro-life member of the extended family for burial.”
I bet that would make great conversation fodder at Thanksgiving. “I took possession of your aborted fetus so I could bury it. You’re cool with that, right?”
I should have been clearer. I didn’t mean guardianship in the legal sense of custody over a living child. Obviously the state isn’t holding hearings on guardianship when the person is dead. I just meant “guardian” in the general sense of “person who is responsible for the remains.” The state is apparently free to hand over unclaimed prenatal remains to anyone it wants.
Personally, I don’t care where they are buried in terms of a religious burial, if a Baptist or Jewish or whatever. The nice thing is that they were shown respect and care and not tumbled out of some dumpster into a landfill.
It’s not easy to sell plots. It’s not easy to sell a used car, or a house, or many other things. Living human beings get to face a lot of difficulties and challenges in life. I look forward to the day when “wanted” or “unwanted” aren’t words used to justify murder. I look forward to the day when all children get a fair chance at life.
And about Shelly Sullenger.
Isn’t her name Cheryl? The only Shelly I am thinking of right now was a partner of Tiller’s, Shelly Sella.
I never had an abortion; but if I did, I would be quite offended to know that the fetus had a “mass.” because I am not Catholic.
So… you’d care, not because your baby is DEAD, but because your baby wasn’t CATHOLIC?
Classy.
Jill,
According to the newspaper link above, the “Mass of Remembrance” you referenced was not actually a (Funeral) Mass, but a memorial service – two different services in the Catholic Church. Usually, in my experience, either one or the other is held, but not both. Sometimes, if a deceased person is buried in a location far from a group of family/friends, a memorial service will be held by family at some date in the future after the funeral/burial. A memorial service might be held in place of funeral Mass for various reasons. I hope that helps clarify things. Perhaps a member of the Catholic clergy could correct me if I’m wrong or elaborate.
Obviously there was some miscommunication between the parties involved. It would be a shame if this can’t be worked out with no hard feelings.
Whoever did it, wherever they did it, however they did it, I’m just glad that someone somewhere affirmed the basic human dignity which the Lord God Himself accords to nascent children (and I’m not Catholic). God bless them for doing this!!! I know He will.
…..why was the abortionist keeping them in the freezer? Science experiments, or something more? Thats what I’d really like to know: his reasoning behind keeping those gruesome trophies of his work. This is the third story in 6 months that I’ve read about abortionists keeping the fetal bodies. One kept the fetuses, or the parts of a fetus, in jars….dozens and dozens of jars. Makes me ill to think of. Do they keep them as reminders of guilt, some twisted sense of penance to be reminded of what they do? Questions that won’t ever be answered, probably…..
DD November 18th, 2010 at 5:54 pm
“So these [HUMAN] fetuses are being given a Catholic burial. Interesting. Were all these [HUMAN] fetuses Catholic? I never had an abortion; but if I did, I would be quite offended to know that the [HUMAN] fetus had a “mass.” because I am not Catholic.”
==============================================================
What is so offensive about having a ‘mass’ for a ‘mass of [HUMAN] tissue’?
To you the disposal of these [HUMAN] remains is nothing more than disposing of the placenta.
Why be ‘offended’ that someone else valued that which you would so casually discard.
If someone discovered my child’s remains and cared enough to ensure they received a decent burial, and entrusted them to GOD, I would not quibble over their doctrine.
The real issue is you cannot stand the thought that someone would publicly identify the primary victim of every abortion as being HUMAN.
Suggest you read Jesus’ answer to the question, ‘Who is my neighbor?’
Luke 10:36-37 36 Which of these three do you think proved himself a neighbor to him who fell among the robbers?
37 He answered, The one who showed pity and mercy to him. And Jesus said to him, Go and do likewise. AMP
The major error I see with the burial service is that the prayers used were for baptized infants. The Church does have a proper set of prayers for burying the un-baptized unborn, but it is not what the priest used here.
DD, don’t you know, everyone “turns Catholic” at the time of death.
You will be assimilated! Resistance is Futile!
;-)
Andrew, I think in this circumstance that can be overlooked.
Joan: you sicken me. Unborn babies killed before they are born are NOT “medical waste”!
I am glad they were given a respectful burial, instead of being tossed into a landfill. This just saddens me deeply.
52 million abortions and you wonder WHY there’s a social security shortage?
SUGGUSTION. Don’t feed the trolls, their post just keep getting sicker and sicker. Just a suggestion.