The Torch of Faith blog quotes a passage from the book by Jamie Carragher, Liverpool FC Vice-Captain and European Cup Winner (H/T Southwark Vocations):My book of Revelations begins with the most dramatic:God bless Jamie's mum for having the courage to ignore the pressure to terminate her pregnancy and thank God for the reward of being able to take pride in her son as a world class footballer.
if my mum hadn't been a Roman Catholic,
I might have been aborted.
Paula Carragher was given the option of a termination
due to complications halfway through her pregnancy.
She was told I had spina-bifida- a birth defect that affects
the spinal cord. She was too religious to consider abortion,
no matter how disabled I'd be.
'Our Lord told me to have the baby', she still claims.
She's the rock on which my family is built.
I owe everything to that decision
she took thirty years ago'.
Many mother have told me that they were given a horrendous diagnosis for their child only to find out later that this was entirely spurious. I wonder how many babies have been killed because of this kind of mistake?
Of course, even if a child is disabled, that is no reason to kill the baby. To begin with, it is a difficult thing to face but disabled children bring much joy to their parents, brothers, sisters and the wider community. Prenatal Partners for Life offer great support and encouragement.
5 comments:
Being a Liverpool fan through and through, this is a touching tale to me. God bless his mother.
He's Scouse, he's great, He's Stevie Gerrard's mate - Carragher, Carragher.
What a heartening story. It's very interesting that in the European Cup final Jerzy Dudek prayed to Pope John Paul for his intercession in the penalty shoot out.
Dear Father
Thanks for the mention!
As you say it does not matter whether the child would be ill or not - the right to life is all important.
Several years ago I used to tour high schools to give pro-life talks and a teacher informed the class that a decade or so earlier she had been put under much pressure to abort because of supposed abnormalities that were foreseen for the child in her womb.
She and her husband stuck to their guns and kept their child in the face of this pressure from doctors. In the end their child was completely healthy - not that this would have made any difference to their approach.
Over the years we've become more aware of the prevalence of such stories.
We've also had the joy of meeting children born with birth defects and witnessed the love they have brought and the love they have drawn out of others. I used to share a story about a man whose twin children only lived a matter of hours but taught him more about love and life than many people he had known for decades.
God bless
Alan and Angeline
I was going to write something profound but I can't take my eyes off of him.
Yowza.
Okay. I'm back.
Beautiful story. Thanks for sharing, and thank HIM for being a witness.
It brings up another point, too. If you considered an abortion, but chose life, you might not want to keep that from your (adult or at least older teen) child. It can be a powerful statement of courage, backbone, and faith. It can reinforce the fact that ALL of us (even our moms) have sometimes faced fear, embarrassment, and shame. No matter. What matters is how those feelings were handled.
I adopted my own daughter, but I hope her beautiful birthmother will tell her story to Mary when the time comes - it could make for a VERY pro-life adult.
I posted the same story on my just recently on the occasion of his Testimonial match. Over 600 professional games. Not bad for someone with Spina Bifida! (or not).
Seriously though, I agree that even if the diagnosis had been correct he still had the right to live.
Last year I wrote a couple of pro life songs. One (First Black President) talks about how children should live whether they get to do something amazing (like Carragher) or not. Another called Your Difficult Decision reminded me very much of Paula's story.
You can download both songs for free from my blog if you are interested.
http://youngglory.blogspot.com/p/free-song-downloads.html#Pro-life%20Songs
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