Angela Baird was an ordinary college sophomore when she died last year as a result of a tragic hiking accident. What made her death exceedingly noteworthy was the way in which she faced suffering. She was seriously injured from a 70 foot fall and she chose to face her suffering by praying for aborted babies and her father. Angela’s father later said, "The purpose of suffering is to soften our hearts."

Angela was a pro-life leader on her college campus, and has inspired many young people, both before and after her death, to stand up for the unborn in a public way.

We have commemorated Angela’s death with a series of memorial Masses so as to bring attention to her prolife work, the greatest of which she undertook as she died in hopes that her suffering and the sufferings of others will indeed soften the hearts of all abortion advocates, including the mothers who seek to abort their children.

Fr. Peter West of Priests for Life celebrated a Mass for Angela on Saturday January 2, 1999 at the National Monument for the Unborn, Chattanooga, Tennessee. (Phone 800-505-5565).

A Mass was celebrated at Angela’s alma mater, Thomas Aquinas College, Santa Paula, California on November 6, 1998, the first anniversary of her death. Fr. Denis G. Wilde, OSA represented Priests for Life. Another Mass was celebrated by Fr. Frank Pavone in Rome.