STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - On Saturday, Jan. 2, 1999, Father Peter West of Priests for Life offered a Memorial Mass for Angela Baird. The Mass was offered at the National Memorial to the Unborn in Chattanooga, Tenn. Angela was a 19-year-old St. Thomas Aquinas College student and pro-life activist from Spokane, Wash., who died in November 1997 after a fall while hiking in the mountains near her school in California.
Father West said, "Pro-life people all over the country have been touched by Angela's love and concern for the unborn even as she was dying." Angela had fallen 70 feet into a ravine. As she waited for hours to be taken to the hospital, she prayed the rosary for the pre-born babies and her family. Father West continued, "But even before her death she was an example for all of us by her dedication and perseverance in prayer and charity. She faithfully prayed each week in front of the abortion mills either in Spokane, Wash., or Ventura, Calif. Angela had a tender heart for pre-born babies and offered concrete assistance to women in crisis pregnancies."
Father Frank Pavone, international director of Priests for Life and an official of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Family, said, "Priests for Life desires to present to the youth of our day Angela's marvelous example. Roe vs. Wade declared of all those in their mothers' wombs after Jan. 22, 1973, that they were not persons under the law. When the young speak up for the unborn, they speak in a poignant way also for themselves. They are not merely future leaders of the pro-life movement; they are leaders today."
A booklet entitled "Princess of the Unborn - Angela Louise Baird" is available from Catholics United For Life, New Hope, KY 40052.
Father Pavone is a priest of the New York archdiocese and an official of the Pontifical Council for the Family at the Vatican where he helps to coordinate pro-life activities throughout the world. He has led the Priests for Life movement throughout the world since 1993. Priests for Life is an association recognized under the Canon Law of the Catholic Church.
Editor's Note: Copies of "Princess of the Unborn" are available at the Family Resources Center, (309) 637-1713. Videos and cassettes by Father Pavone are also available.