Friends,
It was ten years ago this week that I had the joy, along with Fr. Ed Robinson of Dallas, of receiving Norma McCorvey into the Catholic Church and bestowing on her the Sacrament of Confirmation.
(Norma was the “Jane Roe” of the Supreme Court’s Roe vs. Wade decision that legalized abortion throughout pregnancy.)
Rev. Flip Benham of Operation Save America (then Operation Rescue National) had reached out to her in love and gentleness, and brought her to the point where she willingly accepted baptism at his hands in 1995. What a glorious victory for the Gospel of Life!
Then, three years later, she was ready to enter the Catholic Church. I was serving in Rome at the time, at the Pontifical Council for the Family, and I remember the email she sent me requesting a rosary. That was the point at which it was clear to me that she was going to enter the Church.
I had not asked her to do so; I had simply invited her to join me at various events when I was in the Dallas area, and had answered all her questions about the Faith (such as, “Father, is there such a thing as a born-again Catholic?” Of course, my reply was “Yes!”)
You can read more about Norma and her story at www.priestsforlife.org/norma
Blessings,
Fr. Frank