FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Leslie Palma - 917-697-7039
TITUSVILLE, FL -- Father Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, and Janet Morana, Executive Director, today released statements regarding claims in a new documentary that Norma McCorvey – Jane Roe in the Roe v. Wade decision – was insincere in her conversion to pro-life.
“One would think that any normal or honest person who wants to understand the journey of Norma McCorvey would talk with those who journeyed with her,” Father Pavone said.” I knew her and was one of her key spiritual guides for 22 years, starting in 1995 with her baptism, right through the conversation we had on the day she died. I was privileged to lead and preach at her funeral. I knew her struggles and her pain. She didn’t just have positions; she had deep wounds because of her involvement with Roe vs. Wade, and I guided her through the healing of those wounds, in the quiet hours of struggle that nobody saw or heard about. Those are things you don’t fake.
“Yes, she not only rejected abortion, but she became a new creation in Christ. I received her into the Catholic Church and rejoiced together with her as she discovered day by day the joy of prayer, and in her final years made rosaries by hand to help others experience that same joy. Her desire to protect children in the womb was no act.
“There have always been people who have tried to reshape her story, or get her to reshape it. She resented that and would resent it today. Norma was not somebody you could come to know in a snapshot, in an interview, or even in years of interviews. I’ll have a lot more to say about this once I see the documentary.”
Mrs. Morana said she and Norma were friends - shopping together, staying in each other’s homes, traveling to conferences together and talking on the phone regularly for two decades.
“Her daughter Melissa called Father Pavone and me on the day she was dying, and both of us spoke to Norma. She made me promise that we would continue to fight the unjust decision made in her name. Whatever she may have said to this filmmaker, and for whatever reason, can in no way to rewrite what we lived through together for decades.”
Fr. Frank and Janet did a live broadcast today in the light of the announcements of this documentary. You can view it here and on various social media platforms. For more information, see www.PriestsForLife.org/Norma.
Priests for Life (EndAbortion.US) is the world’s largest Catholic pro-life organization dedicated exclusively to ending abortion. Pro-life efforts are working. The abortion rate in America is the lowest it has been since Roe v. Wade and in recent years states have passed more than 400 laws to protect the unborn. The number of freestanding abortion clinics in the U.S. has dropped from 2179 in 1991 down to 710 today, and President Trump has placed more than 200 (and counting) pro-life judges on the federal bench.
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