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San Bernardo (Agenzia Fides) -"Family, Missionary of Live and Post Abortion Care" is the theme of the first national Congress on post-abortion pastoral care organised for the 5 and 6 October by the Hope Project Corporation, the diocese of San Bernardo and the Family Delegate of the archdiocese of Famiglia Santiago. The purpose of the Congress is to inform people of the serious consequences of abortion and its effects on the lives of those involved and to explain post-abortion care to heal the suffering caused by abortion. Testimonials from Chile and other countries will be presented.
The Congress aims to adopt the recommendations issued by 5th General Conference of the Council of Bishops' Conferences of Latin America and the Caribbean in Aparecida which underlined the need to "offer special loving care and solidarity to women who decide not to have an abortion but also to welcome with loving mercy those who do have an abortion, to heal their deep wounds and lead them to defend life ". The Congress is open to priests, religious, pastoral workers, catechists, doctors, nurses, social workers, counselling and family.
The Congress will be opened by Bishop Juan Ignacio González of San Bernardo who will speak on the theme "Hope for a Culture of Life" . Other Conference themes will include: "The Family and Life in the new pastoral guidelines of the Church in Latin America, continent of Hope" by Luís Jensen and Pilar Escudero, the only married couple to take part in the 5th CELAM conference in Aparecida; "Family and Life in international and national networks"; "Legislation in Chile: pro-life heritage"; "The woman, abortion's second victim: psychological consequences"; "The woman, abortion's second victim: post-abortion pain". There will be a panel discussion on "Project Hope a path of spiritual care for women who have had an abortion" with testimony from Chile, Peru, Ecuador and Mexico. Cardinal Francisco Javier Errázuriz Ossa, Archbishop of Santiago de Chile, will preside a special Mass. On Saturday 6 October in San Bernardo there will be the blessing of a Memorial to the Unborn Child in the morning and in the afternoon a Pro-Life and Family March to the national Marian Shrine of Maipú.
Project Hope is a care programme involving women or men who lost a child before its birth, especially in cases of induced abortion, and who suffer from post-abortion syndrome. They are supported in this undertaking by professional doctors as well as priests and bishops. The Programme was started in Chile in 1999, not far from the Schoenstatt Shrine in Bellavista, by a group of professional lay persons who were encouraged and advised by the Apostolic Movement of Schoenstatt. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 5/10/2007; righe 33, parole 435)
