Editor's Desk: Don't Touch That Dial

By Michael F. Flach
Herald Columnist
(From the issue of 3/8/07)

An early-afternoon accident last week near the American Legion Bridge closed two lanes of the Capital Beltway. The ensuing traffic backup extended well into rush hour. A few hours after the initial accident it took me over an hour to drive from Annandale to Tyson’s Corner, a trip that under normal conditions might take 15 minutes.
Even under normal conditions, Washingtonians spend a lot of time in their cars. The radio thus becomes an important part of any local trip. When you’re stuck in traffic over the next four weeks on Route 66 or the Dulles Toll Road, don’t be surprised if you hear an ad campaign offering post-abortion healing.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has joined forces with the Project Rachel offices of the Arlington Diocese and the Archdiocese of Washington to sponsor a 60-second spot that was produced by the conference’s Pro-Life Secretariat. Vitae Caring Foundation coordinates the campaign and provides matching funds to place the ads. A similar ad campaign aired in the Washington area in 2000 during the Great Jubilee Year.
The feature ad, “Everyone Said,” is running on popular music radio stations. It also can be heard online at the Project Rachel Web site www.hopeafterabortion.com/listen.cfm. The ad invites listeners to contact Project Rachel, the Church’s confidential outreach to women and men suffering after abortion.
“Countless women and men suffer in silent isolation for years after abortion,” said Deirdre McQuade, spokeswoman on abortion-related issues for the Pro-Life Secretariat. “Project Rachel offers reconciliation and guides them on the journey to healing. Nothing falls outside the scope of God’s mercy, not even multiple abortions.”
Sarah LaPierre is director of Project Rachel Post-Abortion Counseling in the Arlington Diocese. Her office, which also coordinates Gabriel Project Pregnancy Assistance, falls under the jurisdiction of the Office for Family Life, directed by Therese Bermpohl. It is one of many diocesan offices funded annually by the Bishop’s Lenten Appeal (BLA). The local contact number is 1-888-456-HOPE. The email address is projectrachel@arlingtondiocese.org.

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Going almost unnoticed last week was the announced retirement of Frances Kissling, director for 25 years of the pro-abortion organization known as Catholics for a Free Choice. Kissling described her efforts as a "church reform group," but the U.S. bishops' Administrative Committee said in 1993 that the group had no affiliation, formal or otherwise, with the Catholic Church and in no way speak for the Church and its 59 million members in the U.S.
The bishops charged that Catholics for a Free Choice was associated with the pro-abortion lobby in Washington and was mostly funded by secular organizations supporting legal abortion in this country and abroad. With little or no membership, Kissling received most of her financial support from the Ford Foundation, the Warren Buffet Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the Packard Foundation and the Playboy Foundation. She will be succeeded by Jon O’Brien, former director of communications for the Irish Family Planning Association in Dublin. – M.F.F.

(c) Copyright 2007 by Arlington Catholic Herald