WASHINGTON — Pope Francis has spent his papacy reflecting on the
role of mothers in society and trying to bring that maternal warmth to the
Catholic Church.
Though Mother’s Day is a time when people all over the world
honor motherhood, the pope takes the opportunity throughout the liturgical year
to express his admiration of mothers, who he says are not always held in the
right regard and “barely heard” in the church.
He frequently says he wants the church to be a loving mother,
using the example of Mary, whose humility and tenderness aren’t virtues of the
weak, but of the strong, and that we don’t have to mistreat others to feel
important and make a difference.
In a letter to the world’s bishops marking the feast of the Holy
Innocents Dec. 28, 2016, Pope Francis said they must listen for the sobbing of
today’s mothers because there are so many new Herods today, killing the young
with their tyranny and “unbridled thirst for power.”
Listen to where the cries are coming from, he said; they are not
to be ignored or silenced. It’s going to take courage to first acknowledge this
difficult reality and work to ensure “the bare minimum needed so that
their dignity as God’s children will not only be respected but, above all,
defended.”
This year in the United States and in dozens of other countries,
Mother’s Day is observed May 14.
For Kathleen Wilson of Fredericksburg, her role as mother reaches
beyond her responsibilities to her 12 biological and adopted children.
The pro-life activist is a founder of Mary’s Shelter, a program
that provides expectant mothers in crisis with housing, counseling and
parenting classes to help them as they carry their babies to term and sometimes
for years after they give birth.
Wilson sees this mission as an extension of her faith and
motherhood.
Mary’s Shelter was established following an encounter she had
with a woman outside of an abortion clinic who was intending to end her
pregnancy, Wilson said in a March interview at her home.
While she was praying outside of the Washington abortion clinic,
Wilson noticed the woman driving around the block several times and then
sitting in her car.
“We (members of the prayer group) could tell she was
hesitant to go into the clinic while we were praying outside,” she said.
“I walked up to her car, she rolled down the window and I asked her if I
could help.
“This woman just looked at me and asked, ‘What can you help
me with?’ The truth is, I had nothing. No answers for her.”
It was wake-up call for Wilson that if she was really going to
make a difference in the pro-life movement, she was going to have to be able to
help women who see no other choice than to end their pregnancy with abortion.
Activists who support legal abortion frequently criticize
pro-life crusaders as zealots who want to impose their sense of morality on
pregnant women who face a crisis without offering tangible resolutions for
their situation.
Wilson decided if she was going to tout pro-life morals, she was
going to have to offer pro-life solutions.
“I do see this as part of my role as mother,” she said.
“It’s not just about saving the babies, but it’s also about saving their
mothers and hopefully allowing them to know the joys of motherhood.”
While acknowledging that motherhood comes with tremendous
sacrifice, responsibility, hard work and heartache, Wilson said all of that,
for her, is overshadowed by the jubilation parenthood provides.
Pope Francis points to a few of his favorite biblical heroines as
examples of a mother, praising the seemingly contradictory qualities of each:
Like Mary, she is silently compliant to God’s will; like Rachel, she weeps
inconsolably, drawing God’s and the world’s attention to a reality people would
rather ignore; and like the persistent widow, she doesn’t let being a nobody
stop her from speaking up against injustice, making a fuss and pestering the
one who does have power to make things right.
Those are the qualities embodied by the mother of Maureen Antwan,
an Iraqi Chaldean who has resettled in the Phoenix area.
Antwan, a parent of two sons, said her mother, Suaad Nissan, was
willing to sacrifice her life for that of her family.
She put her family foremost and thought of her children first,
“even if she loses everything,” Antwan said of her mother.
Antwan very much mirrors her mother. The children come first and
both women would gladly give up their own comforts so that their children have
the best life possible.
Amy Laddbush of Bowie, Md., believes it’s her duty as a Catholic
mother to nurture the faith of her 11 children.
Since Laddbush is relying on the church to be her family’s
spiritual and moral backbone, she said it’s incumbent upon her to provide them
with the lessons of the religion.
“It’s really the greatest gift I can give my children,”
she said. “It’s my job as their mother to raise them to be good and kind
people. Bringing them up in the church is the best way I know how to do
that.”
Carol Glatz, Tyler Orsburn and Nancy Wiechec contributed
to this story.
