Pro-life conversion of "champion of abortion"
1) Eucharistic Adoration, 7-8 pm, SAA Church. All are invited!
2)DC ‘Hood vs. St Andrew + St John the Baptist, 7:30 pm, Wheaton HS. If you’re not able to attend the game, please say a prayer for vocations today.
3) Youth Group fundraiser. Our Youth Group will be raking leaves tomorrow, Nov. 22, from 9 am – 12 noon for donations. If you know of anyone – particularly those who are elderly - who needs their yard raked, please call me today (301.649.3700 ext. 314).
-------------------------------
Today is the memorial of the Presentation of the Virgin Mary. We regularly see evidence of Mary’s powerful intercession in our world, especially with regards to the pro-life movement (e.g., conversion stories, abortion centers being closed). Most likely, the following story from Catholic News Agency is another example of this evidence.
Madrid Nov 12, 2008 / 09:21 pm (CNA).- The Spanish daily “La Razon” has published an article on the pro-life conversion of a former “champion of abortion.” Stojan Adasevic, who performed 48,000 abortions, sometimes up to 35 per day, is now the most important pro-life leader in Serbia, after 26 years as the most renowned abortion doctor in the country.
“The medical textbooks of the Communist regime said abortion was simply the removal of a blob of tissue,” the newspaper reported. “Ultrasounds allowing the fetus to be seen did not arrive until the 80s, but they did not change his opinion. Nevertheless, he began to have nightmares.”
In describing his conversion, Adasevic “dreamed about a beautiful field full of children and young people who were playing and laughing, from 4 to 24 years of age, but who ran away from him in fear. A man dressed in a black and white habit stared at him in silence. The dream was repeated each night and he would wake up in a cold sweat. One night he asked the man in black and white who he was. ‘My name is Thomas Aquinas,’ the man in his dream responded. Adasevic, educated in communist schools, had never heard of the Dominican genius saint. He didn’t recognize the name”
“Why don’t you ask me who these children are?” St. Thomas asked Adasevic in his dream.
“They are the ones you killed with your abortions,’ St. Thomas told him.
“Adasevic awoke in amazement and decided not to perform any more abortions,” the article stated.
“That same day a cousin came to the hospital with his four months-pregnant girlfriend, who wanted to get her ninth abortion—something quite frequent in the countries of the Soviet bloc.
The doctor agreed. Instead of removing the fetus piece by piece, he decided to chop it up and remove it as a mass. However, the baby’s heart came out still beating. Adasevic realized then that he had killed a human being,”
After this experience, Adasevic “told the hospital he would no longer perform abortions. Never before had a doctor in Communist Yugoslavia refused to do so. They cut his salary in half, fired his daughter from her job, and did not allow his son to enter the university.”
After years of pressure and on the verge of giving up, he had another dream about St. Thomas.
“You are my good friend, keep going,’ the man in black and white told him. Adasevic became involved in the pro-life movement and was able to get Yugoslav television to air the film ‘The Silent Scream,’ by Doctor Bernard Nathanson, two times.”
Adasevic has told his story in magazines and newspapers throughout Eastern Europe. He has returned to the Orthodox faith of his childhood and has studied the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas.
“Influenced by Aristotle, Thomas wrote that human life begins forty days after fertilization,” Adasevic wrote in one article. La Razon commented that Adasevic “suggests that perhaps the saint wanted to make amends for that error.” Today the Serbian doctor continues to fight for the lives of the unborn.
posted by Fr Greg @ 9:47 AM
10 comments
10 Comments:
Let's pray president-elect Obama has such an enlightening experience.
Another story of conversion, one which may be familiar to many, is that of "Jane Roe," of Roe v Wade.
Norma McCorvey (Roe) once an abortion rights activist, is now a pro-life advocate, and operates her own "Roe No More" ministry, proving once again that with God anything is possible.
"Each of them is Jesus in disguise." ~Mother Teresa
What an awesome conversion!!
Thanks FG for this information.
Carol
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/14/AR2008111401698.html
There was an interesting article in this Sunday's (11/23/08) Post Magazine about a medical student considering whether she would be an abortion provider.
That article made me sick.
I understand that there are people who are misguided in their beliefs that life doesn't begin at conception, but I do not understand someone who witnesses the progression of life, medically and scientifically, having the same view.
In the section of the article where the woman about to have an abortion did an ultrasound to see if sex could be determined, I wondered why. What would the doc's have done if she said, "Okay, girl-I keep, boy- I abort."
I find it disturbing to get inside the head of people who think like this.
The article was extremely disturbing.
Equally disturbing was the Editor's Note. In it, the editor of the WashPost Magazine juxtaposed his son's college search, and the subsequent choice he/they would have to make, with that of the medical student and the choice she would have to make regarding her career as possible abortion provider! That any kind of parallel can be drawn between the two, is beyond my comprehension.
If schools are going to teach safe sex, they should teach about ALL potential consequences as well- perhaps in graphic,cold, hard detail. If people want to make it "normal" to have sex outside of marriage, then the real details about the realities that result from those choices should be clearly represented. (BTW- I don't think safe sex should be taught, but while it is, maybe this should accompany)
How many teenage girls would consider abortion a viable option if they were taught (before they had sex) what the actual procedure of abortion entails? The moral issue is horrific, but even if that weren't allowed to be discussed, the procedure alone is horrific.
My daughter had such a discussion in one of her classes. She learned about what is done for a partial birth abortion and came home extemely distraught. At first, I was a upset (she had to sleep with me that night), but the impact it made on her wasn't a bad one; it made her not only resolute but rather militant in her views- abortion is 100% wrong, 100% of the time. The truth is the truth and should sometimes be given in all its gory detail.
And on the flip side, there is a wonderful DVD, put out by the American Life League, called, "Baby Steps."
It is a short, sweetly narrated video which follows the development of the unborn baby. I think it would be suitable for a variety of ages and would be informative re: the sancitity of life at all stages of development.
Fran- I agree. The miracle of life should be the first inspirational msg our kids get. Maybe that's why all that hit my daughter so hard; she was present for the sonogram of her younger sister (when we learned her gender). She connected the dots...a baby at that gestational age could be aborted, and the solid fact that the world could be without her wonderful sister (if I so chose) was a reality she understood. However, the sanctity of life should be taught from the point of life first. Good point!
I have a funny story about teaching about life-
My daughter asked me where she came from. We sat down and I gave her an age appropriate response that included marriage, an expression of love, and a baby growing in a mother’s womb, etc. When I asked if she had any questions, and she said, “Kind of- I need to know where I came from.” She showed me a school paper that outlined a new assignment- a cultural family history. “Where she came from” was supposed to be Italy, Ireland or Poland.
Post a Comment
<< Home