(Oregon Right to Life) — Catholic nuns from convents across the country are sending Christmas cards to abortion facility staff this year as part of a pro-life Christmas outreach effort launched by prominent pro-life leader Abby Johnson.
Long Island certified pregnancy care counselor Patty Knap wrote about the unique outreach effort in a December 1 article published by The Federalist, noting that the nuns’ cards “can be a lifeline to workers feeling trapped and searching for a way out of the abortion industry. They serve as a reminder that there can be a new beginning in Jesus Christ.”
The project, now in its fifth year, was launched by Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood clinic director who subsequently founded the pro-life organization And Then There Were None (ATTWN), which helps abortion facility workers exit the abortion industry. According to Knap, ATTWN provides boxes of cards addressed to abortion facilities to the convents. The nuns then write kind, caring messages to abortion facility staff, informing them of their prayers for them and gently yet powerfully urging them to quit their abortion industry jobs.
Sr. Christina Nazareth, a Capuchin sister at a contemplative convent in Pennsylvania, told Knap that the nuns in her Williamsport convent “sit down to write notes on each Christmas card, expressing prayer and concern for abortion center staff” at the start of each Advent.
“All the cards are placed on our altar by the Blessed Sacrament. We pray that our Lord will bless them and get them into the hands that need them,” Sr. Christina told Knap.
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In an August 2022 Facebook post highlighted in the Federalist article, Abby Johnson wrote that sisters from 21 convents had participated in the project the prior year and invited more nuns to take part.
“There was a Franciscan nun who prayed for me while I worked at Planned Parenthood, and her steady, peaceful presence had a profound impact on me,” Johnson shared at the time. “There was no condemnation from her, only prayers. She served as a reminder to me that something much better was outside of the tall iron fence that was supposed to make me safe but had started to feel more like a cage.”
Johnson also noted that the holiday season – November and December – are her organization’s “busiest months with our highest volume of calls from abortion workers who just can’t take it anymore” and want to leave their abortion industry jobs.
Johnson’s organization has been making contact with each of the participating convents every summer that the project has been going to see whether they’re willing to participate again in the upcoming Christmas, Knap said.
“Despite illnesses, strokes, and even nasty responses from abortion clinics, they keep going and are overjoyed to assist,” Karen Herzog, director of marketing and communications at ATTWN, said, according to the article.
The nuns may not always know how much their cards impact their recipients. But sometimes they do get to know the effect they’ve had.
Knap shared a story of one abortion facility staff member who received one of the nuns’ “beautiful,” “handwritten” cards.
“I asked a colleague if the letter was real, and she said don’t pay any attention to it,” the woman said, according to Knap. “Something prompted me, which I know is the Holy Spirit, to put it in my bag and bring it home.” She called ATTWN, which helped her find employment outside the abortion industry. The organization also helped her connect with other people with similar stories as well as “healing retreat programs.”
Pro-life religious sisters like those engaged in Johnson’s Christmas card outreach make a powerful impact on the pro-life movement and on the lives of abortion-vulnerable moms and families.
One order of Catholic religious women, the Sisters of Life, is uniquely dedicated to a pro-life mission. With locations nationwide, the Sisters of Life provide emotional, spiritual, and tangible resources to help abortion-vulnerable moms choose life. They also provide healing and support for women who have had abortions. The sisters additionally host retreats, give talks, and spread the pro-life message through their digital presence on YouTube and podcast apps.
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In February of last year, members of the Sisters of Life traveled to Oregon for a three-day mission trip.
“We would just want to tell pro-lifers ‘thank you,’” Sister Ann Immaculée, SV, told Oregon Right to Life after her talk at Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church in Lake Oswego.
“We’re so encouraged by you standing as lights in the darkness,” she said, adding that, even in a place like Oregon where abortion is legal up until the moment of birth, “there’s always hope.”
She urged pro-life people “to never doubt that Jesus Christ is fighting this battle in you, and with you, and for you, and has a plan for Oregon. He has a plan for victory.”
