One hundred and sixty. It’s a number etched on Sister Roseann Reddy’s heart. That is the number of babies saved from abortion since the Sisters of the Gospel of Life were formed on 1 January 2000.
The Sisters of the Gospel of Life are based on the south side of Glasgow in Scotland. It is the only order of its kind in Europe which means inquiries and requests for help come from near and far. And it’s a relatively new order – the first in Scotland for over 150 years – formed by Sr. Roseann and Sr. Andrea Fraile under the auspices of the late Cardinal Thomas Winning, with the mission to help women with unexpected pregnancies.
“For many years, the Catholic Church in Scotland had faced a barrage of criticism whenever it spoke out against abortion,” explains Sr. Roseann. “The mainstream media and feminist groups would ask why the Catholic Church opposed abortion but did not offer financial support to women with the cost of a new baby.
“So, on Mothering Sunday, March 1997, Cardinal Winning held a press conference at which he invited any woman facing a crisis pregnancy or suffering in the aftermath of abortion to come to the Catholic Church for help, including financial assistance. The media immediately accused the Cardinal of trying to bribe mums with a cash for babies scheme. It seems whatever the Church does, it can’t win.”
One surprising word of secular support, however, came from the prominent feminist, author and atheist, Germaine Greer.
“She asked why people were so angry about the Cardinal’s statement as all he did was offer women another choice? It was wonderful to have her support,” Sr. Roseann says.
At the time, Sr Roseann was working as a lay woman in an admin position at the Archdiocese of Glasgow’s offices. Aside from her job, she had been involved with the pro-life movement “for as long as I can remember”.
“The Cardinal realised he would need someone to help with the inquiries that the Church received following his Mothering Sunday statement,” she adds. “He asked me if I would be willing to do this? I told him the two great loves of my life had been, and always will be, the Church and the pro-life cause. I was therefore happy to do what I could, never for a minute knowing that only two short years later I would tell the Cardinal that I felt God was calling us to form a new religious community based on John Paul II’s encyclical Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life).”
Following a year of discernment and preparation, she co-founded the Sisters of the Gospel of Life in January 2000.
“Since then we have lived together in a community which, although small, has a powerful effect on many people,” Sr. Roseann says. “Even in this day and age there is an incredible witness value in authentic religious life, lived abundantly for the sake of the Kingdom.”
The Sisters were initially offered a small office space but soon realised they needed bigger premises. For the past twenty years, they have rented the former church hall from the nearby Holy Cross parish. The main hall is jammed with prams, boxes of nappies, baby and children’s clothes, creams, soaps – everything a new baby requires. There are counselling rooms, bathrooms, office space and a kitchen, the last of which has become one of the busiest places in the entire complex.
In the early years, women would simply turn up at the main door, often late at night, although many now make contact by phone or the internet. Usually, the first port of call after arriving is that kitchen for a cup of tea, coffee and a chat.
It is also there that Sr. Roseann reads through some of the many letters and messages women have sent the nuns. One states: “Thank you so much for everything. I am alive today because of you. If not for your quick intervention maybe I would have aborted the twins and I know I would have died with the guilt.”
Another explains: “Just sending an update on our lovely boy and to tell you how much we appreciate the help you have given us. It is down to your support that our son is here. Thank you.”
Cardinal Winning made his Mothering Sunday speech in 1997, thirty years after the Abortion Act was passed in Britain which resulted in abortion becoming virtually available on demand. Back then, there was a high rate of teenage pregnancies. It was still considered a scandal for an unmarried woman to become pregnant and she was often kicked out of the family home.
“Some of the mothers had already booked an abortion at a clinic,” Sr. Roseann says. “Others were on their way to make an appointment when they stopped by our office or called our number. I reckon we have counselled four thousand women so we may never know how many more mothers decided not to go ahead with an abortion.”
During a radio interview on abortion shortly after the Order was founded, Sr. Roseann was badgered by the host who insisted the answer to unwanted pregnancy was more explicit sex education in schools. The Church, he claimed, had a problem with sex and needed to “get with” the sexual revolution as many young people were unaware of the consequences of unprotected sex.
In her typical Glaswegian no-nonsense style, Sr. Roseann replied: “Look, I’m a nun and even I know how you get pregnant.”
She goes on to argue: “It’s society, not the Catholic Church, that has a problem with sex. You can’t watch a TV soap or movie or even look at an advert in a magazine without sex being shoved in your face. Have you watched a music video or listened to the explicit sexual content in songs aimed at children as young as ten or eleven?”
Today, the Sisters of the Gospel of Life say that while they still receive cries for practical help, there has been a dramatic shift in the reasons women contact them. Thirty years ago, a woman needed to ask her local doctor to provide contraceptive pills. Now those, as well as abortive pills, can be obtained anonymously online and through the mail.
“A teenage girl can order contraception from her mobilel phone in the privacy of her bedroom or from the school playground. Her parents might not even know their daughter is pregnant,” says Sr. Roseann. “But the terrible effects of abortion are no less serious. Often women come to see us who are suffering from depression, mental health issues and loneliness. The guilt and pain they suffer is very real but they have no one to talk to because more and more people are living alone.
“Today, society seems to emphasise individuality and independence, which is good in some ways, but [it] can also lead to more and more people becoming isolated, living desperate lives online. Many women tell us if there was only some way they could have their baby they would. We tell them if they need practical items, from nappies to clothes, then we can supply everything.
“If they need help accessing social security, we will help with the form filling and go along to the office with them. We even have volunteers who will baby sit if the women are studying for exams or have a job to go to.”
At the heart of the ministry is the charism of the Sisters, based on Evangelium Vitae. There are currently three sisters who meet for daily Mass, a daily Holy Hour, to pray the Rosary and attending retreat days.
“We live in community, sharing the ordinary things of life like our faith, domestic duties, recreation, friends, family and our vision of a world where all human life is respected and protected from conception to natural death,” says Sr. Roseann.
“We work together at the Pro-Life Initiative which is our main, but not exclusive, apostolate. Our work is challenging, exciting, life-giving and vital in these times. If we had fifty more sisters, we could keep them all busy.
“Inspired by the Gospel of Life we feel called as individuals with our own unique gifts to address creatively and imaginatively, and in a way that is radical and dynamic, the needs of Church and society today.
“These specific needs concern combating the culture of death by creating a civilisation of love. Our primary mission is to centre our lives on Jesus Christ through a call to personal holiness achieved by a life of prayer and action, the contemplative dimension of which focuses on personal and community prayer, the Sacrifice of the Mass and Adoration.
“Through our contemplation, we lovingly embrace the joy of the Cross in the total surrender of our lives. Our community aims to be a witness to the world that Christ came, so we might have life and have it to the full.
“Each is called to reach a personal freedom through poverty, chastity and obedience and in living lives of simplicity and truth. The community should seek to use the gifts of each member of the community for the greater glory of God, the joy of the individual and the salvation of the world, always in constant fidelity to the Holy Father and the Magisterium of the Church.”
And then there is that number. 160.
“It is wonderful to think that many of those 160 children have probably completed college or started a job or are married,” Sr. Roseann says. “Many do come to see us, with their mums. It is very emotional and we always thank the Lord for every precious life.”
Photo: A mother carries her child from school in the Barlanark area of Glasgow, Scotland, 16 June 2004. The Barlanark area was identified in a survey as officially being the most deprived area of Scotland. The study measures deprivation by health, housing, income, unemployment and education. While Barlanark topped the scale of multiple deprivation, the city of Glasgow collectively housed 17 of the 20 most deprived areas in Scotland. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images.)
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