Fall 2024 Greetings
to our English-speaking friends
from the Rachel's Vineyard Italy Mission
The HOPE Monument
has arrived in Italy!
August 2024
Artist Beverly Paddleford with Italy Hope Monument
before it is shipped from Wyoming to Italy
13-15 September 2024
Perguia, Italy
The Hope Monument's first engagement was at a weekend retreat
for parents who have suffered the death of a child.
Rachel's Vineyard offered an exhibit table and our 2 collaborators,
pictured here, spoke for 15 minutes about the ministry.
Several participants personally expressed gratitude,
sharing privately their own abortion experiences.
"Her Choice" by Diana Botkin
Sign-ups began in mid-September for our Fall Retreat,
to be held October 25-27 in Bologna.
A diverse group of women and men are already expressing interest.
We anticipate the retreat will come close to financing itself,
thanks to the few Italian donations that always help supplement program fees.
Yet there is presently a critical Italy Mission funding need!
URGENT
Autumn FUNDING NEED:
Because the Italy Mission had no Stateside sponsorship for approximately 2 years,
we started year 2024 from scratch.
Thankfully, our 2 Knights of Columbus Councils are again supporting us,
as are some of our longtime friends.
But we are still in a long "rebuilding" season.
In this, our first year of expanded activities following the pandemic,
we stepped out in faith and took part in various special events highlighted below,
knowing we would have to seek funding as the year progressed.
While year 2024 has brought us new and much-needed exposure in Italy,
this leap of faith has led to never-before encountered financial strain for our Mission.
When the "Hope for Italy" Monument was completed ahead of schedule in June,
I was granted permission by the administrators at the Goretti Group
to raise $5,000 to help our Italian friends pay the final half of their total balance of over $35,000.
We achieved that goal, assisting the Italian project sponsors to "cross the finish line"
so "HOPE" could be shipped to Italy.
But this led me to neglect fundraising for our general programs.
I must now bring in funds for our most recent special events,
for which my husband and I advanced personal funds
and have yet to be reimbursed:
$1,200 Rome Walk for Life w/ Exhibit & Dinner for Women
$1,000 Veneto Team Formation & research new retreat venues
$450 Veneto Christian Music Concert w/ Exhibit & RV Testimony
$1,000 Veneto 2 Dinner Events (1 for women, 1 for helping professions)
All these events required lengthy travels and overnight lodgings
beyond our regular activities,
but they are already bearing fruit
in new connections and new collaborations.
Below you'll find photos from some of our Year 2024 special activities.
Your Italy Mission Partnership for 2024 and beyond
We can only continue this vital work
with your prayer support
and your sacrificial giving!
Please help fund our Year 2024 activities
with an Autumn Gift
made today by check (preferred) or credit card!
The Rachel's Vineyard Italy Mission is now administered by
The Goretti Group,
a Catholic ministry and 501(c) (3) Non-Profit Corporation based in San Diego, CA
Response Form 2024
(to accompany donation by check)
Our Response Form details how to make a tax-deductible Gift by Check
to the Rachel's Vineyard Italy Mission.
Gifts made by Check continue to be sent
to our collaborator Robin Conway in La Selva Beach, California
for
forwarding to our The Goretti Group.
NOTE for year 2024:
Checks are now made out to The Goretti Group
with a MEMO: Rachel's Vineyard Italy Mission.
Donations to the Italy Mission
can now also be made by Credit Card at
The Goretti Group website:
IMPORTANT for CREDIT CARD DONATIONS:
Please read below!
When declaring your gift amount you must also click + Add special instructions to the seller
and NOTE "Rachel's Vineyard Italy Mission".
I also ask those of you who give by Credit Card to inform me directly
(Italy Mission director Monika Rodman)
by sending a brief email to mimmont@hotmail.com .
In this way I can track the arrival of your Credit Card donation
with our sponsors in San Diego.
We thank you in advance for helping us flag the attention
of The Goretti Group to gifts restricted for
Rachel's Vineyard Italy Mission
arriving by Credit Card.
Thank you for your active support of the Italy Mission!
A special "Grazie!" to those of you
making a "first time in a long time" donation
To our Retired Friends:
If you have begun taking retirement account withdrawals (RMD's)
we invite you to consider a Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) to the Italy Mission.
If you are of an age to take an IRA required minimum
distribution (RMD), please consider making a qualified charitable distribution (QCD)
to the Rachel's Vineyard Italy Mission. In this way our ministry benefits while you can
exclude the amount of the QCD from your taxable income.
Because a QCD
reduces income and is not an itemized deduction, the gift benefits even
those donors who do not itemize on their tax return.
So if you're
in a position to still dedicate a Year 2024 RMD to charity, or if
you're considering such giving for Year 2025 and beyond, please
consider including the Italy Mission among the charities
to which you
direct a QCD.
You may divide your distribution
among as many
qualified charities as you wish, and for our part we will ensure that
you receive an acknowledgement proper to this form of giving. You may
also divide your Qualified Charitable Distribution to the Italy Mission
into more than one gift for the year.
Please contact Italy Mission director Monika Rodman at mimmont@hotmail.com to discuss this QCD possibility. I can then alert Robin Conway and The Goretti Group to your intentions, should you decide to make such a gift.
Year 2024 Italy Activities
A Spring retreat was held in the Lombardy region
and both winter and spring were filled with special events
in various Northern cities.
February 2024, Emilia-Romagna
A former abortion clinic worker from Spain
gave her testimony in 6 Italian cities.
One of our Italy team members
provided simultaneous translation for 3 of these events.
We stayed long after to speak and pray with those seeking us out.
May 2024, Venice
2 team members speak of Rachel's Vineyard
before one of them offers her personal testimony.
Despite stormy rain, the church was full for a Concert-
Testimony by Italian Catholic singer Debora Vezzani.
Monika and Domenico also travelled to the Veneto region
to meet with the team's 4 collaborators there.
This is one of Italy's regions
most dramatically experiencing intense secularization.
In the city of St. Anthony (Padova)
we are developing a relationship
with a women's religious community interested in our work.
The city is home to one of Italy's largest and most important universities.
In collaboration with our past participants
we took part in Rome's
June 22, 2024 "Choose Life" Walk.
This is always an important missionary event where we encounter
Italians from across the country and gain visibility among
Romans who may have never heard of
post-abortion help and healing.
This year we had an Exhibit Booth, while in other years
organizers have requested a Rachel's Vineyard testimony
on stage.
May 2023, Rome
One of our married participants
now collaborates in various ways.
Here she shares her and her husband's abortion story
at last year's "Choose Life" Walk.
We met (and are still praying for) Roman women like "Gaia"
who spoke with us at length,
sharing her own abortion experience
and grateful to learn of possibilities for healing.
"Abortion harms. Jesus heals."
(In Italian, the message rhymes!)
We lend out lovely signs to those wanting to carry
one of our messages affirming life
&
offering HELP and HOPE to those
who have experienced abortion.
The evening prior we offered a small-scale
informational dinner and evening of prayer
for potential retreat participants from Rome.
Team members
and 2 past participants
shared their experience
in Rachel's Vineyard.
These events become a "door of entry"
for those just discovering us.
A similar dinner event was offered
one week later in Venice - with 15 participants!
In Padova we hosted a dinner event for
those in the helping professions.
Italy Mission founders Monika & Domenico
The "HOPE for Loreto" Story:
Much energy was dedicated in 2024
to a collaboration which in 2025 will bring to the
Basilica of Our Lady of Loreto
the HOPE Monument,
sculpted by American artist Beverly Paddleford.
June 2024 brought the culmination of this exciting,
once-in-a-lifetime financial partnership
coinciding with the quickly approaching
Jubilee Year 2025.
With approval by The Goretti Group,
during June 2024
I raised $5,000 from select sponsors
who each made a one-time gift toward
the "HOPE" Monument.
8 households participated, not only with evangelizing zeal,
but often with personal motivations
ranging from Italian family heritage
to the loss of a child in the family.
"It was meant for us to be involved."
- Husband of one of the "HOPE for Loreto" sponsor couples
We continue to support HOPE for Loreto
by encouraging our Italian friends to donate directly to Loreto sponsors
to help with costs related to the park area
where the Monument will be installed in 2025.
Why the Hope Monument?
...women
say that after an abortion or miscarriage
there was no baby, no grave
site or memorial
and it was as though the child never existed.
No one
spoke of this child
or acknowledged his or her existence.
These women
felt the Hope Monument was "my baby's place".
It is a tangible spot
that acknowledges life,
confirms hope and conveys forgiveness where
needed.
I've heard many women and men
visit the Hope
Monument repeatedly
because it brings them comfort,
reminding them that
their child is with Jesus...
safe, secure and so loved.
I am so excited that the Monument will be coming to Italy
and I pray it ministers in ways unique to each visitor.
We are praising God for His incredible Goodness and Love.
Thank you for praying that He would place the monument there!"
- HOPE sculptress Beverly Paddleford, March 2024, Wyoming
2 min. Video!
YouTube:
Loreto's HOPE Monument for Italy (English)
Domenico and I have visited the precise site where HOPE will be planted.
It is a small green space just steps from the statue of Pope John XXIII,
on a major pedestrian thoroughfare leading to the Basilica courtyard.
Summary of the Hope for Loreto Project (English)
(1-pg. PDF w/ photos)
Hope Monument and the Italy Mission
Shortly after Jubilee 2000
Monika first discovered the Hope Monument
at the Archdiocese of Los Angeles Catechetical Congress in Anaheim,
where artist Beverly Paddleford and her husband exhibited yearly.
A friendship grew that led Beverly to donate a tabletop bronze statue
for the Rachel's Vineyard Retreats in California.
In 2007, another tabletop HOPE went to Italy on Mission!
Tabletop "HOPE" has for years accompanied us on retreats
and countless mission events across Italy.
It brightens up even the most dull event venue
before coming home to rest in its dedicated corner.
Planting "HOPE" in Italy
In 2015 a physician from Loreto, Italy
discovered the HOPE Monument
visiting our exhibit table
at an Italian Bishops conference on
Health Care Ministry.
Only in early 2024 did he write to us of his plan,
already well underway,
to install the Life-Size HOPE Monument
at the Basilica of Our Lady of Loreto,
a major Italian pilgrimage site.
We have seen the signed documents guiding the project.
Civic and Church approvals have been granted.
Catholic associations and the local Rotary Club are collaborating.
In September 2024 the Monument arrived in Italy
and had its first "missionary" stop.
It will travel across Italy during the next 10 months
before being permanently installed in Loreto.
Ever wonder why??
You may notice we post very few photos
of our team members and none of our retreat participants.
We love good photos, but are extremely respectful of our collaborators' privacy.
Thus we only publish photos of those team members who have agreed
for
their image to appear on the internet.
Even some of our most
dedicated team members
understandably prefer to retain their anonymity.
While some past participants feel called to later speak publicly
of their abortion experience and healing,
we never push such a move,
but encourage prudent discernment of any such decision.
Our new Stateside collaboration
with The Goretti Group
allows the Rachel's Vineyard Italy Mission
to again welcome your tax-deductible donations
to our missionary apostolate active in St. Maria Goretti's homeland!
We are confident this new collaboration will further enrich
the Rachel's Vineyard Italy Mission,
whose purpose remains unchanged:
In communion with the Universal Church
and in partnership with our American friends,
we strive to open doors of Mercy and Reconciliation
to all in Italy who bear the wounds of abortion.
Year 2023
Our silence during year 2023 perhaps led some of our faithful friends
and supporters to wonder if we continue our ministry.
We do indeed! Italy team
members pioneering a new retreat site have begun offering Rachel's
Vineyard retreat in the Milan region, at personal financial cost
since they have not enjoyed the reimbursements for various
expenses
which in the past were subsidized by our Stateside ministry
partners. In Fall 2024 we are also resuming retreats in Bologna, the
crossroads of Italy which continues to offer an advantageous geographic
position to arriving participants.
A brief explanation of our year-long silence is in order:
In 2022 our sponsoring ministry in Colorado went
through leadership changes and internal difficulties that did not
permit us to
continue to receive your Italy Mission gifts
there as we had for years. (It was providential that my longtime
contact there had advised me before her departure to find a new
Stateside sponsor, so we concluded that relationship on good terms,
without getting entangled in their subsequent difficulties.)
Rest assured: all Italy Mission donor funds given through Spring 2022 were properly disbursed to cover only Italy Mission expenses.
In 2023 Monika undertook a search for a new sponsor in this financial
partnership which has been critical to the Italy Mission's success.
Thanks to a member of the Knights of Columbus, we were led to a Catholic 501 (c) (3) Non-Profit Corporation whose leadership had attended a Mission talk I gave over in the Diocese of San Diego.
After prayerful consultation and discernment, a decision was ratified by the group's Board of Directors: in October 2023 we were offered the opportunity to collaborate with The Goretti Group, a Catholic non-profit 501(c)3 incorporated in the State of California and based in San Diego.
The Goretti Group
is an apostolic movement that responds to the "need to heal the
brokenness caused by sexual sin and to proclaim the beauty of pure
love." While the group's activities are specific to its unique mission of helping Christians in every state of life "experience the joy of purity", our shared vision is evident.
The experience of abortion is one of the wounds known to The Goretti Group.
As you can imagine, our apostolates share a central emphasis on purity, mercy and forgiveness.
And the Goretti apostolate
will surely offer precious experience and resources that we might
integrate into our "aftercare" companioning of those who have
participated in Rachel's Vineyard.
If you'd like to read more, see the following 2 articles on St. Maria
Goretti and Alessandro Serenetti, the man who assaulted her yet years
later went on to experience a profound conversion while in prison:
An Astounding Mercy: The Conversion of the Man Who Killed St. Maria Goretti (America, April 21, 2016)
What St. Maria Goretti teaches us about transformative forgiveness (Denver Catholic, April 20, 2023)
Alessandro died in 1970.
His biography was published in English only in the year 2020.
So the Rachel's Vineyard Italy Mission continues!
Today I humbly ask you to re-enlist (or enlist for the first
time) your precious
support of this Mission of hope and healing, which accompanies the
Italian women and men who find us after the experience of abortion.
Both of our longtime supporting Knights of Columbus Councils have
already sent their annual charitable donations to "plant the seed" of our new collaboration.
Thank you, Council 5300 of the Goleta Valley, CA and Council 6043 of Pleasanton, CA!
Our hope is that our faithful individual donors will join the Knights
of Columbus in coming back as active partners in the Italy Mission!
The Italy Mission must still fully self-finance its activities,
and our new Stateside relationship with the 501(c)3 organization The Goretti Group
will facilitate your active role in helping meet that need.
Our fixed
costs of approximately $400/month remain in force, so your Year 2024 Gift made by Check or by Credit Card (see below) would help us carry this burden which we have shouldered
through personal financial sacrifice for over a year.
Again, each
Rachel's Vineyard site, including ours, must still be financially
self-sustaining.
Your donations make our work possible as they help defray
infrastructure costs we are not able to cover through program fees
and Italian donations. The support and encouragement of the Italian
hierarchy has not yet included any form of financial support.
Those
Italians who do financially support this ministry are mostly former
participants joined by a few clergy.
Now that we are again able to again accomodate your tax-deductible giving,
we hope you will re-commit to playing an active role in the Italy Mission.
Whether or not you are able to make a financial donation,
please continue your partnership with us through prayer!
Year 2023
Dec. 28, 2023 Feast of the Holy Innocents
Our celebrations in Sicily, Naples and Rome...
On this day Peaceful Prayer and Public Testimony
of post-abortion healing
were also given by Rachel's Vineyard Italy Mission team members
at hospitals practicing abortions
Photos are from Piemonte with a similar gathering held in
Emilia-Romagna.
We are grateful to collaborate in such witness with another Catholic organization
which offers moral support and practical assistance to women and couples
facing an abortion decision,
thus seeking to open for them the possibility of an alternate path forward.
These occasions offer an opportunity to bring a human face
and a kind, hope-filled voice to the idea of after-abortion healing.
Excerpt from one Testimony:
“It is
not the first time that I have been invited to give my testimony in Rimini
on
the occasion of the memory of the Holy Innocent Martyrs...
I believe
that the simple and humble prayer of the rosary meditated in front of a public
place
is a most revolutionary act for these times that exalt political
correctness
and want to silence every voice that conflicts with the single
dominant thought.
Moreover, praying at a hospital
points to the contrast
between what this place should be (a place of care)
but is not (because it is a
place where death is voluntarily brought about).
I saw
incredulous, sometimes amazed, or curious faces pass by,
even if they kept a
safe distance; some made the sign of the cross, others smirked,
but no one
remained indifferent.
Even the
bouquet of flowers placed on the cross expressed special care:
the red rose to
indicate the shed blood, a white gerbera for the innocence of the victims
and a
pink flower to remember that what conquers all is the Mercy of God,
who knows
how to write words of life even in the crooked lines of our story.
April 2023, Lombardia
To protect team members' privacy, instead of an 8-person team photo,
we feature one team member with our 3 faithful clergy collaborators.
Year 2023 was filled with post-pandemic energy and the
laying of groundwork for new initiatives. Thanks to an innovative spirit and financial sacrifices made by a number of veteran and new team members, two first-ever retreats were offered in the Lombardia (Milano) region.
Speaking engagements and public testimonies, both in person and on radio, were numerous.
The larger of the 2 main retreat houses we've long used in Bologna is
still closed for rennovations, and but we've already booked the other retreat house for year 2024.
Is
the Italy Mission new to you?
We invite you to view a
1-page summary of our work (PDF)
Retreats in Italy are heavily dependent on the public transit.
Travelling light and not knowing what they will encounter,
participants live this experience as true "pilgrims".
Participants say of Rachel's Vineyard:
"The whole experience, while in some ways extremely difficult,
was unforgettably beautiful and went far above and beyond my expectations."
- An Italian retreat participant
, ,
A Message from Dr. Theresa Burke, Founder of Rachel’s Vineyard,
recalling the power and purpose of this Mission:
"Rachel's Vineyard promotes a
holistic approach to healing for both (abortion) survivors and the professionals
and retreat teams who support them, anchored in our track record that
it is possible to not only overcome trauma, but also to thrive and
reclaim joy and meaning as thousands of our leaders have become an
incredible wellspring of life-affirming and life-saving ministries.
Participants come filled with a deep yearning for peace and healing,
and they leave with far more than warm memories. For several days they
immerse themselves and their painful histories in God's Word. Gently
yet powerfully, many for the first
time begin to hear the voice of Jesus with increasing clarity and
experience His touch with
increasing trust in His Mercy.
This encounter with the Lord and with a healing community "... brings a piercing ray of light and hope into some
of the incredibly dark realities and traumatic experiences of this
fallen world. No matter what we've been through, whom we've lost, or
what setbacks or violence we've experienced, we're loved deeply by our
Heavenly Father. This truth has the power to shatter unbearable shame, grief and
even
despair. God actively intervenes with the gifts of hope, mercy,
compassion and reconciliation.
The impact of this encounter helps
those who have suffered abortion loss to open up to the
reality and the unique personhood of their children. As they remember
and honor these
lives, they recognize the gift of their children's priceless humanity...
Remaining on the vine and experiencing
the Lord's continued presence, they feel His life flow and grow
within
them. And this leaves and indelible mark on their lives. Indeed, it settles
into the soul in such a way that they are forever changed... The fruits of this experience are
eternal..."
SHARE ON FACEBOOK
NOTE: While Facebook
shares are appreciated, all communications to Italy Mission
director Monika Rodman Montanaro should be sent via email to: info.vignadirachele@yahoo.it
"The Rachel's Vineyard Retreats are one of the most powerful experiences
of the reality of the Gospel that I have ever seen."
November 8, 2020
Auxiliary Bishop Andrew Cozzens, Archdiocese of Minneapolis-St. Paul
The year 2020 marked the 25th anniversary of Pope St. John Paul II's encyclical
Evangelium vitae, famous for its tender, encouraging words
to those who've lost a child through abortion.
These words, by now well
known in American Church and pro-life circles,
remain
largely unknown here in Italy.
So much so that we continue to use every means possible
to make them reach those who most need to hear them.
What Pope Francis has said of "mission" work is certainly truly of the Italy Mission:
"Mission is never the fruit of a perfectly planned program or a well-organized manual.
Mission is always the fruit of a life which knows what it is to be found and healed, encountered and forgiven.
Mission is born of a constant experience of God's merciful anointing..."
- Pope Francis, 23 Sep 2015 Homily at the Canonization of Junipero Serra, father of the California missions
Over 10 years after launching this Mission, we remain Italy's first
and only Christian
post-abortion healing ministry approved by the Catholic Church. While we operate with the blessing of one of Italy's most important dioceses (that of Bologna), no
Italian diocese, religious community, pro-life or other
organization has yet stepped up to sponsor this Mission. We are still a
very small
seed planted in a field of vast need, yet we are
resolved to help this seed continue to grow, with your prayers and
assistance!
PRAYER for the Italy Mission
Please share with friends and family!
Italy Mission Snapshots
At the heart of the 3-day retreat is a Saturday All-Night Eucharistic Vigil,
a profoundly personal yet intensely communal time before our Lord.
This remains a time of ongoing discernment of the
new forms of outreach necessary in the post-Covid era. Thus far we've
decided against "virtual" (online only) forms of gathering. We continue
working
behind-the-scenes on various adaptions and innovations. We've also begun the
long-overdue preparation of the original weekly format of the Rachel's
Vineyard support group, which we hope to pilot in 2024. This
would serve participants who cannot get away for 3 full days,
especially women deeply embedded in family caregiving. This original
format of the Rachel's Vineyard
journey of healing remains a powerful and deep method of healing we
believe to be uniquely suited to some people we've not yet been able to
welcome on the retreat. The Veneto region will likely be our pilot
location.
Thankfully, old and new technologies permit us to still reach those who
contact us in need. Our dedicated team members remain available
to assist them with the same generosity of time and spirit they have
always
offered.
May 2021, Rome
A married couple, past participants in our program, gives public testimony of their abortion experience.
Their story was amply reported in one of Italy's most well-read Catholic online daily journals.
Milan, November 2021, Conference on Fatherhood
Our psychotherapist and one of our husband/father participants presented
as other team members joined in the day's outreach to professionals in medicine, psychology and social services.
December 28, 2021 Mass of the Holy Innocents, Milan
Our team and associates in Rome and Naples offer similar celebrations each year.
We are grateful to the local clergy who publicly extended an invitation to all those
desiring to honor a child in this way.
The movie Unplanned finally
came out in Fall 2021 and continued showing in many regions
through 2023. Team members and former participants attended,
publicizing the work of our apostolate and speaking of their own
experience after the film. The film is soon to be released on DVD in
time to impact Italian schools starting this 2023-24 year!
Our job was to produce companion materials, both printed and subtitled
video clips, that highlight the healing purposes of the film. We are
proud of our small contribution to this important project now set to
reach ever-increasing numbers of young people in 2024 and beyond!
Quotes by some of those we reached during the pandemic:
One woman wrote starkly:
"I've
seen your site and need your help. I thought I could deal with this on
my own, but I can't. Help me, because in this already difficult time of
the virus, I just can't manage my own."
And another woman began her correspondence:
"I
don't know if I'll be able to come to the next retreat, but I just want
to thank you because knowing you're here helps me see a glimmer of
light in the darkness of my existence... This is a pain I've carried
inside for so long because I feel ashamed to confess it to a priest. I
would so like to make this move now, to be able to return to the
eucharist. My mother's recent death has brought up this pain. I helped
her in her final year of life, but only with her bodily needs. I'm
devastated that I wasn't able to help her spiritually because of this
unresolved problem of mine..."
Through past participants and other contacts in her area, we were able to direct this woman to a
welcoming priest and to offer her telephone companioning by one of our team members.
Such requests for help remind us of the power of the in-person community experience which lies at the heart of Rachel's Vineyard - whether in the 3-day Retreat or the Weekly Support Group format we plan to pilot in 2024.
11 Lessons Learned in the first 11 years of the Italy Mission
1) As our
Dominican priest collaborator Fr. Cristiano often marvels, "the method works!"
It's not just the American-style self-help program many Italians
imagined when we began our activities in 2010, but an internationally
tested instrument for helping deeply wounded souls - women, men and
couples together - open up to the truth of their own life story and the
grace of God's saving power within that story. A
particular strength of this "method" is the intense collaboration of
former particpants (now leaders) from various regions of Italy, who
exercise a critical, complementary role alongside Domenico and me, our
priests and team psychologist.
2) The Holy Spirit is working
powerfully through the internet!
At least 80% of our inquiries come directly from that source. We marvel
at the deep degree to which many women and men open up in email correspondence
and phone appointments. Our team members are always ready to talk
with someone
who might
express desire for a contact in his or her area or with a particular
experience. (One of our team members is available particularly for
those who've been through late-term "therapeutic" abortion as she has.)
This is essentially a
new, itinerant model of pastoral care, which makes multiple
offices unnecessary and
yet allows us to quite closely companion individuals all over Italy in
the months before and after retreat participation. Help is
offered
over time even to those who haven't yet committed to a retreat.
3) Bologna,
with its central location, remains in many ways an ideal hub for us.
The women and men who
travel from near or far to make
a Rachel's Vineyard retreat in Bologna experience the
sacrifices
involved in that journey as a true
"pilgrimage", which is already a strong element of
Italian spirituality. Cardinal Carlo Caffarra (+ 2017) more than once
reaffirmed his
appreciation of Rachel's
Vineyard, noting in a meeting with
his Clergy Council, shortly before his retirement, our
apostolate's activities as one of the highlights of his years as bishop
there.
We are working to earn similar trust as we cultivate a
relationship with the new bishop of Bologna, who met with us in his first months in office.
4) The Rachel's
Vineyard model of post-abortion care is particularly well-suited to a
country like Italy, where the Church has not yet found a voice to
publicly issue
a reconciling invitation to Her many sons and daughters who've
participated in abortion. After 40+ years of
legal abortion (which the Italian populace voted for by referendum),
there are still no diocesan post-abortion pastoral programs such as
those active
in the United States and elsewhere. Furthermore, in the States
almost all clergy have
long had the faculties to deal with the canon law aspects
of abortion during a normal confession. In Italy, until the Jubilee Year of Mercy in 2016, abortion confessions were
more strictly
treated and generally reserved to the Bishop's
collaborating penitenzieri
(confessors
in the cathedral), to the clergy in Rome, as well as the mendicant
clergy (Franciscans,
Dominicans, etc). Some of our participants have literally rung the
doorbell at the Bishop's
office, or have had their parish priest tell them to come back in a
week or at the end of the month to receive absolution. Others have been
"welcomed"
in confession with the words, "You're very fortunate to have come to
me.... this is an extremely grave sin and not all priests can absolve
it." In
such a context, our patient listening over weeks and months, with an
invitation to be fully reconciled through a program that carries the
universal Church's blessing, is truly "GOOD NEWS"!
5) We offer an absolutely unique and highly effective service not found elsewhere in Italy. While some naysayers continue to
assert that "the family" and "the confessional" remain the only
appropriate places to reveal an abortion experience, those
who request our assistance often say they are unable to reveal
their true struggles in
the family (or their effort to do so hasn't
been fruitful), and that even multiple confessions haven't yielded the
deeply felt sense of forgiveness and reconciliation they need. Our
team's support, sometimes including local clergy or psychotherapist
referrals and ideally culminating in the 3-day retreat experience,
fills that gap.
6) One element of our work remains particularly challenging: the difficulty in finding mental health professionals to volunteer with
our team on the 3-day retreats. The mutual alienation and prejudices
(sometimes downright hostility) between "faith" and "psychology" are
much stronger in Italy than what I ever encountered in the U.S. In addition,
Italian socialism has thwarted the development of a vigorous spirit of
unpaid volunteerism like that which is so strong in the States. Please pray for us as we search for additional mental health professionals with whom to collaborate!
7) There is NO substitute for
the precious collaboration of our former participants now become
leaders. The offer personalized "companioning"
to those who contact us for help. Email and phone support are simple but
powerful apostolic tools that empower those in need take one step at a
time toward healing and renewal, as they finally discover they are not
alone in this journey that ideally leads to retreat participation.
8) For many women and men we serve, particularly those who are still single, an important part of the healing process we offer is our willingness to propose Christian chastity as a positive and liveable decision,
as well as the only sure way to prevent further abortions. Please pray
for our entire team in this matter, which can involve courage and
discernment, and which calls us all to live with the same integrity to
which we invite others.
9) Over the years we've seen in the increased number of married couples requesting help the critical importance of reaching out to those who work to
help couples in crisis. Though
they often arrive on the brink of separation, the couples who heal
their abortion experience with us often experience a powerful re-birth
of their relationship. And those in fertile age may go on
to conceive another child. So we are constantly building on the
connections made with Marriage and Family Ministry offices. Other
marriage ministries such as Retrouvaille and Mistero Grande remain natural sources of publicity and collaboration.
10) Two other Italian after-abortion services de-activated in recent years. This sad fact confirmed our ongoing sense of how challenging the financial and organization aspects of this work are. Both ecclesial and secular culture largely remain quite impervious to the needs of those we serve, but we are more motivated than discouraged by this fact. We are resolved, with the help of our Stateside supporters, to
crown our first 10 years of ministry by looking ahead to, and planning for, our next 10
years!
11) The adage "Necessity is the mother of invention" is true of this
Covid era, as well! Our team is strategizing novel ways to reach
those whom we can't invite on a full 3-plus-1 day residential retreat. While we've opted against
Zoom offerings, we're looking to pivot toward offering an adapted version of the
original weekly support group format (to avoid the challenges of
overnight residential gatherings and increased retreat house limitations), that may
combine day-long meetings with weekly Zoom gatherings. Our team's precious, hidden work
companioning those who reach out to us continues unabated.
Clergy collaboration: A precious treasure!
An Italian priest in his 50's wrote to us: "I'd
like to take part in your retreat to better be able to help the many
women who confess this sin, this wound, this problem. With the Pope's
authorization many people are deciding to confess it - here at our
church (NB: a Marian pilgrimage site in N. Italy) we are seeing greatly
increased numbers, including penitents who aborted 50 years ago and
those who'd never confessed this before. I realize confession alone
isn't sufficient, though. And I feel I don't know how to really help
them because I see they need something more, something deeper that I
can't offer them."
Milan
Our Dominican priest collaborator Fr. Cristiano is from Brasil but has served in Italy for over 25 years.
Despite having been transferred from Bologna, he continues his work with us.
Please read of one of the fruits of Fr. Cristiano's work:
Elena's Story:
the power of one priest ready to respond
Before moving to Bergamo (Italy's hardest hit city affected by Covid19),
Fr. Cristiano served at Milan's famous church, the Basilica of Santa Maria delle Grazie.
It's most well known for being the home of Leonardo DaVinci's painting, The Last Supper,
so many people think of this church as a tourist destination,
but it's
also a vibrant Christian community in one of Milan's nicest neighborhoods.
Stumbling into a confessional at this very church on a hot summer's day, Elena met Fr. Cristiano
and discovered the Rachel's Vineyard Italy Mission. At age 53, but still mother to a young child,
she was at the end
of her rope trying to deal with a decades-delayed reaction to the
trauma of
an abortion
undergone at age 16 plus the realization that
the Spanish fertility
clinic
that had more than once used donated eggs to
produce her 5
year-old daughter had also discarded multiple embryos.
A breast
cancer diagnosis and 2 years of treatment had lead her to reflect on
all this in a new light.
Elena hadn't practiced the faith since her teen years.
Her
husband of 10 years was nearing the end of his patience with her
emotional outbursts and psychological fragility,
so Elena's only hope
was to return to her psychotherapist (which we certainly didn't
discourage).
She recalls:
"I entered Father Cristiano's church totally at the end
of my rope.
I was a wreck and I thought they were going to take my
daughter from me.
My husband didn't know how to help me -
he
was losing his patience for my yelling and other erratic
behaviors.
We were both exhausted and didn't know where to turn."
Fr. Cristiano spoke at length with Elena and told her about Rachel's
Vineyard.
She called us immediately and we had several lengthy
phone conversations during the summer.
Another team member, who's also dealt with infertility, companioned her, as well.
One month after participating in the Fall 3-day retreat with her husband,
Elena wrote:
"The days in Bologna were a marvelous grace
that has given me a new way of looking at my entire life.
If the Lord has taken me by the hand and brought me to to point
of
being able to meet all of you, it means that maybe I deserve another
chance
and I want with all my heart to seize it.
Alfredo and I feel very close and it seems to me
we're finally looking in a common direction.
It's so beautiful to go to Mass on Sunday with our daughter,
who, we've discovered, goes there with joy!
She also asks us to pray with her before bedtime..."
Two months later the couple
participated in the 4th day of their retreat and continued to reap
the blessings of hope restored.
Despite work that has taken the family
abroad at times, Elena and her husband remain in contact with us and
with other
women from her retreat. The go out of their way to come to our events
in Milan. The family continues their practice of the
Christian faith.
Elena's husband has more than once told us: "We will always be grateful to you!"
It's been your prayers
and
financial support, together with the remarkable commitment by our Italy
retreat team
(priests and past-participants) that have allowed us to reach those like Elena.
Reaching "Rachel" in
Italy: The Cultural Context
Further reading:
How COVID Accelerated
the Collapse of Religious Practice in Italy
5 Sep 2023, National Catholic Register
Is it true that 99% of women believe
that their abortion was the right decision?
19 June 2023, Mercator
How do women see their past abortions?
A short British analysis of conflicting data poses important questions.
Healing after Abortion? It's Time for Dads, Too!
13 October 2022, National Catholic Register
A man shares his experience of a Rachel's Vineyard Retreat
The men who feel left out of U.S. abortion debate
28 August 2019, BBC News
Rachel's Vineyard and other after-abortion outreaches are mentioned
in this secular but fairly written article.
Crescendo - 15 min. short film
Eduardo Verastegui and Metanoia Films tell the story of Beethoven (German with English subtitles)
My burden lifted forever
Laura Keynes, December 3, 2015, Catholic Herald (U.K.)
Released in Advent 2015, this post-abortion conversion
story is by a British author with a
doctorate in philosophy from Oxford. Her story also points to the need
of so many women and men to continue a journey of inner healing even
after celebrating the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
Europe's Down Syndrome "Thought Police"
LifeSiteNews, November 29, 2016
In recent years we've had increasing requests for help from women and couples who
aborted a child with health problems, most often Down Syndrome. It's
truly "open season" on these children, ironically in a time when
"disability rights" are gaining visibility everywhere but in the womb.
This news report shows how far Europe will go to censor any message
that might touch on the post-abortion trauma many of these moms and
dads carry inside.
After Abortion Why Can't I Feel Forgiveness?
Theresa Bonapartis, July 14, 2014, Aleteia
A spiritual challenge common to many women and men...
What Happens When People Share Their Abortion Stories
Cullen Herout, June 9, 2016 The Federalist
Written by a mental health professional who for years has served in Rachel's Vineyard
I wish I could have prevented my girlfriend's abortion
The Telegraph of London, 12 Sep 2014
A story of abortion's effect on men that also points to the importance
of challenging singles and couples with the value of chastity.
Why We Should Welcome Abortion
Narratives (30 April 2014, First Things)
A society
growing toward greater maternal support and respect for the dignity of
all human life needs these narratives,
even the ones that do not end in
remorse.
By giving women narrative, they are empowered in precisely the
way their pregnancies left them feeling powerless.
And they encourage
those of us in the pro-life movement to view the woman with full
sympathy.
They called my baby biowaste - it broke my heart in pieces (30 June 2019, BBC News)
Clearly inspired by a similar practice in Japan, Victoria (British Columbia, Canada)
opens "The Little Spirits Garden" dedicated to the memory of children lost during pregnancy.
IVF exploitation alleged by British journalist (29 June 2019, BioEdge)
Commentary on an article appearing in the UK Independent,
written by a freelance journalist who reflects on her personal
experience
in the desperate attempt to have a child. More and more of
the couples and single women who arrive in the Italy Mission
have been
through (or are considering resorting to) the treadmill of treatments
proposed by the fertility industry.
Few have any idea of what they will
face in this attempt to become biological parents.
Some of these women have an abortion history, while others face decisions such as "selective reduction" of multiple embryos.
"Every girl I knew was on it": Why Some Women are Questioning Hormonal Birth Control
(17 June 2019, The Cut, New York Magazine)
The author reflects on her own decision to abandon the Pill as she also explores why so many young women
are questioning and often quitting hormonal contraceptives.
Italy
is a "dying country"
(13 February 2015, The Guardian)
More
Italian Women are Choosing to Have No Children
(22 April 2014, Wall
Street Journal)
While this article
naturally focuses
on economic forces leading to the choice of childlessness, we
hear
the very personal stories of past abortions contributing to a sense of
unworthiness to become a mother. Imagine the pain as women hit age 45
realizing they aborted the only child they will ever carry. And imagine
the family wound as others approach 35 or 40 still living with the
mother who years ago encouraged them to abort and now continually asks
when they will produce a grandchild. One of our women reponded
to
such a mother, who'd twice convinced her (at age 24 and 26) she was
"too young" to have a child: "I gave you two grandchildren but you sent
them away."
California Native Takes Rachel's Vineyard to the Old World
(Elizabeth Lev, Oct. 22, 2010, Zenit - original title "Healing Abortion Survivors")
Italy Mission Archives
10th anniversary:
Year 2020 remains forever etched in our minds as the moment when the Covid pandemic took over our lives.
It was also the "10th anniversary" of the Italy Mission. Good thing
we'd started the year off strong with public events offered before the
lockdown was imposed. We offered innovative
outreach
activities in Rome and Milan. (We got home on one of the
last long-distance trains leaving Rome, just as Italy's first
Covid-drama was rapidly unfolding and the first lockdown was imminent.) In the future we will offer similar opportunities
in Venice and Bologna. Here's a glimpse into the two powerful 4-day outreach
missions we were able to carry out just as Covid emerged:
January's 4-day Milan Mission included a well-attended public event
co-sponsored by a large parish and a Catholic women's association. Five
members of our team spoke (3 were from greater Milan), and this
collaboration expressed the true richness of Rachel's Vineyard, which
is not just a powerful post-abortion retreat experience, but the
embrace of a trusted community guided by collaborators
whose blending of gifts and experiences help those we companion to
finally make a breakthrough in resolving their grief. Several
women approached us to confess their need for our services, and our
newest Milan team member is already companioning them.
In Milan we
also met with the new director of the Archdiocesan Family Office (a relationship that continues to be cultivated by one of our team members). We held a lovely outreach evening for those not yet sure about participating in the retreat, and we offered the "4th day" of our recently completed retreat
with 9 participants. Their encouraging updates included a married
couple's testimony of the first fruits of the retreat in their large
family, and a 34-year old professional woman's report on a
reconciliation between herself and her parents. No one in this family
has practiced the Catholic faith for years, but these parents went
out of their way to meet with the Franciscan friar
whom their adult daughter had spoken with at length on our retreat. For
the entire family last year has been very different from those lived in the ten years after
an abortion facilitated by the mother, which had brought much destruction
into the daughter's life.
February's 4-day Rome Mission included another outreach evening drawing a fascinating cross-section of women, along with our first-ever meeting with the new Director of the Italian Bishops' Office for Family Life, as well as participation in a 3-day Inner Healing Seminar at a well-known Rome parish, where the pastor (who's sent us several participants over the years) allowed us to present Rachel's Vineyard. The
Italian Bishops' new director of Marriage and Family ministry is
a friend of one our clergy collaborators and has been invited to
participate in an upcoming retreat.
2019:
Dominican friends at the pro-life March in Rome were happy to carry a message of hope and healing:
"Abortion harms. Jesus heals."
(In Italian, the message rhymes!)
Spring 2019 Family Life Event with children's "Plant a Flower" activity.
While Monika happily worked to dirty kids' hands while teaching the marvels of Springtime,
our collaborators spoke with the many adults who viewed our info table and took home information.
In Milan during Summer 2019 we met for the first time in over 5 years with the married
couple that directs the Archdiocesan Family Life Office. By renewing and cultivating
these ties we expect our dialogue to lead to
increased clergy awareness of our apostolate's readiness to collaborate with them,
as well as to increased awareness of the importance of touching on
pregnancy loss during marriage preparation.
With our most veteran collaborator in Milan preparing to complete her
psychotherapy licensure, and with the renewed commitment of our
Domenican priest collaborator in that region, we are strategizing how
to make vital inroads in this city which is Italy's economic hub
and can most aptly be compared to New York City.
Spring 2019 Rome Marriage and Family Event
When blustery weather destroyed the exhibit gazebos,
instead of calling it quits we took our outreach directly to the Main Conference Room,,
utilizing every break time for face-to-face approach with individuals and couples.
3 of our Rome retreat alumnae were the force behind this day-long event!
2018:
As many of your know, in 2018 we suffered the loss of one of the
Italy Mission's greatest fans, Monika's father, Ray.
Five years later we still include this reflection on his life which continues to inspire us:
Ray Wilbur Rodman
15 April 1932 - 18 May 2018
May the Lord support us all the day long,
till the shades lengthen and the evening comes,
and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done.
Then in His Mercy may He give us a safe lodging,
and a holy rest and peace at the last.
- Cardinal John Henry Newman
Ray was in many ways
not only a supporter of the Italy Mission, but a source of the vision
that inspired it:
Dad passed on to me (Monika) the precious treasure of
our Catholic Christian faith, living a quiet trust in the Lord Who
penetrates suffering with grace and brings life
out of death. Daily shared prayer, a simple lifting of the heart to our
Source and Summit with few words but deep intention, was one of the
exquisite gifts we shared from the time I was small to his final waking
hours.
Dad taught me perseverance in tackling
challenges of every sort, a love for life, especially for preborn
children and their mothers, fidelity to family ties despite the cost, and an unfailing willingness to practice
Mercy.
Ray loved and served his country through his Navy service and
aeronautical engineering career. He knew, as the son of illiterate
immigrants from a country that later went communist (Yugoslavia),
that the United States has unique gifts to offer the
world. He was so happy when he heard of my work a few years ago to help
bring Rachel's Vineyard to Slovenia, the part of Yugoslavia very near
to the area from which my grandparents had emigrated.
Dad had hoped I might go into another field of work, but took pride
in my service to the Church. And He accepted with few complaints
the
Mission which marriage brought me, despite the personal sacrifice which
that Mission required of him, as it took his only child from California
to Southern Italy for the last decade of his life. He understood
our Mission of post-abortion hope and healing to be a seed
God sowed first in the U.S. Church so that it might be planted
throughout the Church universal, and dad was proud we could bring this
work to the
heart of the Church
and to "Old World" Europe in dire need of
a New Evangelization.
2017:
June 2017, Rome
Italy
Mission leaders Monika and Domenico with priest Fr. Rito (blue shirt)
and former participants,
a married couple, after our workshop given at the "Mistero Grande"
Marriage Preparation and Enrichment National Conference
A couple attending the workshop that day, thanks to their priest's
invitation,
participated in our July retreat after a late-term
"therapeutic" abortion,
and our November retreat that year included another married couple who learned of us through the same conference.
Monika and Domenico with past-participant ambassadors at Bologna's Franciscan Festival
(individuals, 2 married couples and a father-daughter team)
September 2017
Monika and Domenico before a July retreat at the Poor Clares convent in downtown Bologna
The sisters are cloistered but by no means cut off from the world!
They helped sponsor our outreach at the Franciscan Festival.
"Grazie, sorelle!"
Mons. John Cihak from the Archdiocese of
Portland,
a priest with extensive experience in post-abortion pastoral care who served in Rome for 8 years,
annually invited Monika to join him
in speaking to Italian and international clergy
doing ongoing formation at the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family.
We look forward to continuing our relationship with this university.
Our annual Mission trips to Rome for a day
of outreach at Italy's March for Life have undoubtedly been a success! Most recently, religious sisters (two of whom have also participated in our
retreat) joined past participants in distributing materials
before, during and after the walk. One of our former participants (in above photo), whom
we'd not seen for 6 months, remarked that in the year since the retreat her
personal physician, whom she used to visit frequently with various
problems, had run into her and joked she must have changed doctors
because he'd not seen her for so long! Such can be the amazing effects
of releasing and resolving old hurts such as abortion wounds, and we
rejoice to hear such stories! Having finally made peace with God, herself, and her never-born child, this former participant now radiates joy and
tranquillity and is continuing with diligence the spiritual path
on which she's embarked.
March 2017 Rome seminar "The Experience of Abortion"
Italy Mission founder and director Monika Rodman Montanaro with 2 collaborators.
Several former participants of our program attended this public event and spoke of their experience.
2016: Jubilee Year of Mercy
You may recall that the Jubilee Year of Mercy included
Pope Francis' conferring to all clergy
of the world the priestly faculties to deal with any abortion
excommunication and absolve this sin "in one sitting".
(Formerly it was Franciscan, Dominican, Carmelite and
other mendicant order clergy who had that authority, together with Jesuits and the
bishops' penitenzieri, i.e. priests hearing confessions at cathedrals.)
On November 21, 2016 Francis extended his new policy permanently. In the United States this changed practically
nothing in pastoral practice, but Francis' move was truly big news for post-abortion pastoral care in countries like Italy,
where longstanding restrictive policies had created a tremendous silence and led many to perceive a
miserliness in the invitation to seek God's Mercy after abortion. At least some clergy sometimes
found themselves preoccupied about how to proceed with a penitent
confessing abortion. That preoccupation has had a
chilling effect on the Italian Church's ability to respond pastorally
to this tragedy which has touched so many individuals, couples and
families. We're delighted to help Italy move into a new era in this regard.
During the Jubilee Year Monika mentored a new retreat site, the first in Slovenia
(in
the former Yugoslavia, next to Croatia and Austria, near Italy's
northwest border). Our relationship with Slovenia began 4 years earlier
when we welcomed on our retreat a participant from there.
Rome Testimonies
