Baby Katie is in Heaven

This is an email I received today.

Dear Friends,
>
> From Fr. Ryan: "Thank you for all of your prayers. Unfortunately,
> I'm sending you the sad news that Hannah did have the abortion. She
> is not doing well. Please pray for Hannah and all involved, they are
> all hurting very much. Thanks, Fr. Ryan."
>
> I'm so sorry to have to pass this news on to all of you. There is no
> way I can express in an e-mail the sadness in my heart for Hannah and
> her family, or for Fr. Ryan who has been such a faithful and
> courageous priest in the face of terrible spiritual warfare. His
> trust in God's mercy has been incredible, and he is a witness to all
> of us of the power of spiritual, priestly fatherhood that loves to the
> extreme. Please continue to pray for him, as he will continue to
> minister to Hannah in the coming months and years.
>
> At a time like this it would be easy to think that God has not
> answered our prayers or to ask where the Lord was in all of this. To
> attempt an explanation for the dichotomy of good and evil is beyond my
> ability, but I feel that we have all been part of an extraordinary
> movement of grace in the last few days.
>
> On Thursday morning, Fr. Ryan called me asking for prayers for
> Hannah, along with the request to pass the prayer intention along. I
> passed the request on...and you responded with your own prayer and by
> asking those you knew to pray as well. All told, religious sisters in
> about 15 convents in several states and two countries, seminarians in
> 3 seminaries, consecrated women in the US, Italy, and England,
> priests, and over 1000 lay people have been lifting Hannah up in
> prayer. WE ARE CATHOLIC!!! In His mercy, God has united us from our
> different vocations and locations to pray for one of His children in
> her hour of need.
>
> Within one hour of the first e-mail being sent, four people wrote to
> me offering to adopt the child. It was not long before others echoed
> that offer. A woman offered her home as a safehaven for Hannah,
> should she need a place to stay. Others sent me information on
> counseling services and adoption agencies. Women who have had
> abortions offered to speak to Hannah, as did women who had seriously
> contemplated abortion during their pregnancies. All without knowing
> Hannah or anything about her. In a time of trial and crisis, God
> called for generosity and from your hearts you gave, from your hearts
> you responded in ways that could never be expected.
>
> Most of all, the grace of your prayers has been felt and God has used
> this as a moment to teach us all. A friend wrote to me: "Through
> praying for her I can say honestly that I love her, without knowing
> anything about her other than the painful situation she has found
> herself in. I hate the idea of her aborting this baby and then
> suffering for it the rest of her life. I want nothing more than to
> spare her that grief." In the face of hatred and death, God has
> called us to love. Abortion is hatred and it is hatred that leads to
> death. In spite of this, love has grown through the grace of prayer.
> The prayer has been constant and has come from all sorts. I received
> an e-mail that said simply "I have been praying since I opened my eyes
> this morning". From a 5 year-old in Nashville, Hannah's baby received
> a name. Knowing only Hannah's name was not enough for him, he wanted
> to know what the baby was called. Since no one had a name, he called
> her Katie. So Baby Katie became not a theory, but a real person in
> his eyes. On Monday afternoon, I began asking the children in
> religious ed here at St. Pius to pray for Hannah. A third grader who
> comes for class on Tuesday told me that her friend, who comes for
> class on Mondays, had sent her an e-mail after coming home on Monday
> telling her to pray for Hannah. THIRD GRADE!!!!!! A first grader
> asked why we were praying for Hannah, to which her classmate
> responded: "It doesn't matter why we're praying. God knows, and He'll
> take care of Hannah."
>
> I hope that this experience of prayer continues to bear fruit. More
> than that, this experience of prayer must not end here. Young Hannah
> still needs prayer and healing. There are thousands of Hannahs in our
> country and in our world, children living in fear and hopelessness.
> No one, at 15, should have to experience what Hannah is now enduring.
> This should convince us more than ever that abortion is the worst
> option available and that women deserve better. This should be a call
> to us to respond with generosity to those who find themselves in
> crisis, to those who find themselves alone. Jesus calls us to be
> instruments of His mercy and to bring the light of His love to the
> darkness and hopelessness of the culture of death. Today is a sad day
> because one life is ended, and another wounded, scarred and mourning.
> Today is a sad day because we all share in this loss and in this
> wound. In prayer, we have come to love Hannah and we are helpless as
> our sister, our daughter, suffers. But God is still at work and His
> project is not yet complete. He has called us together in prayer and
> He has called out of us a generosity that goes beyond our own desires
> and seeks the good of another for the glory of God. We can take great
> comfort in the promise God has given, that love always triumphs, that
> life is always victorious over death, that the light continues to
> shine in the darkness.
>
> Please pray for Hannah's healing. Let her broken heart be restored,
> Lord! Pray for her parents, for Tom and his parents...they suffer,
> too! Pray for Fr. Ryan, who is their father, friend, shepherd and
> priest. May he receive the grace he needs to protect them and bring
> them healing. May God work in his heart and words so that they see in
> him, not Fr. Ryan, but the face of Christ turning his merciful gaze on
> them.
>
> Peace,
>
> Fr. Sam