BRAVE, COURAGEOUS
ANNA CICHOBŁAZIŃSKA
Our lady visited me in prison, so I had to visit Her at Jasna Góra – Said Mary Wagner during her meetings with inhabitants of Częstochowa
On the ninth day of her stay in Poland – on 10 October this year – Mary Wagner arrived in Częstochowa. This brave woman defends life of unborn children and speaks on their behalf because – as she says – they are deprived of their vote and right, being sentenced to death.
In Częstochowa Mary Wagner paid her first visit to the archbishop metropolitan Wacław Depo. – I am very glad that on the road of many Polish cities You also planned Częstochowa. This is a particular place, Poles devote their lives to Our Lady here. I do it at Jasna Góra every day myself - said archbishop Depo, welcoming Mary Wagner in the bishopric house, where they talked and prayed in the chapel.
A meeting with journalists
At a press conference in the headquarter of the Catholic Weekly ‘Niedziela’, representatives of Catholic and local mass media: press, radio and television, as well as electronic media, asked Mary Wagner about the legal status of unborn children in Canada and development of pro-life movements, and also about her experiences in prison, and those when she had to face the reality of co-prisoners, who had experienced abortion. Mary Wagner thanked Poles for their support, for letters with a wafer and with words of prayers and spiritual support, which were sent to prison. She thanked to Polish Diaspora in Canada, who give a beautiful witness of life defence of unborn children. Mary Wagner expressed great recognition for teaching of St. John Paul II about the value of life and she spoke about the role of the Holy Father in her creating this attitude of opening up to the unborn life. ‘Brave and courageous’ – this is how Mary Wagner was characterized by the editor-in-chief of ‘Niedziela’ Lidia Dudkiewicz, emphasizing the steadfast attitude of the Canadian defender of life towards abortion industry, contemporary holocaust, done on defenceless, undergoing extermination in mothers’ wombs.
With inhabitants of Częstochowa
In the Seminary of the Archdiocese of Częstochowa the euro-deputy Jadwiga Wiśniewska reminded about actions of the parliamentary Club of Polish-Canadian Cooperation in efforts of releasing Mary Wagner from prison. Hearing the statement of the euro-deputy that in the chapel of the Seym MPs were praying in the intention of her releasing, the young Canadian woman reacted with surprise that there was a chapel in the Seym at all. The meeting was also attended by another politician, Artur Warzocha.
The witness of Mary Wagner in defence of unborn children in Canada showed the legal situation of a baby in a mother’s womb – it turns out that the baby can be killed at every phase of development to a wish. Abortion clinics have the status of the economic subject, and disturbance of their activity, as it is done by pro-life movements, influences economic losses. Therefore, protests outside these clinics and discouraging mothers from killing their children are punished with imprisonment as it was in the beginning in the case of Mary Wagner and another defender of life in Canada – Linda Gibbons, who spent 10 years of her life in Canadian prisons, for defending unborn children. Both Linda Gibbons and Mary Wagner note that it is important to claim rights not so much for them in the letters to authority representatives, as for the rights of unborn children.
At Jasna Góra
Mary Wagner said about the main purpose of her visit in the spiritual capital of Poland in this way: - I paid tribute to the Blessed Virgin and I will pay tribute to Her again. At Jasna Góra Mary Wagner participated, among the others, in the Appeal Prayer. Before that she had visited the monastery and the basilica, and in the Chapel of the Miraculous Image of Our Lady she participated in adoration and the Holy Mass in English, celebrated by Fr. Robert Jasiulewicz.
Recalling memories of the arrest, Mary Wagner referred to the visit of the Icon of Our Lady of Częstochowa in prison, which was in its pilgrimage throughout Canada. Fr. Peter West, responsible for the peregrination, celebrated the Holy Mass for prisoners. It was the second Holy Mass in history of this prison – the Canadian woman said. She also recalled the attitude of Polish oblates in Toronto, who, hearing about her case in the court, closed the parish office, took all believers present in parish buildings and went to the court hall in order to support her spiritually.
- God bless you – Mary Wagner said in Polish, thanking Poles for supporting her in prison and giving a witness of life defence to the whole world. This attitude of Poles can turn out to be a spark changing awareness about abortion among inhabitants of many countries of the world and political authorities responsible for making law – she emphasized hopefully.
The stay of Mary Wagner in Częstochowa was accompanied by the interpreter Michał Krupa and organizers of Mary’s stay in Poland – Jacek Kotula from Pro-Right for Life Foundation and Stanisław Dziwiński from the Order of Columbus’ Knights.
AA
„Niedziela” 42/2014