Chicago area hospital dedicates part of cemetery for the unborn

The remains of 85 children who died before they were born were laid to rest May 9 at Assumption Cemetery in Glenwood.

The remains were buried in a special area of the cemetery, near a new memorial stone installed by Franciscan St. James Health. All of them came from the south suburban health system’s hospitals.

Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Perry led the prayer service for the burial and dedicated the memorial on a cool, cloudy Monday afternoon.

He spoke of the sadness that accompanies the death of child before it is born.

“On a day a child dies before it is born, we think the sun shouldn’t shine, water shouldn’t flow and the world shouldn’t work in the pleasant, indifferent way it usually does,” Bishop Perry said. “Nothing can console you after losses like this and there are no answers to the question, ‘Why is a child allowed to die before it is born? What can make this all right? What can square this with the belief that God is good?’”

While parents might not be willing or able to see to the interment of their children’s remains, the church must reassure and support them.

“Today the need for that reassurance has not changed, even in times of miscarriage or fetal death, especially in these moments,” Bishop Perry said.

continue at Catholic New World