Father Vito Perrone: Miscarried infants are with God
‘One day you will meet in the hereafter.’
By Valerie Schmalz
Contemplative of St. Joseph Father Vito Perrone offered a Memorial Mass and Healing Liturgy for Miscarriage and Infant Loss on All Souls Day, bringing comfort to the women and men who carried sorrows old and new from the deaths of their children.
“The most innocent ones are the ones in the womb,” Father Vito told the several dozen gathered at Mater Dolorosa Church in South San Francisco Nov. 2, reminding all those present that “Jesus called God Father for all of us. “
“God is not one to let any person who has been conceived go,” the pastor of Mater Dolorosa Parish said in his homily, and the children not yet born are completely pure, untouched by any sin of this world. “We need to walk forward with this realization that our baby is not alone. Our baby is part of the Mystical Body of Christ.”
The Mystical Body of Christ is the Church Triumphant, the saints in heaven; the Church Suffering, the souls in Purgatory; and the Church Militant, those of us here on earth, Father Vito said.
Miscarriage is when a pregnancy ends on its own before 20 weeks of gestation. Most miscarriages occur in the first trimester. Between 10 and 20 percent of pregnancies end in miscarriage. Recognizing that miscarriage is a silent, often unrecognized, sorrow for many women and men, Maria Martinez-Mont, archdiocesan Respect Life Coordinator, established the annual Mass in coordination with Father Vito several years ago.
The Mass was followed by a blessing and anointing with the oil of St. Joseph from the St. Joseph Oratory in Montreal, where St. Andre Bessette lived his quiet life of sainthood as the doorman and where he is buried. Many healings are attributed to St. Andre. The Mater Dolorosa choir sang for the Mass and throughout the blessing of each individual with the oil by Father Vito in the healing liturgy.
After the liturgy, there was a light reception on the plaza in front of church, with coffee, tea and cookies.
“One day you are going to meet this pure being,” promised Father Vito, the founder of the archdiocesan order of the Contemplatives of St. Joseph. And he urged all those present to aspire to sainthood: “Don’t you want to say, I lived my life the best I could? …I did all I could meet you as a saint and to be with you as soon as possible. Because I love you, my little baby.”
Recognizing the humanity and immortal souls of those children who die before birth, the Archdiocese of San Francisco’s Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma offers burial for them, no questions asked – whether the babies died because of miscarriage or abortion, said Monica Williams, director of archdiocesan Catholic cemeteries. The cemetery has always offered burial, she said. “The Holy Innocents section is specifically designed with smaller grave spaces for fetal remains (miscarried or other), or the cremated remains children,” Williams said.
On First Fridays, Mater Dolorosa Church also has a 7 p.m. Healing Mass followed by Eucharistic Adoration until midnight.
—Valerie Schmalz is director of the Office of Human Life & Dignity.