Garrett County parish honors lost innocent life

The westernmost corner of the Archdiocese of Baltimore now has a prominent monument to lost innocent life thanks to parishioners of Garrett County’s St. Peter the Apostle in Oakland.

Over the summer, members of the parish’s Knights of Columbus Council #1771 did the hard labor of constructing the monument and attaching a bronze plaque that memorializes babies and children who died stillborn, through miscarriage, during childhood or through tens of millions of abortions.

The monument also features a quote from Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.”

“We’re so proud of our community and our church for doing this,” said Thomas Sheahen, a St. Peter parishioner and a member of the Knights of Columbus. “The permanence of this memorial says to everyone who comes by that we are respectful of the sanctity of life and we honor those lost lives.”

Sheahen noted that his parish strongly supports pro-life ministry. It annually raises more than $3,000 in a baby-bottle campaign to support the Mountaintop Crisis Pregnancy Center. The church’s example inspired more than 40 churches of other Christian denominations to follow its example, he said.

The total cost of the new monument was about $2,500 – much less than what the memorial would have cost without the volunteer labor of the Knights of Columbus. The church received donations from parishioners and a kickstarter grant of $500 from a Maryland pro-life group.

“When we first went to Father Tom Gills, our pastor, he was so enthusiastic he reached into his pocket and gave us 50 bucks of his own money,” Sheahen said. “There’s been a lot of enthusiasm for this project. Garrett County is a very pro-life county.”

The three-foot-tall monument is located near the church parking lot. It is expected to be dedicated in October, Sheahen said. 

Email George P. Matysek Jr. at gmatysek@CatholicReview.org

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