Respect Life Month: Archdiocese honors pro-life supporters for their service

St. Joseph parishioner Brian Weigel of St. Leon pounds a cross into the ground with the help of another youth in the parish on Sept. 18 along Route 1 just south of Interstate 74 in Dearborn County. The “Cemetery of the Innocents” display of 4,000 crosses represents the number of babies that die in legalized abortion each day in the United States. The traveling pro-life exhibit will be on display in St. Leon through Oct. 2. (Submitted photo)

By Mary Ann Wyand

Promoting the culture of life and helping save the lives of defenseless unborn babies are priorities for the 2010 recipients of archdiocesan pro-life volunteer service awards.

St. Joan of Arc parishioner Patricia Yeadon of Indianapolis, who has faithfully volunteered as a pro-life sidewalk counselor outside abortion clinics for 24 years, will receive the Archbishop Edward T. O’Meara Respect Life Award for her distinguished service to the cause of life at the conclusion of the archdiocesan Respect Life Mass on Oct. 3 at SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Indianapolis.

Cardinal Ritter High School senior Alyssa Barnes, a member of St. Malachy Parish in Brownsburg and a dedicated pro-life volunteer, is the recipient of the Our Lady of Guadalupe Pro-Life Youth Award, which also will be presented following the Respect Life liturgy.

Msgr. Joseph F. Schaedel, vicar general, will celebrate the Respect Life Mass at 1 p.m. on Oct. 3 on behalf of Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein, who is leading a pilgrimage to holy sites in Austria and Germany.

Catholics in central and southern Indiana are invited to participate in the archdiocesan pro-life Mass, which is part of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ national Respect Life Sunday observance organized to educate people about the sanctity and dignity of life from conception until natural death.

After the Mass, Catholics are encouraged to join the Central Indiana Life Chain, an ecumenical, one-hour, pro-life prayer vigil along North Meridian Street in Indianapolis, at 2:30 p.m. to silently pray for an end to abortion.

Respect Life Award

Yeadon began praying the rosary in front of abortion clinics in 1986, and her prayerful presence there evolved into pro-life sidewalk counseling as a volunteer with the ecumenical Truth and Compassion Ministry organization.

“I was trying to get St. Joan of Arc parishioners involved in going to the abortion mills to pray,” she said. “That’s how I started going there. I had no idea that I would continue, and that God would keep me going there for this many years.”

While there is “a lot of heartache involved in pro-life sidewalk counseling,” Yeadon said, there also are moments of overwhelming joy when women that experience crisis pregnancies decide to choose life for their unborn babies.

“I think God gives you a way to protect your heart when you do this in obedience to him,” she said. “It’s simply God’s grace. Even with the suffering comes joy because you know what you’re doing is the right thing. I think it comes back to knowing that God sent you out there, and being willing to listen to the Holy Spirit.”

The hardest part of sidewalk counseling is making a personal connection with women considering abortion, she said. “You have to truly show the women that you care about them. You have to expose your heart completely, and you are so vulnerable. Sometimes they will reject what you have said then go ahead and have an abortion. So you continue to pray for them, and offer information [about post-abortion syndrome and abortion reconciliation] when they come out.”

Yeadon doesn’t let bitter cold or extremely hot weather deter her from her tireless and often solitary prayer vigils outside abortion clinics all year long.

“Knowing that other people are praying helps immensely,” she said. “Prayers do make a difference because I can feel the presence of God so strongly even when I’m numb to the core from the cold and it’s time to go home or lose toes and fingers [from frostbite]. I think so often people forget how powerful prayer is.”

Yeadon always fasts from food and water as she prays continually between opportunities to offer sidewalk counseling to expectant mothers outside abortion clinics during volunteer shifts that last from 7 a.m. until 1:30 p.m.

“I fast for the babies,” she said, “and I pray the rosary or read Scripture, usually the psalms. I pray for the women that are already inside [the abortion clinic], pray for the staff and—if I know who the abortionist is—pray for him or her by name. Sometimes people come by from the neighborhood, and they want to stop and pray about something. I am there for whoever God sends my way.”

The daughter of Dolores Yeadon and the late Bill Yeadon grew up in a large family of 15 children that includes her twin sister, Nancy, as well as several adopted siblings and foster siblings.

“It was always a big thrill to have a new baby in the house,” she said, “so it’s hard for me to understand that sometimes people don’t welcome babies.”

Benedictine Sister Kathleen Yeadon, a member of Our Lady of Grace Monastery in Beech Grove, said her older sister schedules her home cleaning business and social activities to allow time for sidewalk counseling during busy days at clinics.

“Patty’s name is Patricia Ruth Ann Yeadon, and the first letters of her name spell ‘P-R-A-Y,’ ” Sister Kathleen said. “She is very faithful about praying for the babies and mothers. She also helps with the Gabriel Project, and takes her commitment to help women who have decided to keep their babies very seriously. Often, the money to help them comes from her own resources.”

Pro-Life Youth Award

Even with a busy class schedule at Cardinal Ritter High School, Alyssa Barnes makes time to participate in the Archdiocesan Pro-Life Youth Council and is the president of Ritter’s Pro-Life Club.

She prays outside abortion clinics in Indianapolis, attends the archdiocesan Helpers of God’s Precious Infants monthly Mass at St. Michael the Archangel Church, participates in the Central Indiana Life Chain and “40 Days for Life” prayer vigils, and walks in the National March for Life each January in Washington, D.C.

“I want any woman going into an abortion clinic to know that there is a better way,” Alyssa said, “and that life is never regrettable and that she doesn’t have to be alone.”

Matthew Hollowell, a faculty member and the Pro-Life Club moderator at the Indianapolis West Deanery high school, said Alyssa can always be counted on to enthusiastically promote respect for life.

“I have rarely met a student more committed to the cause of life than Alyssa,” Hollowell said. “… Alyssa played an instrumental role in Cardinal Ritter’s first ever Pro-Life Week. … She is a visible witness to the pro-life movement by praying at Planned Parenthood, and by attending—and encouraging other students to attend—the monthly pro-life Mass at St. Michael’s. The future of the pro-life movement is very blessed to have Alyssa leading the way.”

Alyssa helps her parents, Bill and Maria Barnes, as volunteers with the St. Elizabeth/Coleman Pregnancy and Adoption Services foster care program, Project Gabriel assistance for poor mothers and babies, and the archdiocesan Refugee Resettlement Program.

“My family has always been very open to life,” she said. “I have two sisters and two brothers. My youngest brother was adopted three years ago. That was a really cool experience. We tell him how much he is loved, and that his birth mother loves him. … Adoption is always an option.” †