Credit: Frank PavoneGuest Post by Pro-life Leader Frank Pavone, National Director, Priests for LifeDug into the walls of the ancient Christian catacombs in the outskirts of Rome are countless small tombs, only a foot or two across. These are the burial places of infants cast out of their pagan homes and left to die of starvation and exposure—a common practice of that time.Members of the Early Church, charged by Christ to love all their neighbors, offered these tiny victims of Roman cruelty the only act of love they could: To bury their little bodies and mourn for them in prayer.In my work as national director of Priests for Life, I’ve had the privilege over the years of conducting funerals for thousands of unborn babies who were killed by abortion.In the culture of life, we treat unborn children as real human beings. When a person dies, we have a funeral and in doing so, we honor that person. Children who are killed in the womb are no less deserving of that honor than any of us.After doing a number of these funerals – in Birmingham, Alabama; Detroit; on Staten Island, and many others – I conceived the idea of having a day where we would invite people nationwide to pray at the graves of aborted babies.I took this idea to other national pro-life leaders and this led to the creation of the National Day of Remembrance.The first National Day of Remembrance took place in 2013 on the 25th anniversary of the solemn burial of several hundred abortion victims in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Prayer services were held at over 100 locations, with thousands of mourners participating. Response was so great that the National Day of Remembrance has been established as an annual event, held each year on the second Saturday in September. This year it will take place on Sept. 13.The following year, I flew to the West Coast to pray at a gravesite that contains the bodies of 16,433 children killed by abortion. The gravesite, located in the Odd Fellows Cemetery in East Los Angeles, is the largest of the mass graves of children killed by abortion. The story behind it underscores the importance of treating aborted babies as real human beings.In the early 1980s, Malvin Weisburg was operating an outfit called Medical Analytic Laboratories, and he was receiving from abortion clinics around the country the bodies of aborted babies for pathological analysis. When he was done with his work, the bodies of these babies were put in plastic containers and ultimately stored in a large waste container Weisburg was renting. In 1982, Weisburg failed to make proper payments on the container, and it was repossessed.That’s when workers discovered what was in it — the bodies of thousands and thousands of aborted babies, some so developed that they were clearly killed late in pregnancy. The bodies were taken into the custody of Los Angeles County.This made news and touched off a firestorm about what should be done with the babies. Pro-life people and public officials got together to call from the release of the bodies for proper burial. But pro-abortion groups, including the ACLU, went to court to block any religious service, or even burial, for these babies. They claimed that the ‘separation of church and state’ prohibited the state from facilitating a religious service. The court agreed.Abortion advocates wanted the bodies cremated and thrown away as medical waste. With this, however, the court did not agree. Even the Supreme Court was petitioned in the matter, and in the end, after a three-year battle, the babies were buried on October 6, 1985. President Ronald Reagan wrote a eulogy that was read at the service, calling for an end to abortion.Until we do finally end abortion, we will continue to gather for these services to express the mourning that should mark the lives and hearts of all who seek to build a culture of life. Pro-life activism begins with a broken heart; it begins when we can mourn the killing of the children we could not save. “Blessed are those who mourn,” Jesus said, “for they will be comforted” (Mt. 5:4).That is why these memorial services are so helpful for those who have lost a child to abortion. Parents, grandparents, siblings and others who knew the aborted child find these memorial services advance their healing.Abortion is not an abstract issue. Having a memorial service where these babies are buried reminds us that abortion is not merely about beliefs, but about bloodshed; not just about viewpoints, but victims. By visiting the graves of the aborted unborn, we allow our hearts be broken for them, and we recommit ourselves to protecting other children from suffering the same fate.A list of burial sites of the unborn may be found at RememberTheUnborn.com.Prolife Leader Frank Pavone is the National Director of Priests for Life and President of Prolife Vote.For more information on the political work of Priests for Life, see our c-4, ProLife Vote.The post Frank Pavone: National Day of Remembrance Honors the Humanity of the Unborn appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.