Mass of White Crosses Makes Bold Statement

at Saint Margaret Mercy’s Dyer Campus

DYER—Approximately 700 school children from nine local Catholic elementary schools helped erect a display of 4,000 white crosses today at Saint Margaret Mercy Healthcare Centers’ South Campus. The display draws attention to Saint Margaret Mercy’s month-long Respect Life observance.

The white crosses symbolize the 4,000 babies aborted daily in the United States and beckon passersby to remember the innocent lives so tragically cut short in the name of “freedom.” The crosses also represent the 50,000 partial-birth abortions that occur yearly in the nation. The crosses will remain on display throughout the month of October.

As Pope John Paul II wrote in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae: “To claim the right to abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia, and to recognize that right in law, means to attribute to human freedom a perverse and evil significance: that of an absolute power over others and against others. This is the true death of freedom.”
At the conclusion of the ceremony, the children released thousands of biodegradable balloons to the sky in a celebration of life. It is truly a moving ceremony and is one of the most positive pro-life events in the country.
Each year, the number of children who help in this endeavor has grown, and this year is no exception. The celebration has grown from 500 children from two schools in 1997 to nearly 700 from nine schools this year. Joining Saint Margaret Mercy this year were children from:

St. John the Evangelist School, St. John St. Mary School, Griffith
St. Joseph School, Dyer St. Casimir School, Hammond
St. Michael School, Schererville St. Catherine of Siena School, Hammond
St. Thomas More School, Munster Our Lady of Grace School, Highland