BIEN HOA (UCAN): The pro-life committee of the Diocese of Xuan Loc celebrated a special requiem Mass and burial for 700 aborted fetuses at Bac Hai Church in Bien Hoa City, southern Vietnam on January 29.
The liturgy was attended by hundreds of pro-life volunteers from different faiths. The cemetery is home to over 62,000 unborn babies.
Members of the committee are dedicated to raising awareness of human dignity in the country where students lead the pack in seeking abortions.
Before the burial, the dead fetuses were cleaned with alcohol, wrapped in white cloth, given names, adorned with flowers, and placed in the church for people to pray for.
“Burying dead fetuses is an apology to unborn babies for the pain and suffering we make them endure … and to pray for other babies to be safe,” Father Joseph Nguyen Van Tich, one of two priests who concelebrated the Mass, said.
The other priest was Father Vincent Nguyen Minh Tien.
Burying dead fetuses is an apology to unborn babies for the pain and suffering we make them endure … and to pray for other babies to be safe,
Although people took ten days off to celebrate the Tet [Lunar New Year] festival in January, early terminations did not subside and volunteers still collected 700 dead fetuses from local clinics and hospitals, Father Joseph Nguyen said.
Vietnam records 300,000 terminations per year, mainly among girls aged between 15- and 19-years-old. Of them, 60 to 70 per cent are students, according to studies.
Father Vincent Nguyen said that volunteers collect between 700 and 1,500 dead fetuses, including stillbirths, each month.
He said the diocesan panel has rescued hundreds of babies from abortion and provided safe accommodation for 2,000 single mothers abandoned by their boyfriends and relatives for refusing to terminate their children.
In Vietnam, early term was recognised as a women’s right under a 1989 law on people’s health.
A study done for the UN Sustainable Development Goals found that there was one abortion for every 1,000 women among 15-19 years old in Vietnam in 2021.
Father Joseph Nguyen said that the diocesan pro-life committee gives emotional and spiritual support for those involved in abortion. He, however, noted that it was sad that parents pay for medical workers to terminate babies.
He said during the burial that aborting pregnancies is a vicious crime against humanity.
