At the Vikarya Meeting organized by the Istanbul Apostolic Representation in the Ruben Tierrablanca Meeting Hall on December 3, the issue of abortion and the Church’s approach to this issue were discussed.
At the meeting, which started with the blessing of Monsignor Massimiliano, the Priest of the Congregation of Bebek Sacre Coeur and Idente Missionary, Father Andres Vicens Nadal I.M, explained the Church’s view on abortion with his presentation from the 1995 Vatican document called Evangelie Vitae.
Dr. Eda Çelik gave information about “Our Center Life Initiative”. Our Center Life is an initiative that offers moral support within the scope of Christian values to women who want to have a baby, who want to have a baby but cannot, who are considering abortion, whose pregnancy has ended due to undesirable reasons or who have lost their baby, who are pregnant or have just given birth. They provide moral support to women who apply to them and they direct them to St. George Hospital or Caritas under certain conditions. For more information, you can contact centremizyasam@gmail.com.
The book titled “Without a Plan”, written by Abby Johnson and translated into Turkish within the context of the Our Center Life Initiative, was introduced by Şule Rogenbuke, the translator of the book. While introducing the book in the autobiography genre, she said, “This book is a bestseller. But do not think that it is a very literary work. Or you won’t read a book where the plot is intertwined like the Dan Brown books with a technological sauce. In fact, it is not an autobiography documenting a life full of success from the moment the person was born. The beginning is based on a failure.”
The book, Unplanned, tells the story of Abby Johnson, who became pregnant unintentionally while she was a student and had the baby aborted by abortion, contrary to the Catholic faith in which she was raised, and how she changed the direction of her working life by volunteering for Planned Parenthood with the aim of helping women, as a result of her bad experience. It is the story of a life that changed after she realized that the clinic she was working at was an abortion clinic, not a clinic that helps women, and then she quit her job and became the head of a major social movement.
Şule Rogenbuke gave an example from her own life and explained the importance of “being open to life” and that “the Lord always helps and guides”.
The meeting ended with the hymn “What can we give?” Then, they had a meal together in the Vikarya garden and had fraternal conversations. Abby Johnson’s book “Unplanned” was distributed free of charge to those who attended.
(SAT-7 TÜRK/ Şule Rogenbuke, Istanbul Apostolic Representation Pastoral Team Member)
