Respect Life Month activities yielding positive results

Cornelius M. Hayes III and Paul Laudadio say they witnessed divine intervention on Oct. 10 as they held vigil at the abortion clinic in Corpus Christi.

“We believe we saved a baby,” Hayes said. Hayes said that he was standing at the gate on the Crosstown Expressway when Laudadio informed him that the Morgan Street gate was open.

“I ran over there, as it is easier to talk to the people coming in. A woman drove in with her daughter. As they got out of the car I called to them and asked if I could give them some info,” Hayes said. “The daughter looked at her mother and then back at me and walked over to where I was standing. I showed her a pamphlet with pictures of the baby at various stages and told her this was what her baby looks like and that we would help her.”

Hayes offered to pray a rosary for the girl and gave her a pamphlet telling her how to pray the rosary. The girl told Hayes she was Catholic.

“They went into the clinic and I prayed the rosary for her. In about 10 minutes the mother and daughter left, both happily waving to me as they drove away,” Hayes said.

“It was clearly divine intervention that the Morgan gate was open, as it never is, that I got to the gate just before they drove in through that gate, that the daughter came over to see me and listened to what I said and showed her, that the mother never interfered and that they left so quickly,” Hayes said.

Hayes and Laudadio’s experience, while exceptional, is part of ongoing events being celebrated this October throughout the Diocese of Corpus Christi in observance of Respect Life Month. The month kicked off on Oct. 2 with the celebration of Respect Life Sunday Mass at the Cathedral.

On Tuesday, Oct. 4, the 40 Days Campaign for Life kicked off with pro-life supporters gathered at the Coastal Birth Control Center, the abortion clinic at Crosstown and Morgan, to demonstrate and pray the rosary. This was followed the next day with a Life Chain at the abortion clinic.

“Our intention is to focus on the busiest days for abortion procedures when children are lost and mothers exploited,” Patrick Hayes, 40 Days for Life Coordinator, said. Those days are Tuesdays and Wednesday, between 8 and 10 a.m., “but we will plan to be present and witness in prayer until 6 p.m. those days,” Patrick Hayes said.

A Rachel’s Vineyard Retreat, which addresses the wounds that run deep in many women and men who are suffering with the psychological or spiritual pain of abortion, will be held Oct. 21-23 at St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles Parish.

A Pro-Life Mass and Rosary will be held Oct. 20, at 7:30 a.m. at St. Joseph Parish located at 710 South 19th St. in Corpus Christi at 7:30 a.m. After the Mass, a rosary procession will take participants to the abortion clinic.