Memorial to the Unborn

Nestled on the grounds of the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Memorial to the Unborn provides a means of memorializing unborn children and providing a place of spiritual healing and closure for parents, relatives and friends.

Unborn children may be memorialized in two ways at the Memorial to the Unborn:

Entombment of the remains of the unborn child in the columbarium, accompanied by the rite of blessing by an ordained bishop, priest or deacon in good standing with the Catholic Church and an inscription on the granite covering.
Inscription of name and date on the limestone wall of the Memorial to the Unborn. Various inscription formats are available.

For additional information on memorializing a loved one at the Memorial to the Unborn, please:

The Dignity of Human Life

Also located in the Memorial to the Unborn arcade are four bronze educational plaques which state the teaching of the Catholic Church on the topics of contraception, abortion, embryonic stem cell research, and the dignity of human life, all excerpted from the writings of Blessed Pope John Paul II.

The Evil of Abortion

Cardinal Burke discusses the crime of abortion as the greatest evil of our time.

"The Memorial to the Unborn eloquently expresses the message of Our Lady of Guadalupe: God’s all-merciful love toward all of His children from the moment of their conception. Even as God Himself chose to be conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary, as the first moment of His greatest act of love of us, so He has taught us the inviolable dignity of all human life. Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of America and Star of the New Evangelization, is, in a particular way, the Mother of the Unborn."

- Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke, Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, 12 December 2008