Joannes Bucher’s visit in Romania 2014

Pro life is gaining ground in Romania!

This time Romania was the destination of my mission trip. Accompanied by many prayers, God immensely blessed my mission in a country where Nicolae Ceaușescu caused untold harm to the social and cultural life of its people.

After two years I have had the privilege of paying another visit to beautiful Romania. Romania seems to have everything: mountains, the Black Sea, forests and wilderness.

Romania certainly is rich in natural resources but due to excessive corruption maintenance of infrastructure is neglected and economic growth stagnating. Recently, there have been a lot of scandals because the government misappropriated EU funds earmarked for the construction of highways. As Gerda, my guide, aptly observed, it has become an Augean task for the Romanian society to get developed and better equipped for the daily challenges.

And there is not only the problem of corruption but also the double-dealing of international organizations with their exploitative goals leaving the country in a shambles.

When I was in Romania, Children’s Day was celebrated as on every first of June. Sounds pretty good, right? And since the UN and UNICEF pledge commitment to it (the United Nations Children’s Fund) this day ought to be a big deal, oughtn’t it? Isn’t UNICEF known for its cute Christmas postcards and for its large format posters featuring celebrities and its conspicuous concern for children’s well-being. The reality, however, is different and only few people are in the know about this. Who could possibly imagine that the UN and several of its sub-organizations, including UNICEF, are heavily involved in the abortion industry and/or aggressive population programs? Children on colorful posters and lovely Christmas cards cannot hide the fact that the UN is playing a double game preying on gullible dupes. Take for instance the UNFPA, a UN sub-organization. Everyone can easily see the hypocrisy of their ways. It is UNFPA policy to officially speak out against abortion as a family planning method. But that’s a mere sham to dazzle the public. Nowhere in the UNFPA program does it say that UNFPA actually promotes abortion initiatives. As a matter of fact, UNFPA philosophy does not object to abortion as a method of population control or „reproductive rights”. Rather, leading UNFPA officials are ardent supporters of abortion as a basic human right. Relations with the world’s most powerful abortion Network International Planned Parenthood (IPPF) are at its best. Abortion Research is supported and promoted. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that favor abortions are generously provided with funds. Abortion instruments are mass-distributed to developing countries such as Romania. As a consequence, human rights are violated and the national sovereignty of nations undermined by enforcing population programs. Even the brutal Chinese one-child policy and forced abortion, forced sterilization, incarceration of family members and the killing of non-state-approved newborns is actively supported. Verbal masquerade and duplicity have become second nature to them. New definitions are being invented like „pre-embryo” instead of embryo, „menstrual regulation” instead of abortion, thus resorting to linguistic obfuscation to achieve their sinister goals. As a consequence, women are deliberately tricked and persistently wronged whose rights UNFPA supposedly purports to protect. Obfuscation and concealment are taken to such lengths that the official spokesmen of the UNFPA unashamedly deny abortion when these people are the same ones who agitate vigorously for the right to abortion or even have abortions performed. Our HLI office has to be frank and tell the truth especially in a country where a pro-life infrastructure is just being developed. In Romania, it was really great to see how they start fighting the pervasive confusion from a spiritual basis. Only this year they have organized amazing prayer marches in over 40 cities. They do what Blessed Pope John Paul II kept reminding us all about, viz. to passionately pray for the victory of the culture of life. To be sure, ours will not be a military victory, but a victory of the heart. Everything comes down to conversion, not strategies. True conversion will make people see through the fabric of lies of the abortion industry, and fervent prayer and fasting will make us committed to the truth of life and empower us to defend the truth.

Divine Providence had my visit coincide precisely with the Diocesan Catholic Youth Meeting in the Diocese of Lugoj, whose host parish was St. Mary Queen of Peace. In this parish works the Gift of Life Association, a subsidiary of Human Life International (HLI) for Romania. And the president of the Gift of Life Association is the parish priest, Fr. Ioan Chișărău. Gerda Chisarau said: “Since we knew the date of Joannes’ visit, we planned this youth meeting so as to have a pro-life youth group witness the occasion, given the urgency of this issue for the whole body of the Church. Thus we included in the program the testimony of some young girls from the chastity movement. Then came the second lecture on ´Responsibility in the defense of human life´ held by Joannes Bucher, HLI coordinator for Europe.” To our delight, for the first time the Meeting of the Diocesan Catholic Youth of the Diocese of Lugoj was marked by the issues of human life defense and chastity. Between presentations, the vocal-instrumental group of the Queen of Peace Church animated those present with songs and moves, such as „We are those who praise the Lord”, „When Jesus passes between us, everything is transformed” etc.

Another highlight of my visit was our appointment with His Eminence Cardinal Lucian. The atmosphere was most cordial and his Beatitude showed much interest in the work of Human Life Defense, which he pointed out to be even more important than the mission of a teacher. The fruit will be that the Cardinal promised to support our affiliate with an official letter that he is going to sign for all bishops in Romania. Our delegation also paid a short and spontaneous visit to Claudiu Pop, the Bishop of Curia, who took his time and warmly received us as special guests. At the conference for seminarians in Blaj I pointed out that today we are engaged in spiritual warfare over spiritual life (i.e. the Eucharist and the priesthood) as well as biological life, from the conception until natural death.

It is our duty to defend fertility and to fight for it. Not by force, but using the information and the facts that we are given. For some things we have to pray because we are involved in a spiritual war. Drawing from my personal experience at our own center in Salzburg, we deem it important not only to share information but also to pray for expectant mothers because more often than not we found them not capable of accepting their children in their hearts. Surprising things have happened. God moved the hearts of these mothers and often gave them the courage to keep their babies.

It often happens that women have had four or five abortions already. That is why we have to treat them with great compassion for most women who have already had abortions long to be healed. Repeatedly mothers that have been saved have given important testimonials. They can raise their voice against abortion and denounce it for what it is: a lie. It is necessary that we offer our charity not only the mothers, but also to their families. In close cooperation with Rachel´s Vineyard we have prepared a project in Austria where mothers, families and children who have lost a brother or sister through abortion are counseled. The professional team consists of a priest, a psychotherapist and a small prayer group. Mothers are led to healing by the word of God.  Mothers that have had an abortion are not entirely to blame. Perhaps unfortunate circumstances have led them there, perhaps she was under pressure, maybe she’s only 5% guilty, but the repenting soul must be brought low before God and then the healing can happen. A mother needs this spiritual and psychological process to be able to forgive herself. If she does not receive professional help, she will never be able to forgive himself. If a mother has her her own child killed, what looks for her like a solution will cause her great pain since killing never is a solution to a problem. In the long run, there is no mother that has not regretted an abortion yet. There are very strong personalities who work a lot and hardly have time for anything. If a relationship breaks up or a death occurs, women often start to think of abortion. Then they realize that the child grows spiritually with her. Later questions arise such as: How old would they be now? What color would their eyes and hair have? …

We thank Joannes Bucher for this visit and are grateful for the entire spiritual and factual support of the HLI Organization, without which the Gift of Life Association could not have realized many of her projects, especially the lifesaving and blessed street counseling.