Iași, Iași County, Romania, March 17, 2023
Photo: basilica.ro
Timed to the Month for Life being commemorated throughout Romania and Moldova, the Archdiocese of Iași’s Pro-Life Department has launched one of its most important projects—the St. Emilia Maternity Center.
“The center’s mission is to provide protection and care to the mother-child couple who find themselves in difficult situations, as well as to women in crisis pregnancies,” the Department writes.
The primary goal is to prevent the abandonment of children by providing a safe environment for both mother and child, but also to help develop parental skills and mediate relations with the extended family to facilitate reintegration into society.
The Center is under the patroness of St. Emilia, the mother of 10 children—5 of whom are canonized saints: St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Peter of Sebaste. St. Macrina, and St. Theosebia.
Photo: basilica.ro
Fr. Radu Brînză, the head of the Pro-Life Department, recalls the tragic encounter 30 years ago that inspired the St. Emilia Center:
The St. Emilia Maternity Center is for me a moral duty to a mother who, 30 years ago, was going to have an abortion, but devastated by the horrible act she was preparing for. Her eyes were full of tears and the bruises left by a man who told her she could only come home without a child. She asked me: “Where should I go, Father, since he won’t let me come home?” I had no answer then. Now I do: The St. Emilia Maternity Center, so that no one will be left without an answer to this tragic question.
“Here a mother will find meaning, gain strength and learn to make good decisions. She will get wings so she can later teach her own child to fly. The St. Emilia Maternity Center is hope, love, strength and life,” commented Raluca Zota, the Center coordinator.
The home will have room for 8 mother-child couples, offering them a 2-year stay.
The Center is expected to be fully built and ready to open in 2025.
Donate to the St. Emilia project on the site of the Archdiocese’s Pro-Life Department.
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