The first time the Rev. William Kuchinsky performed a funeral Mass outside a parish, it was in the basement kitchen of a Capitol Hill rowhouse. He prayed over dozens of tiny blue circular, plastic containers.
They held more than 100 human fetuses, and the service was a secret.
Kuchinsky, a West Virginia priest well known for his antiabortion activism, had been called to the apartment on March 28 by other antiabortion activists who said they had gotten the remains from the driver of a medical waste disposal truck in D.C. — an account the waste company denied. Lauren Handy, who rented the apartment, and Terrisa Bukovinac, another activist, had asked Kuchinsky to come, and he celebrated a funeral Mass.
Kuchinsky said he also agreed to take nearly all the fetuses, which the priest knew some would see as stolen and deeply disrespected, while others would call them rescued and honored.
Over the next few days, those hidden interactions became national news. Handy was arrested by the FBI in a separate abortion-related case, and D.C. police retrieved five fetuses from her apartment. The activists said they had held on to the five larger fetuses, which they argue may have been from late-term abortions performed illegally, to turn them over to authorities. D.C. police have said the five fetuses appeared to have been aborted in accordance with city law.
Kuchinsky, 62, knew the activists’ actions would be seen as controversial, even among other abortion opponents. Still, he decided to bury the fetuses.
“The thought that came to me — and I’m not saying this is from the Lord — but the good Lord didn’t tell us, ‘Bury people in Arlington’ or ‘Bury them overlooking a river with scenery,’ ” the Catholic cleric told the Washington Post. “He just said to bury the dead.”
He said he put the little containers in layers of dirt in a private cemetery of some people he knows well, he said. He won’t say where.
West Virginia’s Catholic bishop, Mark Brennan, praised the priest, saying the service and burial “follow a long Christian tradition of practicing the corporal work of mercy for the dead, honoring their physical remains and burying them with love. I fully approve Father Kuchinsky’s caring actions. They remind us that these were real human children, not lifeless things — until their lives were unjustly taken from them….”
The above comes from an April 25 story in the Washington Post.
I somewhat understand the controversy. Yet, this priest was simply following Christian teaching. “The bodies of the dead must be treated with respect and charity, in faith and hope of the Resurrection. The burial of the dead is a corporal work of mercy; it honors the children of God, who are temples of the Holy Spirit.” (CCC 2300) Thanks be to God for Bishop Brennan, his bishop, who supported him in this. The location is odd, but maybe Cardinal Gregory would not permit a funeral Mass for these babies in one of the parishes of the archdiocese he governs. And, I’m virtually certain the pastor at Holy Trinity, where Mr. Biden continues to receive Holy Communion, would not have permitted it there.
Let us pray for these children, their mothers and all impacted by the lethal violence of abortion. And, let us pray that we Catholics have conviction and courage about this ongoing slaughter of innocents.
The location was chosen because of the circumstances of the possession of the bodies of the children. It had to be secret because authorities would no doubt have been notified and would have confiscated the remains and disposed of them sacrilegiously.
I agree with ASDF – had the fetuses been found in another location, police would have investigated, and who knows where that might lead. To Anonymous Clergyman, I realize that the issue of abortion may be your sole focus, along with Catholic politicians taking communion. Your virtual certainty that Holy Trinity’s pastor would not permit the burial there because he offers communion to President Biden, whom you find as offensive because he, as CINC, does not openly support your anti-abortion view. (Believe it not, like it or not, many American Catholics do NOT adhere absolutely to the church’s dogma that every abortion is inherently evil, and in fact sometimes necessary for the sake of the mother’s physical or mental well being. As a male, you will never have to endure having to gestate a baby of rape, nor raise the child, knowing every day that he/she is the product of assault. The church should be more aware and compassionate in such cases, not condemning.
Michael J. Dremel – Apart from your remark to “anonymous clergyman” that the abortion issue and politicians’ reception of Communion is his sole focus (how insolent and condescending of you), I am concerned that you, as a science teacher, seem ignorant of human embryology and the scientific fact that human life begins at conception. How do you reconcile your conscience?
As a science teacher, the challenge in deciding for me whether a fetus is a human being is a simple question: If a fetus were taken from the womb, would it normally survive on its own? Even with medical technology intervention, would the fetus survive? Would it be a stretch to understand that most if not all would not survive? That’s the crux of it – is the fetus a “viable” human being who will survive outside the womb. Yes, I know, there are miscarriages of babies who gestated to term yet did not survive, but we are talking about fetuses to 12 weeks, which was the usual limit for a legal abortion, and prior to that, “quickening”. Axiom states that human embryologists now consider human life begins at conception. Is there a peer reviewed scientific article that confirms that statement (that article is not a a single person stating it without any proof to support their claim). For the record, I am an adoptee, the product of an affair, but luckily, my biological mother decided not to abort (she was a nurse in a Catholic Hospital btw). I also do NOT discuss abortion in my classroom of high schoolers – if the topic comes up, I reply that it would better if they had that conversation with their parents. For the record, I find it personally abhorrent that there are late term abortions, where an abortion is conducted on what would be a preemie baby otherwise. Why? Because that child can possibly survive beyond the womb. Yes, I am in a sense splitting hairs. But check this: if there were free birth control to males and females, and decent, effective sex education beyond abstinence only, I could see a drop in unwanted births that would be otherwise aborted, and is that not saving what might be aborted fetuses? Bottom line: we cannot have it both ways – no birth control and no abortion. Too many countries actually use abortion as a form of population and family size control. So give free birth control, let there be a reduction in pregnancies and thus the perceived need for abortions would be reduced.
Lots of assumptions there, Michael. Who says that the innocent life of the child conceived in rape would not have a healing effect on the mother and an abortion would just be another violent assault on her? Also, as nearly 98% of abortions have nothing to do with sexual assault or the life of the mother, Biden as a prominent public figure and Catholic gives grave scandal in his support and is not the same as a private citizen who is Catholic who rejects the Catholic faith based on natural law and reason. But both will experience grave spiritual consequences if they don’t come around to what the Church has authoritatively declared.
What is most incoherent in your statement is the assumption that compassion for the mother implies that the baby must die. As the parent of a son conceived in sexual assault, I am almost as grateful for his life being preserved as he is!
Michael Joseph, I assure you that “the issue of abortion” is not my “sole focus, along with Catholic politicians taking communion,” as you claim. Anyone who has heard my homilies or talks or read things I’ve written knows that. However, its magnitude and seriousness make it a pre-eminent issue of our time.The mass killing of innocent babies should not be ignored nor should its promotion by public figures claiming to be “devout” Catholics. And, FYI, I have contacted Mr. Biden’s “pastor” about his scandalous behavior, yet nothing has changed.
When you say “many American Catholics,” do you mean yourself?
If so, sadly then, you want to defend the indefensible, the killing of innocent babies. You are not responsible for the souls of “many American Catholics,” but consider your own. I urge you to pray, seek sound spiritual counsel and read the Scriptures and teachings of the Church in this matter. Ask the Lord and Blessed Mother about this. In the stillness of your heart, listen. I pray the Holy Spirit leads you to repentance and life.
“As a male, you will never have to endure having to gestate a baby of rape, nor raise the child, knowing every day that he/she is the product of assault.”….transphobic? Misanthropic?
I know it is hard, but the child can be adopted out, and all of us — every single one of us — have ancestors who were rapists. Probably multitudes of them over the eras. Think about it.
Regarding my last post: of course, a woman who has actually been raped does not bear the same guilt that a woman who went willingly into a relationship does concerning abortion. There are always degrees of guilt as with most situations. The same with the men involved.
Aborted babies are treated like trash to be discarded. Thank God for the courageous efforts of Father Kuchinsky to give these little ones a decent burial.
God bless him! May there be more like him.