I’m praying this week that the rich tones of a bronze bell crafted in Poland and rung for the first time in Vatican City will reverberate here in the United States.
The 2,000-pound, four-foot-high Voice of the Unborn bell was cast at the Jan Felczyński bell foundry in the city of Przemyśl, in southwestern Poland. Carved on the side of the bronze bell is an ultrasound image of an unborn child along with the words of Blessed Jerzy Popieluszko, “A child’s life begins under the mother’s heart.” There are two stone tablets, symbolizing the Ten Commandments. One tablet carries Jesus’ words from Matthew 5:17, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law.” On the second tablet is the commandment, “Thou shalt not kill,” taken from Exodus 20:13.
The Voice of the Unborn bell was commissioned by Poland’s Yes to Life Foundation. On Sept. 23, the symbolic bell was rung for the first time by Pope Francis, who blessed it following his Wednesday General Audience. The Pope said of the bell, “May its ring awaken the consciences of legislators and all people of good will in Poland and the whole world.”
He added that the weighty bell would “accompany events aimed at remembering the value of human life from conception to natural death.”
Indeed, the earnest message of the Voice of the Unborn bell in defense of innocent unborn life should reverberate through the world. Abortion laws in Poland are much stricter than are laws here in the U.S. Nonetheless, it’s estimated that there are 700 to 1,800 legal abortions conducted in Poland each year. A much higher number of Polish women terminate their pregnancies illegally; current estimates are that 80,000 to 200,000 Poles end their pregnancies in abortion, often traveling abroad to seek their abortion.
Here in the United States, the number of abortions has fallen each year for the past several years. Nonetheless, in 2017 — the last year for which statistics are available — the pro-abortion Alan Guttmacher Institute reported that approximately 862,320 abortions were performed in America.
May all politicians and all people — in Poland, throughout Europe, and here in America — hear the clarion call of the Voice of the Unborn bell, and may all come to recognize the inestimable value of each human life.