RT Article
T1 Emerging Trends in Pregnancy-Loss Memorialization in American Catholicism
JF Horizons
VO 44
IS 2
SP 369
OP 398
A1 Walsh, Maureen L.
LA English
PB Cambridge Univ. Press
YR 2017
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1663032475
AB Pregnancy loss (miscarriage, stillbirth, and abortion) is an age-old, and typically hidden, part of women's lives, yet only in recent years has it started to receive recognition to match its prevalence. Based on ethnographic research, this article analyzes liturgical and memorial practices developing within American Catholicism to acknowledge and commemorate pregnancy losses. Growing efforts have emerged as parishes, dioceses, and other Catholic organizations across the country have developed rites and memorials that provide formal ways to attend to grief that often accompanies experiences of miscarriage, stillbirth, and abortion. The memorials range from "miscarriage masses" to public monuments to postabortion ministry retreats. This article argues that these memorial practices seek to change how pregnancy-loss experiences are understood or "known" by ritual participants by reframing them within Catholic narratives of forgiveness and healing, thereby transforming situations of isolating loss into stories of grace, community, and shared sorrow.
K1 American Catholicism
K1 Abortion
K1 Memorials
K1 Miscarriage
K1 pregnancy loss
K1 Ritual
K1 Stillbirth
DO 10.1017/hor.2017.63