Respect Life Month: Sea of crosses create ‘Cemetery of the Innocents’ to remind people of ongoing tragedy of abortion

St. Michael School eighth-grader Briana Stewart of Indianapolis helped hammer crosses into the ground on Sept. 19 with her parents, Grant and Naomi Stewart, and her older twin sisters, Madeline and Melinda. They are members of St. Michael the Archangel Parish. More than 100 parishioners and students from St. Michael School, Cardinal Ritter Jr./Sr. High School, Bishop Chatard High School and Marian University, all in Indianapolis, helped erect the pro-life display. (Photo by Mary Ann Wyand)

By Mary Ann Wyand

Row after row after row after row of small, wooden crosses—4,000 crosses in all—stood in silent witness to the horrific tragedy of legalized abortion.

They covered the grass in straight lines in front of and beside St. Michael the Archangel Church in Indianapolis, transforming the parish lawn into holy ground and sacred space.

These stark, white crosses represent the number of unborn babies killed in abortions each day in the United States.

Some of the crosses were decorated with flowers or personalized with the names of babies by grieving mothers who regretted choosing abortion.

At times, parishioners saw women standing among the sea of crosses crying about the loss of their babies in abortion. Some of these grief-stricken women even sought confidential spiritual help as a result of the traveling pro-life exhibit.

A sign explaining this “Cemetery of the Innocents” display read, “Can 4,000 abortions in the United States each day be right????? Let’s build a community of love, hope and truth where all life is respected!”

The crosses were hammered into the hard, dry ground on Sept. 19 by more than 100 parishioners and students from St. Michael School, Cardinal Ritter Jr./Sr. High School, Bishop Chatard High School and Marian University, all in Indianapolis.

Countless people saw the 4,000 crosses during the two-week, educational display at St. Michael Parish, located at 3354 W. 30th St.

On Oct. 2, St. Michael School seventh- and eighth-grade students carefully took down the crosses and packed them in containers for transportation to the next pro-life display at a church in another Midwestern city.

St. Joseph parishioners Larry and Kay Sendelbach of Cold Spring, Ky., created this “Cemetery of the Innocents” after hearing about similar “Crosses for Life” traveling exhibits in other states.

They are the same crosses that were erected on the lawn beside SS. Philomena and Cecilia Church in Oak Forest in the Batesville Deanery on Aug. 2, 2008, by members of the parish Catholic Youth for Life group.

A photograph of the crosses displayed from Aug. 2-16 last year was published in The Criterion, which inspired St. Michael the Archangel parishioners Ruth Bueing and Robert and Peggy Geis to talk with Father Varghese Maliakkal, the administrator, about bringing the exhibit to the Indianapolis West Deanery parish.

“People slowed down to look at the crosses as they drove by the church,” Robert Geis explained. “We were straightening the crosses in the ground on Monday, [Sept. 21], because it had rained and the soil wasn’t so hard. I was [working] close to 30th Street near our sign for the church and school, and a policeman stopped by. He was so happy to see the crosses, and said it really makes an impression on people. He and other people have said they had no idea that we have so many abortions a day in the United States. He also said ‘Keep up the good work’ and ‘Thanks for doing it.’ ”

Father Maliakkal said he was pleased to have so many volunteers of all ages help erect the 4,000 crosses on the parish grounds—which amazingly took only a few hours on Sept. 19—as a pro-life witness to the community.

That morning, the Indian priest celebrated Mass with the archdiocesan Helpers of God’s Precious Infants pro-life volunteers then helped hammer some of the crosses into the church lawn while the Helpers prayed the rosary in front of the Clinic for Women, an abortion facility on West 16th St. Then he led the Helpers in Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament when they returned to the church.

“With each cross, we prayed for children who have been killed in abortion or any other way,” he said. “Each of these crosses stands for those babies who were left behind. The parents or moms do not know where their babies [bodies] are because they left them in the [abortion] clinics. It’s a remembrance. Here or there, people put flowers on the crosses because they said, ‘I have nowhere to place my baby’s cross so I placed flowers on one of these crosses.’ That’s their faith, and this is a sign of life because Jesus brought life back to us through the Cross.”

Father Maliakkal said parishioners were pleased that the crosses were on display when they celebrated their parish feast day with a Mass and cookout.

“We feel blessed to have the crosses at our church this year because they are a witness to our faith,” he said, “and to the cross of Christ and the new life that Jesus brought to us through the Cross. We are very grateful for this chance to pray for these [aborted] babies and to witness to others [about respect for life] as well.”

St. Michael School eighth-grader Briana Stewart of Indianapolis helped hammer crosses into the ground on Sept. 19 with her parents, Grant and Naomi Stewart, and her older twin sisters, Madeline and Melinda. They are members of St. Michael Parish.

“I feel strongly about [ending] abortions,” Briana said, “and this is a good way to make the community aware [of the number of abortions]. People are going to notice, and it’s got to be perfect so I tried to make the crosses straight in the ground. But it makes me feel really sad.”

Madeline and Melinda are freshmen at Bishop Chatard High School in Indianapolis.

“It’s a really good cause,” Madeline said. “People don’t really notice how many babies do die [in abortion] in one day. It’s so many, and you don’t think about that all the time. When you see all the crosses, it brings to mind what’s going on in the United States and how it needs to be changed.”

Melinda volunteers on the pro-life committee at the Indianapolis North Deanery interparochial high school.

“I just felt like it was a really good thing to do,” she said. “When you see all these crosses, you realize that all these people should be alive.”

The Sendelbachs started this pro-life project 12 years ago and are pleased that so many faith communities in Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana have asked to display the crosses.

“I deliver the crosses [by request] two times a month all year long,” Larry Sendelbach explained during a Sept. 23 telephone interview. “It has affected a lot of people in a lot of different ways. Sometimes we get good results. Someone decorates a cross in memory of a baby lost [in abortion]. Sometimes people destroy the crosses and paint over the signs. They write things like ‘Keep your rosaries off my ovaries’ and ‘What about the abused kids?’ But my signs are non-judgmental. The message is a statement of fact.”

Sendelbach said he found the names “Joshua” and “Donald” printed on one cross with the date May 3, 1975.

“That particular cross was found at St. Cecelia Parish in Taylor Mills, Ky.,” he said. “The priest there took that cross to Mass and spoke about it during the homily. … The mother happened to be at the Mass. She told him later that Joshua and Donald were twins. He wound up getting her into Project Rachel [a confidential abortion reconciliation ministry] because of it.”

Larry and Kay Sendelbach deliver the “Cemetery of the Innocents” crosses to faith communities in their van and a trailer decorated with an American flag and pro-life sign that reads “Unborn babies are people too.”

“If anybody wants to put the crosses up, I don’t charge for it,” he said. “The good Lord sees to it that I’m able to do it. … But I cannot do this [pro-life ministry] without the people that perform the labor of love of putting them all up.

“When I first started building the crosses, my wife thought I was crazy, but she figured if I was going to do it then she had to join in,” Sendelbach said. “I’m continuously making new crosses to replace the ones that get broken. I make 400 crosses at a time in about three days.”

They are happy that the display is helping women who have experienced abortion to seek forgiveness and healing.

“When I started this project, I asked God to allow me to affect one person,” he said. “I know for sure that it has saved at least three children. I think there are countless others [saved] that only the Lord knows about. I hope to meet them someday if I make it to heaven.

“Somebody has to stick up for the unborn babies,” Sendelbach said. “It’s a shame you have to put up even one cross, let alone 4,000 of them. I’ll put them up anywhere. If they would let me, I would put them up in front of the White House lawn.”

(For more information about the “Cemetery of the Innocents,” call St. Joseph parishioners Larry and Kay Sendelbach of Cold Spring, Ky., at 859-441-2712.) †