Bring Out Yer Dead, Mr. Santorum! – UPDATED

Elizabeth Scalia shares her column on how our reaction to death has been sanitized, and how natural a home wake was only 80 years ago.

Death, for the people of that era, and every era before, was no stranger and brought no squeamishness. There was nothing mysterious about death beyond those questions we still ask–will we see them again in the next life, and why, so often, do the good die young while old bastards hold forth for far too long? A family mourned and drank, and fought and keened and then stumbled into church for the funeral; they buried their beloved and stumbled about some more, and life went on

Pundits Alan Colmes and Edward Robinson mocked the Santorum's handling of the death of their son Gabriel was a mean spirited act of ignorance. It was far beyond the pale and at least Alan Colmes has had the grace to apologized, which the Santorums gracefully accepted. It shows the depth of their Catholic convictions, and their loving hearts. I would have had a difficult time being that gracious!

Colmes and Robinson are not only part of the Culture of Death, but they are ignorant. They don't know what mothers know, that proper mourning a dead child is healthiest for the family. Karen Santorum is a mom of 8 and a neonatal nurse, she has training and life experience which she drew upon in her moment of crisis. What she and Rick did was the most healthy and loving for them and their children. How would the children know their brother Gabriel really ever existed without seeing him?

I lost three babies to miscarriage. The first time, I was in such shock, I allowed the OB to take the remains of my son to “the lab” without thinking about what that meant. The thought that my child may be disposed of like poor aborted babies, in medical waste, haunted me. Finally I researched and discovered that in my Catholic hospital, unborn children’s remains are put to rest in a common plot in a local Catholic cemetery. I felt comforted to know this.

The next two times I miscarried, I buried my children’s remains with their grandmother in our family plot in the same cemetery. My priest told me it was proper. I memorialized them in the book at the Shrine of the Holy Innocents in NYC. The book which inspired me to take such care of my children. to name them and bury them was Karen Santorum’s “Letters to Gabriel”.

Last night, I finally had the opportunity to thank Karen personally for her example and her book. If we truly want a culture of life, we participate in the corporal work of mercy and bury our dead with love, and dignity.

Just imagine how it would help the pro-life movement if we had Karen Santorum as First Lady, a promoter of the Culture of Life! Read more in Jill Stanek's column here.