Monica Roddis and her husband showed up at a baby shower at St. Matthew’s in Surrey, B.C., one day to find no expectant parents, no bassinets and no ultrasound photos.

Instead, parishioners had gathered to celebrate the wrap-up of a nine-month commitment to pray for an unborn baby who was vulnerable to abortion. The Roddises say the unique celebration turned out to be one of the most moving pro-life experiences of their lives.

The Spiritual Adoption of an Unborn Baby effort brings parishioners together in daily prayer for an unborn child using a prayer by Archbishop Fulton Sheen. The St. Matthew’s baby shower marked the end of that prayer journey, and to celebrate, participants brought baby supplies — diapers, clothing, blankets and other essentials — to donate to a local pregnancy care centre for mothers in need.

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“It felt like an answer to prayer,” Roddis said. “It was so simple, but so powerful. We knew immediately this was something that could change parish life.”

The Roddises met with the St. Matthew’s organizing team to see how the initiative could be brought to their own parish, St. James in Abbotsford. Fr. William Ashley offered his full support and soon the Roddises were printing pledge cards, prayer cards and information leaflets.

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It isn’t the structure of the program that is powerful, but its focus.

“Prayer is the centre of it,” Roddis said. “We often ask for prayer for the cause of life, but usually in a general way. This is different. It’s personal. It’s collective. You’re asking people to ‘storm Heaven’ together for a specific child.”

The model is intentionally simple and accessible. There are no meetings, no fees and no membership lists to join. Parishioners are asked only to add a short prayer to their daily prayers at home for nine months.

When pledge weekend arrived at St. James, the response stunned the organizers. Despite the parish’s small size, 138 parishioners committed to spiritually “adopt” and pray daily for an unborn baby. That number has since grown to over 160. 

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On the program’s launch weekend, a large board was displayed showing the moment of conception. Each month a new poster traces the baby’s development in the womb. Alongside it is a growing list of the names chosen by parishioners as a visible reminder that each unborn child is a real person.

“As we prepared this, we realized how easily this could be replicated in every parish,” Roddis said. “It’s low-cost, prayer-centred and deeply unifying. Imagine the impact if parishes across the archdiocese were doing this together.”