Elizabeth was a practicing Catholic when she had an abortion in 2010. The decision left her in what she described as a “very deep, dark place.”
Years later, while pregnant with her third child after choosing life in two subsequent crisis pregnancies, Elizabeth knew it was time to face what had happened.
She gathered her courage and made her way to confession, terrified.
“When I left, it was like the whole world had lifted off my back,” Elizabeth told Deacon Patrick Conley and guest Fr. Marc Lenneman on The Inner Life.
That encounter with God’s mercy became the beginning of a beautiful reversion. Elizabeth promised God that if He ever asked her to give her child a voice or defend life, she would say yes.
Today, that promise has become a ministry. Elizabeth travels across the country advocating for unborn children and their mothers, raising money for pregnancy resource centers, and lobbying in Washington.
Her testimony offers a powerful reminder for anyone afraid to approach the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
“Nothing – nothing – is capable of outdoing the love of God shown to us in the confessional,” Patrick said.
No sin places us beyond God’s mercy when we turn back to Him with contrition. As Elizabeth discovered, confession does more than confront the past. Through the sacrament, Christ offers forgiveness, grace, and the possibility of beginning again.
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