Chapter 11

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Pregnancy Loss

Miscarriage, Stillbirth, and Early Infant Loss: Awareness and Resources

We are here to offer spiritual, emotional, and practical support to families who suffer from the loss of a baby before or after birth, including miscarriage, stillbirth, and early infant loss. We hope you will find support, consolation, and empathy as you journey through your grief, and that some of the resources below can help you navigate this difficult time. Above all, we extend to you our deepest condolences and want you to know that you are not alone in your pain.

Help & Healing

  • Red Bird Ministries is a Catholic organization that systematically guides individuals and couples through the complexity and trauma that happens with the loss of a child from pregnancy through adulthood. They seek to partner, equip, and train parishes to provide the tools and resources needed to support families who have experienced the loss of a child from pregnancy through adulthood.
  • A Catholic Guide to Miscarriage, Stillbirth, and Infant Loss, by Abigail Jorgensen, provides compassionate answers to difficult questions regarding reproductive loss.
  • Miscarriage Hurts is a website for those who have experienced miscarriage, or are close to someone who has. It offers a safe place to share your story, help you better understands your own personal experience, and connect you to resources that can provide support for your specific needs.
  • The Miscarriage Parent’s Handbook is for couples who have received the heart-wrenching news about their baby but are sent home without clear guidance about how to process their grief and memorialize their child.
  • Catholic Miscarriage Support is a website designed with answers to the sensitive and practical concerns couples have about burial of their baby after loss while remaining attentive to the spiritual needs as well.
  • Footprints on our Hearts offers ways to cope with the intense feelings of grief and loss in the days and weeks after the loss of a baby. It speaks words of understanding, encouragement, and hope for the future for anyone experiencing the grief from the loss of a baby—a stillborn, miscarriage or newborn death experience.
  • Grieving Together: A Couple’s Journey Through Miscarriage, by Laura and Franco Fanucci, is written by a couple specifically for couples, understanding that both spouses have experienced a loss and grieve differently.
  • Click here for more resources regarding grief support.
  • Click here for additional support and resources regarding infertility.

Ministry Resources

  • Click here to download Prayers and Funeral Rites after Perinatal Loss
  • Click here to download the Rite for the Naming and Commendation of an Infant, developed by the Archdiocese of St. Louis. This rite may be used by a priest or deacon, and also by a layperson who follows the rite and prayers designated for a lay minister.
  • Institute for Reproductive Grief Care, based right here in San Diego, provides training and other resources to leaders in caring for and accompanying those suffering from the many types of reproductive loss.
  • Elizabeth Ministry International offers an incredible array of resources to support parishes and pastoral leaders in offering hope, help and healing in areas related to relationships, sexuality, and childbearing.
  • Pastoral Guide: Miscarriage, Stillbirth or Newborn Loss, from Elizabeth Ministry International, provides pastoral ministers with the background, evidence, and tools they need to provide pastoral care for families who experience miscarriage or stillbirth.

Contact Information

Staff

  • Director: John Prust
  • Associate Director: Janelle Peregoy
  • Associate Director: Wendy Baez

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About the Coat of Arms

Bishop Pulido’s coat of arms is divided into four quarters with wavy horizontal lines from top to bottom. The blue and white lines represent the Blessed Virgin Mary. They also suggest water, which alludes to Jesus washing the feet of His disciples and to the waters of baptism. The red and gold lines represent the Holy Spirit and fire. The colors also can be seen as referring to the Blood that (along with water) poured from Jesus’ side at His crucifixion, as well as to the bread (gold) and wine (red) transformed into the Eucharist. At the center is a roundel featuring a symbolic representation of the “mandatum” (washing of the feet), which he believes exemplifies service to all humanity. The roundel’s outer edge is a line composed of small humps; it is borrowed from the coat of arms of the Diocese of Yakima, where Bishop Pulido served as a priest before being named a bishop.

About the Coat of Arms

Bishop Pham’s coat of arms depicts a red boat on a blue ocean, which is crisscrossed by diagonal lines suggesting a fisherman’s net. This symbolizes his ministry as a “fisher of men,” as well as how his own father had been a fisherman. The boat is also a symbol of the Church, which is often referred to as the “barque of Peter.” At the center of the sail is a red beehive (a symbol of the bishop’s baptismal patron saint, St. John Chrysostom, who was known as a “honey-tongued” preacher). The beehive is surrounded by two green palm branches (an ancient symbol of martyrdom; the bishop’s ancestors were among Vietnam’s first martyrs). The eight red tongues of fire around the boat are a symbol of the Holy Spirit and a representation of the diversity of ethnic and cultural communities. The red of the boat, the beehive and the tongues of fire allude to the blood of the martyrs.

About the Coat of Arms

The coat of arms combines symbols that reflect Bishop Bejarano’s spiritual life and priestly ministry. The main part of the shield shows four wavy vertical lines on a gold background. These represent flowing waters. This alludes to his chosen motto and also symbolizes the graces that come from the Divine life to quench our thirst for God. The upper third of the shield is red because it is borrowed from the coat of arms of the Order of Mercy, of which the Bishop’s patron saint, Raymond Nonnatus, was a member. The central symbol resembles a monstrance because St. Raymond is often depicted holding one. The Eucharist is Bishop Bejarano’s inspiration for his vocation. It was through the Eucharist that he received his call to the priesthood at age seven and which keeps his faith and his ministry going. It represents the call to offer oneself as a living sacrifice. The monstrance is flanked on either side by an image of the Sacred Heart, alluding to the mercy of God and echoing the idea of a sacrificial offering of oneself united to the sacrifice of Christ, and of a rose for Our Lady. It is an allusion to Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the Americas, and highlights the bishop’s Hispanic heritage.

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