A former pro-abortion Harvard atheist, turned devout mother of seven who took on Planned Parenthood and won, is one step closer to becoming a Catholic saint.
Ruth Pakaluk, who died of breast cancer at 41, is on the lengthy and complex path to sainthood after the Vatican granted a nihil obstat, declaring there’s ‘nothing in the way’ of considering her beatification and canonization.
Almost 30 years after she died in 1998, the Diocese of Worcester – in a picturesque New England enclave about one hour west of Boston – will now place intense scrutiny on her life and potential miracles.
Pakaluk was pregnant with her seventh child in 1990 when she discovered a cancerous lump in her left breast, which she fought for almost eight years.
A month before her death, she calmly told her husband Michael Pakaluk to remarry a woman who ‘might be the one to raise her children,’ according to The Catholic Free Press of the Diocese of Worcester.
‘She took a deep breath and said, “I have for a long time thought that Catherine Hardy would make a good wife for you, and now I see that she has moved to Cambridge”,’ Michael described to the outlet.
Hardy, now Pakaluk, was a fellow Harvard graduate and family friend. They married in 1999, when she was just 23, and had eight children together.
Ruth and Michael now have a combined 32 grandchildren, a remarkable pro-life legacy for the woman who entered Harvard as an enthusiastic pro-choice supporter of legal abortion in the mid-1970s.
Ruth Pakaluk was pregnant with her seventh child in 1990 when she discovered a cancerous lump in her left breast
Despite studying at the intensely left-wing Harvard University, Pakaluk and her future husband Michael were inspired by the deeds of Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
The couple had seven children together, one of which died of SIDS
But despite studying at the intensely left-wing institution, she and her future husband were inspired by the deeds of Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
They began studying the teachings of Christianity, in the 1980s, were baptized into the Catholic Church. Soon after Pakaluk began a pro-life group at Harvard, participated in debates across college campuses, and began a lifelong Crusade against abortion.
She took on Planned Parenthood in the 1990s and persuaded the Worcester School Committee to reject a pro-choice sexual education curriculum.
Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, declared Pakaluk as a ‘Servant of God’ in a September 29 letter to the Worcester Diocese.
After an investigation to determine if she lived a life of ‘Heroic Virtue’, the Vatican will review again to declare her ‘Venerable’
Worcester Diocese attorney Dwight Duncan was appointed as postulator of the pending cause. If US bishops vote that the formal inquiry can begin, Pakaluk’s writings and testimonials will be collected to be studied by theologians.
After being baptized in the 1980s, Pakaluk began a pro-life group at Harvard and continued a lifelong Crusade against abortion
A month before her death, Pakaluk calmly told her husband to remarry family friend, then Catherine Hardy, who ‘might be the one to raise her children’
Pakaluk’s widower Michael and Catherine married and had another eight children together
‘One of the things about Ruth that strikes me in retrospect is that she was kind of low-key. She wasn’t assertive in personal dealings. She wasn’t showy or aggressive. She wasn’t flashy,’ Duncan, a family friend, told the National Catholic Register. ‘But if she was front and center, like a debate or a speech or something, she was a strong, powerful woman.’
If the inquiry moves forward, a three-judge tribunal would send evidence of her ‘heroic virtue’ to the Vatican, which would decide whether to declare her ‘Venerable’.
Two miracles attributed to her would then be required, the first leading to ‘beatification’, and a second miracle for ‘canonization’
‘Lots of people have spoken about it … believed a cause should open up,’ her husband told The Catholic Free Press, remembering her pro-life work, founding groups, giving talks, and serving as president of Massachusetts Citizens for Life.
‘She had a kind of counter-cultural streak in her,’ he said, adding ‘she liked listening to Rock and Roll. ‘I think it gave her a lot of consolation hearing “edgy” music at the end of her life’.
In her pro-life activist work, Pakaluk (center) served as president of Massachusetts Citizens for Life
It’s a long and complex path before Pakaluk would be named a saint by the Catholic church, currently head by American Pope Leo XIV
While no miracles have been officially attributed to Pakaluk, people are praying for miracles through her intercession.
Obianuju Ekeocha, a Nigerian immigrant living in the United Kingdom, was a long-time pro-life advocate until she read a collection of Pakaluk’s writings and letters in the biography, The Appalling Strangeness of the Mercy of God.
‘I was completely stunned that anyone (especially a woman) could be so bold and so fearless in defence of the sanctity of life of the unborn,’ Ekeocha wrote in a testimonial.
She prayed to Pakaluk and in less than three years went from an ‘unspeakably abusive marriage’ and abortion supporter to a fervent pro-life activist.
‘This, for me, is the definition of a miracle and I have every conviction in my heart of Ruth’s influence at every step of the way.’
