Rachel’s Vineyard is an international community that offers post-abortion healing retreats in over 80 countries worldwide. The program originated in the United States and was created by Theresa Burke, a therapist of Polish descent. The retreat program has already been translated into over 30 languages. In Poland, Rachel’s Vineyard has been active since 2014 in several cities: Warsaw, Piwniczna-Zdrój, Kraków, Poznań, Gdańsk, and, since 2021, Wrocław. Rachel’s Vineyard retreats are therapeutic and spiritual gatherings for people suffering from post-abortion syndrome (women, men, and medical staff). It is not only the child who is a victim of abortion; the mother and father are victims as well, because death enters their lives as a consequence of the choice they made. Many women say that with the abortion, “something inside them died.” These retreats are dedicated to anyone who has experienced abortion (directly, indirectly, or through persuasion) and desires reconciliation with God and with their life story. Most participants are women, though one-sixth of the attendees are fathers of lost children. The retreat is also open to those with “survivor syndrome”—people whose lives were threatened by abortion or whose siblings were aborted, and who consequently experience chronic guilt, anxiety, low self-esteem, and a need to prove their right to live. Women of various ages, educational backgrounds, and social statuses—both believers and non-believers—decide to have an abortion. In recent years, a very common reason for such a decision has been the legal grounds for terminating a pregnancy due to fetal abnormalities or the mother’s poor mental health—a major misconception, as abortion does not resolve mental health issues but rather exacerbates them dramatically. Rachel’s Vineyard takes place in small groups, under the care of properly trained staff and a priest. A very important element of the retreat is creating an atmosphere of love, safety, and discretion, as participants arrive feeling anxious, afraid of judgment, condemnation, and criticism. The team of facilitators ensures that everyone feels welcomed with their life story and comforted in their pain. The three-day meditations on the Word of God and workshops are aimed at inner healing, healing emotional and spiritual wounds following an abortion, processing trauma, experiencing mourning, reconciliation with God, and helping to establish a spiritual relationship with the unborn child. The retreat begins on Friday and lasts until Sunday, which is also a spiritual invitation to journey with Jesus through His Passion, through His suffering and death on the cross, the experience of the darkness of the tomb, and the emergence into the light of the Resurrection on Sunday. Our Provincial House in Wrocław also regularly hosts these retreats. The sin of abortion, which retreat participants often view as “unforgivable,” becomes a cause of despair, depression, a slow agony in solitude, and sometimes mental illness or even suicide. But! The final word always belongs to Jesus, our Lord and Savior! Through the prophet Isaiah, He tells us: “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow” (Isaiah 1:18). These words become a living experience of the power of God’s mercy. Participants leave the retreat transformed, freed from guilt, self-condemnation, regret, sadness, and hopelessness. It is remarkable that this transformation is even visible externally—a new freshness appears on their faces, and joy and radiance are restored to their eyes. Helping people with post-abortion trauma is a very concrete act of saving their souls from the darkness of death in which they live.
s. M. Rachela Wąsowicz
(member of the team at the Wrocław branch of Rachel’s Vineyard)