CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (ChurchMilitant.com) - An abortion activist left a note on a car saying the only good baby is a dead baby, going on to wish the car owner himself had been aborted. On Tuesday, Fr. Benedict Croell, O.P., vocation director for the Dominican Province of St. Joseph, posted a picture of the handwritten note on his vehicle after visiting the campus of the University of Virginia with vocation candidates for the Order of Preachers.
Father Croell's vehicle featured a bumper sticker with the words of St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta: "Abortion — It is poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish."
The priest shared a picture of the note on his Facebook page, which read: "The only good baby is a dead baby. Your mother should have aborted you."
"Apparently, they were upset at the words of Mother Teresa on our bumper sticker," the priest noted.
He went on to call for prayers for the conversion of the person who left the letter: "Let's storm heaven with prayers for this person! Please pray one Our Father and one Hail Mary for the conversion of the person who wrote the note, for an end to abortion and for women who suffer the effects of an abortion."
Father Croell later provided an update: "I already offered Mass for the conversion of the person who wrote it — Lord have mercy on this person and our country!"
Bentley Hatchett II, a full-time volunteer with the group Tradition, Family and Property (TFP), told Church Militant when asked for comment, "It's amazing how the supposedly tolerant culture of universities seems to foster so much hatred towards Catholics and their beliefs."
The letter on Fr. Croell's car is one of the latest acts of intimidation and intolerance towards pro-lifers to take place on college campuses, where so-called "safe spaces" have become commonplace. Other instances of on-campus, pro-abortion harassment include Fresno State University professor Dr. Gregory Thatcher, who erased a pro-life group's chalk messages. Thatcher was later sued and ordered to pay $17,000.
On Wednesday, Church Militant reported that a group of abortion activists received a prison sentence for disrupting Mass in Spain in 2014.
Abortion activists have even turned their sites on public Christmas displays, including Church Militant's Noel Night festivities, where satanists showed up to shout blasphemies and obscenities through a bullhorn at a crowd of carolers, including children.
In April of 2017, Assistant Principal Zach Ruff verbally abused two teenage pro-lifers on a public sidewalk. In the video that captured the incident, Conner Haines mentioned the name of Jesus Christ, to which Ruff snapped, "Listen here, son, I'm as gay as the day is long and twice as sunny. I don't give a f*** what you think Jesus tells me and what I should and should not be doing."
Ruff was placed on leave and later resigned.
Father Croell emphasized the importance of prayer in the face of intimidation and harassment, saying, "So many are suffering, and it is important that we have mercy upon them with our prayers."