Visitation Church Visually Depicts Respect Life Month

Nearly every Elmhurst resident has seen it at some point over the past 13 years. It's hard to miss the hundreds of crosses that dot the lawn at Visitation Catholic Church every October.

The church is, after all, on the highly traveled corner of York and Madison streets.

Kathy and Paul Esposito, parishioners at Visitation, are instrumental in erecting the crosses every year for Respect Life Month, a Catholic tradition. Each cross represents an abortion, Kathy said.

"It's not at full force right now, but when it's at full force, it's supposed to represent the 4,000 abortions a day (performed in the U.S.)," Kathy said.

The display has drawn all kinds of reactions over the years, Paul said.

"Every once in a while, you'll get raised thumbs; every once in a while, you'll get middle fingers," he said Saturday, as he and a team of parishioners placed the crosses.

Kathy said people opposed to the display have written letters to the church and local newspapers, and thrown the crosses around. One year, someone drove their car right through it, taking out several hundred of them, she said.

"It's controversial," she acknowledged. "People come up and have conversations. They're disturbed by the images. They say it's the law of the land, that women have a choice.

"It's a conversation thing."

Some of the complaints come from parents who say they're being forced to explain adult concepts to their young children, Kathy said.

There are age-appropriate ways to explain it, she said. A parent of a young child could say, "This is encouraging moms to take care of their babies," she said.

But abortion is a reality, she added.

"You have to explain a lot of things to your child," she said. "We can't keep a pristine world for you."

The Espositos are not fazed by negative reaction. 

"We try to be a very pro-life church," Paul said. "We're just trying to witness to what's going on in our culture, in our society."

Visitation is the only church in Elmhurst that puts up the cross display, Kathy said. The parish borrows the crosses from Lutherans for Life, which puts them up annually at the corner of Meyers and Roosevelt roads in Lombard. It takes about 20 to 25 people several hours to put them up, not including the six hours or so it takes to mark the grass the previous day, Kathy said.

They will be up until Oct. 16.

"Let people see it, let them be offended, let them be rejoicing, let them think about it," Paul said. "There are people who drive by this that would probably never think about abortion if it wasn't for this.

"We want them to think about it and realize what's happening."