Saint for Life, Woman of Life

by: Charlene Cunanan

Sometime in 1974, when Fr. Paul Marx, OSB came into the Philippines to conduct a seminar to health and religious groups, nobody thought that in the light of a then young nun in the audience will find the flesh and bone of Pro-Life in the Philippines.

From Good Shepherd Maternity Home, Sr. Mary Pilar L. Verzosa, RGS advocates consciousness of Filipinos on respect and responsibility for human life which she foresees to be the primary goal of an organization that supports the beauty of the life or the Pro-Life.

Sis Pilar, as they call her, graduated B.S. Nursing from St. Paul College of Manila before she joined in the Good Shepherd Sisters then she took up graduate studies in Guidance and Counseling from De La Salle University and some courses in Social Work at Mt. St. Mary’s College, Los Angeles California, USA.

Through active participation in the academe, Sis Pilar sensed the need of the society to know the importance of education to the youth. In 1989, young people who were oriented on Pro-Life issues through the Teen Sexuality seminars saw the urgency to organize Youth for Life Chapters in their respective schools and communities. And from then on, continued rallies for the youth’s awareness advocating their involvement in such issues, helped them to understand life much better and what life can offer to them.

Important topics like divorce, euthanasia, abortion, two-child policy, homo-sexual union, and sex education were tackled in Pro-Life’s seminars and camps which they held annually. Some other seminars they conduct are the Millenium Developmental Goals, Teen Sexuality, Ecology and Environment, and True Love waits.
 
With the active participation in the community, Sis Pilar also focused on maternal and child health programs in which one of her concerns was the essence of life and womanhood. Needless to say, she was one of the founding members and Executive Director of BUNSO, and Non-government Organization promoting Breastfeeding and Child Care.

Sis Pilar received the Edith Stein Memorial information Award from the World Council fro Life and Family. Other awards she holds include the Theresa’s Light Award for Outstanding Alumnae of St. Theresa’s College in 2002, Mother Madeleine Award for St. Paul College of Nursing, Manila in 1998, and she is among the “100 Women of the Philippines—Celebrating Filipina Womanhood in the New Millennium

She has also traveled extensively to speak at international and local Pro-Life conferences and has been setting up Crisis Pregnancy Centers and Pro-Life Philippines Chapters all over the country. With her endless travels and campaigns, Sis Pilar extended her work as a Networking officer at the CBCP Office on Women to help set-up a women’s desks in dioceses outside Manila.

For over ten years now in various radio stations like Radio Veritas, DWDD, DWBL, DZMM, and DZXI, Sis Pilar was spreading the word of goodness and life’s values and morals. She also hosts Love Life on TV Maria which is shown on Dream Satellite and Destiny Cable channels.

In Pro-Life Philippines newsletter’s Silver Jubilee Commemorative Issue this year, it stressed the importance of Pro-Life’s existence, is stated: “Each action is urgent; each piece of advice must be decisive to solve a problem to save a precious life. And looking back all these years, Pro-Life can proudly says that it has been saving lives!”

Sis Pilar believes that if every minute a child is born, every minute also there is a baby whose life is in danger before or after birth. In the book, “What One Person Can Do… for Life” it says, every single person, in his or her own way, can do a lot to save a life.

This is Sister Pilar, the shepherd of life in simplest form.