{"id":266788,"date":"2022-04-23T11:30:10","date_gmt":"2022-04-23T16:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=266788"},"modified":"2022-04-22T20:51:24","modified_gmt":"2022-04-23T01:51:24","slug":"vicki-thorn-founder-project-rachel-passes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/vicki-thorn-founder-project-rachel-passes\/","title":{"rendered":"Vicki Thorn, founder of Project Rachel, passes away at 72"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Vicki Thorn, a longtime pro-life activist, author, member of the Pontifical Academy for Life, and founder of Project Rachel, has passed away<\/a> at the age of 72. She is survived by her husband, William, their six children, and 17 grandchildren.<\/p>\n

Thorn settled in Milwaukee with her husband after marrying, where she served as co-chair of the archdiocese\u2019s Respect Life office. But her background, which included a degree in psychology and work as a certified trauma counselor, called her to do even more \u2014 especially given a life-changing experience in her teens.<\/p>\n

Growing up in Minnesota, Thorn had a close friend who confessed she had undergone an abortion, which her mother had arranged for her. \u201cAll I could do was just love her and be present to her, and make sure she was OK,\u201d Thorn said<\/a> about the encounter years later. \u201cBut it was a life-changing experience for me, in understanding that abortion was not a non-event, that it left enormous footprints in someone\u2019s life, and enormous pain.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0Accepting the truth about abortion is what started me on my path to healing<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Between that experience and her work dealing in trauma, Thorn founded Project Rachel in 1984, with staff including priests, spiritual directors, and caregivers, all specially trained to counsel those suffering from post-abortion trauma. And it wasn’t just women seeking relief; men needed to heal, too. \u201cThere were so many people who knew somebody who was wounded that it spread like wildfire,” she said.<\/p>\n

Six years later, Thorn founded the National Office of Post-Abortion Reconciliation and Healing (NOPRAH) in Milwaukee, to expand Project Rachel to other dioceses outside of Milwaukee. In 2008, Thorn and her husband were inducted into the Pontifical Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, a Catholic order of knighthood<\/a> tasked with sustaining and supporting “the charitable, cultural and social works and institutions of the Catholic Church in the Holy Land,” and providing for the needs of Catholics there. She received the People of Life Award from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2009, and was appointed to the Pontifical Academy for Life in 2017, by Pope Francis.<\/p>\n