The aim of the Armata Bianca is to invite children to offer themselves to God and recite the Rosary so that Mary’s promise at Fatima may be fulfilled: «In the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph. I promise an era of Peace for humanity». However we cannot speak about peace by putting aside respect for life. Mother Theresa of Calcutta said: «Life is God’s greatest gift (…) the greatest destroyer of peace in the world is abortion. If a mother can kill her own child in the crib of her womb, who will be able to stop you and me from killing each other?»
In 1988 the Armata Bianca decided to do something for unborn children, and for this purpose it instituted the Armata Bianca ’s branch of the Movement for Life in Aquila which in May of the same year organized a "Week for Life"
After having carried out numerous burials for almost two years, Armata Bianca thought of putting up a small monument for these little brothers and sisters of ours which would remind everyone about their dignity as children of man. On December 28, 1991, the feast of the Holy Innocents, in the town Cemetery of Aquila, a monument dedicated to Mary, the Mother of Unborn Babies was unveiled.
The reaction of the media. The march on Aquila by three thousand feminists. The politicians’ involvement. The extraordinary Meeting of Town Council in order to decree the cancellation of the inscription “To 50 million children…” The defacements on the statue: programmatic graffiti and intimidations. Some people did their best to start a spate of lawsuits against the Armata Bianca and especially against its founder Father Andrea D’Ascanio
Despite the numerous retaliations, the burial of children who are victims of abortion is now carried out in many cemeteries of Italy and other countries. In many of these cemeteries there is a replica of the statue of Aquila.
The DPR n. 285 of September 10, 1990 prescribes: Art. 7, paragraph 3 and 4: At the parents’ or relatives’ request, even products of conception of a presumed age inferior to 20 weeks can be gathered in the Cemetery
In view of the fact that most people are unaware they can and must bury such small children, here is the procedure to follow:
- - for the individual burial of babies aborted naturally, at the request of the parents.
- - for the burial of babies who are the result of voluntary abortions, at the request of the Movement.
We invite all the faithful to turn to them with the prayer approved by the Church which is quoted here. In this way we will be able to give these children a voice and the opportunity to express themselves in the dimension of the spirit and love, given that in their brief earthly existence they only had the opportunity of a “silent cry”
