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by Elizabeth Ela 

One would be hard pressed to find a Catholic priest who wouldn’t describe his path to the priesthood as a “grace-filled journey.” Father Stephen Imbarrato of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, New Mexico, has good reason to make that claim.

For Father Stephen, who was ordained in 2005, that grace includes great blessings – such as the joy of adopting a son as a single person and his dedicated involvement in various pro-life initiatives over the past two decades. 

It also includes the knowledge that it was a painful past – namely, his own complicity in an abortion 35 years ago – that brought him to the pro-life movement in the first place, opened him to the priesthood and now allows him, as he put it, to preach the Gospel of Life “from the standpoint of mercy.”

“In spite of me being the greatest sinner, our Lord has allowed me the grace of the priesthood,” he said. He added without hesitation that his involvement with the pro-life movement was what led him to his vocation.

For a self-described “Jersey boy,” Father Stephen’s current assignment at three parishes and four mission churches over 5,000 square miles of rural, northeastern New Mexico is far from home. Every week, though, he takes the long drive to Albuquerque, and his involvement there with Project Defending Life’s activities – from ongoing efforts to support pregnant women, to prayer vigils outside the city’s highest volume abortion facility – is nothing out of the ordinary for this long-time pro-life activist.

As a seminarian at Holy Apostles Seminary in Cromwell, Conn., Father Stephen said he found “many, many opportunities” to do pro-life work, from creating a tomb for an aborted baby to founding a pregnancy resource center across the street from the busiest abortion facility in Hartford. Before entering seminary in 2000, he had been heavily involved in the political, educational and grassroots activism ends of the pro-life movement, especially as his son, John, adopted from Colombia in 1987, grew older.

Eventually, he said, his spiritual director asked him if he felt he might have a calling to the priesthood.

“As much as it came out of the clear, blue sky, I really couldn’t come up with the word ‘no,’” Father Stephen said.

His work in Connecticut caught the attention of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, and to Father Stephen, the prospect of quickly becoming a pastor, as well as beginning a pro-life ministry in another state, was appealing. Within a year of his arrival, Project Defending Life (PDL) was formed, serving as a network of various Catholic ministries throughout New Mexico.

The Gabriel Project – an initiative to support pregnant women and mothers of newborn babies – is currently caring for more than three dozen women, he said, and this year alone has seen 15 babies born. According to Father Stephen, PDL’s recent acquirement of an ultrasound machine has especially seemed to increase the number of women who decide against abortion.

PDL is also involved in the 40 Days for Life campaign – twice a year – and monthly Masses and processions at Holy Innocents Chapel, housed in a modest-sized building 50 feet from Albuquerque’s Planned Parenthood. Helpers of God’s Precious Infants – a group founded in the late ‘80s in New York by Monsignor Philip Reilly – is another pro-life organization under the supportive umbrella of PDL in New Mexico. They regularly pray and offer sidewalk counseling outside local abortion clinics. Last year, Father Stephen led 3,000 people to the state capitol in Santa Fe on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, and throughout the year, PDL sponsors various pro-life events – prayer vigils, marches, conferences and more – across the state.

“I don’t know of any other ministry in the country that’s doing the types of things that has the breadth and depth, at least on the local level, that we’re doing,” Father Stephen said, clearly eager to continue to “spread the charism throughout the state.”

These days, Father Stephen will regularly lead Eucharistic processions outside a Planned Parenthood clinic on one of the busiest streets in Albuquerque, lifting high the monstrance against what he calls “the sacrament of the evil one.” But in 1974, he said, “I did not stand up for my girlfriend when I got her pregnant,” and today he counts himself as sharing the guilt for her decision to abort. It wasn’t until years later as a seminarian that he learned she had been carrying twins.

Learning that, he said, was “another step in the journey” in regards to his commitment to the pro-life movement, and he now considers the intercession of his children – whom he named Thomas and Mary – as a cause of blessings in his ministries.

Father Stephen admits that his story is “dramatic.” As a priest, though, he’s convinced that it has helped him realize the need to preach “from the standpoint of mercy, not judgment” to his people in the pews, many of whom he knows have been impacted, at least indirectly, by an abortion.

He said that he and his fellow priests “need to preach to their woundedness,” telling them “that Christ loves them, Christ is willing to extend His mercy to them.” 

That message of healing must come first, he said, lest people push their priest away out of a feeling of being judged.

More than once, Father Stephen mentioned that “there is no distinction between the Gospel of Life and the Gospel of Christ” – a point stressed by Pope John Paul II in his 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae.

“We are not there just merely to save babies,” Father Stephen said. “We are there to bring those mothers to salvation, bring those people in abortion mills to salvation. … If we are going to show them life, we need to show them Christ.”

That necessary missionary aspect of being pro-life is what leads Father Stephen to believe that Catholic priests have a unique leadership role in the movement. He strongly believes, for example, that a priest who will wear his collar in front of an abortion clinic will draw more attention with his involvement in pro-life ministries than a lay person could command.

The ability to preach from the pulpit, lead Eucharistic processions and say Masses for pro-life intentions are also contributions that only priests can give, Father Stephen said, as they bring “their unique perspective, unique grace – the grace of ordination – to the culture of life.”

As for priests who wish to involve their parish in more pro-life work, Father Stephen offered some pointers: Begin “from the contemplative end,” with holy hours and Masses. Form a “Respect Life” committee in the parish and work closely with parishioners who feel called to pro-life ministries. Preach on Christ’s healing and mercy for post-abortive men and women. And, finally, lead by example.

This Year for Priests, Father Stephen said, will indeed be one of grace – but also of persecution, especially under the form of spiritual attack.

“The Evil One isn’t just going to step back and say, ‘Oh, isn’t that nice, the pope just designated a Year for Priests; I think I’m going to give the priests a year off.’” Father Stephen said. “No … Satan’s agitated (and saying), ‘I’m going to make their lives more miserable. I’m going to make them doubt their priesthood.’”

Still, he sees that as “a good thing, and that persecution will make us stronger,” Father Stephen said. And in the meanwhile, he said he exhorts the laity to support their priests through prayer and fasting.

He expressed his hope that in the Year for Priests, “we become more united to Christ, understanding that it is about putting our lives on the line for the least of Christ’s brethren. Not just the unborn, but the downtrodden, the poor, the homeless.”

After all, Father Stephen said, that’s ultimately a call that all Christians are given, as well as “what the pro-life movement is all about.”

“Priests will lead people there through their own lives, their own example, their own activism,” he said.

Listen to Headline Bistro's interview with Father Stephen

Learn more about Project Defending Life