How Lila Rose Became Pro-Life … and Catholic

by JUSTIN BELL 02/03/2012 from the National Catholic Register

At 9 years old, Lila Rose saw an image of an aborted baby in a book at her home. She said it struck her to the heart, and she asked, How could anybody do this to a baby?

In time, she became educated about the abortion issue and wanted to act, to speak out, and help save some of the lives that were being taken.

At 15, Rose started her organization Live Action, which she continues to lead today. In 2006, Rose began her series of undercover videos of Planned Parenthood that revealed non-reporting of apparent illegal situations. Rose and friends would pose as minor, pregnant girls seeking abortions, while videotaping conversations with workers, and then later posting the videos on YouTube.

Last year, Live Action released a video where a manager at a Planned Parenthood in New Jersey aided a couple pretending to be operating a prostitution ring of 14- and 15-year-old girls.

Live Action’s video investigations have placed serious scrutiny on the largest abortion provider in the country, including a more than $61-million loss of state funding, according to the group. The investigation in New Jersey led to an Illinois law that expanded the list of those who are obligated to report sex violations involving minors to authorities.


You said you converted to Catholicism not that long ago. Can you walk me through that process a little bit?

I was received into the Church two and a half years ago. Best day of my life, although every day after that has been pretty good, too. I was raised as a Protestant, and my parents were very faithful people; and they taught us to read the Bible and love and respect life. I learned about Jesus Christ as a Protestant.

But in my upbringing, my dad was on his own spiritual journey, reading the Church Fathers and doctors. So we had these books in the home: a lot of Ignatius Press books, for example. And so, I was reading these as a young teen. I read Joan of Arc by Mark Twain when I was 12. I was reading Mother Teresa’s writings at 12, 13 … like Total Surrender, Loving Jesus. Then I was reading St. Thomas Aquinas, and I was actually translating him in and out of Latin. That was part of the education experience that I was given by my parents because we’re home-schooled. They really pursued classical education for us. That was really neat, too; that’s another side of the story, but …

I was becoming formed by some of the best thinkers and saints of our Church, doctors of our Church, as a teen. I was very much drawn to the Church. I was drawn to Our Lady. I admired her so much, although the Protestant community doesn’t really talk about her very much. … My family talked about our faith, and, of course, about theology and different aspects of the Catholic tradition and everything. But we were still Protestant.

So then, when I got to UCLA, I fell in with — literally, one day I was looking for a church to go to — I had been experimenting with different Protestant churches, and I couldn’t find one that I clicked with, as they say, because the Eucharist wasn’t there and the theology was not sound. And I knew it, but I hadn’t really gotten to the place in my head that: Oh, I need to be Catholic; that just makes sense. I had been intellectually convinced over a period of years, but I really didn’t have Catholic friends, you know, strong Catholic friendships or anything like that, so it didn’t really occur to me that I could convert.


You didn’t see a way to convert then?

I didn’t see a way to that. And my family, I thought, Well, maybe one day if they do [convert], then I could with them, but they were not doing it at the time.

So I was looking for churches and [said] “I’ll go to Mass.” I had been to Mass a few times before … so I called up my friend Jen, and she was going to a Mass at this women’s Catholic center, which turned out to be a women’s Opus Dei center. … I didn’t realize there were all women in the little chapel; I was kind of clueless.

I went, prayed through the Mass, and then I was sitting with a woman in the back of the Mass; and I turned to her afterwards, and I said, “You know, is there someone here that can mentor me, or something like that?” She was a numerary [a type of member of Opus Dei who, according to the institution’s website is “completely available to attend to the apostolic undertakings and the formation of the other faithful of” Opus Dei], and she’s like, “Yes, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

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