(TCT) Margaret “Peggy” Hartshorn and her husband Mike’s pilgrimage from Columbus to Rome for the Church’s 2025 Jubilee Year was a special time for the couple, she said, and for the pregnancy help movement.
The Hartshorns, who are members of Columbus St. Mary, Mother of God Church in the German Village neighborhood (Columbus, Ohio), began volunteering in the pregnancy help movement 50 years ago. They attended a special Jubilee Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome on March 8 for volunteers in the Church that was celebrated by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin.
Pope Francis, who was hospitalized at the time, could not attend. He sent encouraging remarks that were read by Cardinal Parolin, focusing on a need to protect life from birth to natural death. An audience with the Pope was also scheduled but canceled due to the Holy Father’s hospitalization.
The Holy See has designated a number of Jubilee Days in 2025 to recognize and celebrate various groups of people and ministries in the Catholic Church. Volunteers in the Church were honored during the “Jubilee of the World of Volunteering” celebrated March 8-9.
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The Jubilee Mass on March 8 recognized Heartbeat International, which serves more than 3,500 affiliated pregnancy help locations, maternity homes and non-profit adoption agencies on every continent. Hartshorn, who serves as chairman of the board for Heartbeat International, represented the organization during the Jubilee.
Heartbeat International’s pregnancy help centers comprise 105 countries and include nine regional networks around the world. Regional networks exist in Spain, Israel, South Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, Canada, the Philippines, Australia and Italy.
The pregnancy help movement in Italy, known as Movimento per La Vita (MPV), is an affiliate of Heartbeat International and was honored during the Jubilee Mass. The organization is in the 50th year since its founding.
Tweet This: The pregnancy help movement in Italy, Movimento per La Vita (MPV), is an affiliate of Heartbeat International and in its 50th year.
“It was very fitting for the Church to recognize the amazing volunteer network of MPV and so honor all volunteers in the pregnancy help movement,” Hartshorn said.
MPV is organized at the highest level by volunteer leaders rather than paid staff.
The organization includes more than 300 pregnancy help centers located in each of Italy’s 20 regions. It also offers 30 maternity homes. All are part of Heartbeat International’s worldwide network.
During the Jubilee for volunteers, more than 3,000 MPV volunteers, representing each of Italy’s regions, participated in a procession to St. Peter’s Basilica. The volunteers, wearing white scarves with the MPV logo, followed a cross from Piazza Pia, a square or plaza, down Via Conciliazione (Street of Reconciliation) to the basilica.
Hartshorn and husband Mike joined for the procession. The couple also met with MPV’s president, Marina Casini, who, Hartshorn said, she has known for two decades.
The Jubilee celebration marked 50 years since Casini’s father, Carlo Casini, founded MPV. Carlo, who died in 2020, was a distinguished judge from Florence, Italy and member of the European Parliament.
He founded MPV in 1975 to provide women with abortion alternatives three years before the country’s legalization of abortion, which occurred in Italy in 1978. While abortion was illegal in Italy in 1975, an abortion clinic opened in Florence.
Carlo “went in person to the clinic and closed it down, promising the 10 women waiting for an abortion that he would see that they had all the help and support they needed to continue their pregnancies and have healthy babies,” Hartshorn recounted. “He kept his promise and this was the beginning of the first pregnancy help center in Italy.”
Heartbeat honored Carlo with the Legacy Award, the highest award given by the organization, during the 2015 Heartbeat International Conference. Carlo was present along with his wife, Maria. Their daughter, Marina, as acting president of MPV, is set to attend the Heartbeat International Conference in 2026, Hartshorn shared.
Also joining pilgrims in Rome for the jubilee recognizing Church volunteers was Anne Harney Smyth, who benefited from the generosity of the pregnancy help movement.
The Hartshorns housed Smyth, who was from Ireland, in their home in 1975 when she was pregnant. That year, Smyth chose to make an adoption plan in the United States for her baby son, Michael.
A network in Ireland at the time sent women to England for abortions. During that period, pregnancy out of wedlock meant a woman was not likely marriageable. A group of consecrated religious sisters developed an alternate network to send young women to the United States to make adoption plans for their babies, Hartshorn recounted.
She described the experience of housing Smyth, journeying with her through the many pressures and fears that an unexpected pregnancy often entails, as “life changing.”
It was also while accompanying Smyth during her pregnancy and adoption decision 50 years ago, Hartshorn said, that she and her husband were called to the “service arm” of the pro-life movement. Hartshorn was education chairman of Columbus Right to Life at the time. She and Mike then began serving in the pregnancy help movement.
“God had a plan for us in pregnancy help, and He allowed Anne to be the person who awakened that call in us,” she said.
Smyth has since become a grandmother and is in relationship with her son and his children. She and her husband, Jimmy, accompanied the Hartshorns for the pilgrimage to Rome.
Mothers brought their young children to St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome for a Mass on March 8 celebrating the Jubilee of the World of Volunteering, honoring numerous volunteers, including individuals in the pregnancy help movement/Peggy Harsthorn
During the procession and Jubilee Mass on March 8, Smyth was joined by numerous women whose babies were also born because of the love and support of the pregnancy help network. Several mothers brought their babies to the Mass, lining the front row at St. Peter’s Basilica.
Hartshorn noted that the theme “Pilgrims of Hope” for the 2025 Jubilee Year is fitting.
“That is the essential message that we offer in pregnancy help: there is hope for the mother, the baby and the family due to the love and grace of God, offered through our movement for life,” she said. “This hope is provided also for those who have had abortions through repentance, forgiveness and healing available through the grace of God.”
Hartshorn recommended individuals today get involved in the pregnancy help movement through Walking With Moms in Need, a nationwide, parish-based initiative of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).
The program increases support for pregnant and parenting mothers in need and is present in the Diocese of Columbus. Parishes can partner with and volunteer at pregnancy help organizations in their community and develop parish programs if needed. Resources are available at www.WalkingWithMoms.com.
Hartshorn serves as a lay consultant to the USCCB’s Pro-Life Committee, and she has been on the board at Heartbeat International for almost 40 years. She also served as Heartbeat’s president – the organization’s first full-time paid staff member – from 1993 to 2015.
After accompanying Smyth during her pregnancy in 1975, the Hartshorns continued housing pregnant women for 15 years. They installed a 24/7 hotline in their bedroom to help women who were thinking they might want an abortion.
Hartshorn and Mike founded Columbus’ first pregnancy center in 1981, Pregnancy Distress Center, now Pregnancy Decision Health Centers (PDHC). PDHC has since expanded to four locations – three in Columbus and another in Lancaster.
In July 2023, Hartshorn was awarded the U.S. Conference of Bishops’ People of Life Award, which is presented to Catholics who have demonstrated a lifetime commitment to the pro-life movement.
Editor's note: This article was published by The Catholic Times and is reprinted with permission. Peggy Hartshorn is president of the Board for Heartbeat International, which manages Pregnancy Help News.
