From the Site of the Empty Tomb: Approaching the Hidden Grief of Prenatal Loss

Abstract

Despite the prevalence of pregnancy loss, theologians and pastoral ministers have continually neglected the experience. In this paper, I suggest that a deep lacuna exists in theological reflection and pastoral practice with respect to the widespread but silenced experience of miscarriage and stillbirth. While Catholic magisterial teaching is outspoken in its opposition to abortion and embryo destruction, the sparse and improvisational nature of theological, pastoral, and liturgical responses to women who experience the loss of a child in the womb calls into question the depth and breadth of its commitment to the conviction that unborn life is sacred and worthy of being mourned. I begin by briefly mapping the contours of the treatment of pregnancy and motherhood in feminist theology, arguing that theological neglect of pregnancy loss impoverishes feminist discourse and pastoral practice. I then identify three areas of social and theological contestation that have contributed to this neglect. Finally, I place personal and pastoral experience in conversation with Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza's retrieval of the Mary Magdalene/empty tomb tradition in John’s gospel (Jn 20:1-18), arguing that it provides a promising hermeneutical lens through which to begin to approach theologically and pastorally women’s experiences of death before birth.