The history of the memorial began at a meeting of the Church Committee of the Padre Pio Council in the fall of 1993. Memorials to the unborn had been undertaken as projects of councils throughout the United States, and Don Kolasch suggested that the Padre Pio Council pursue such a project, too.

As so often happens with people who suggest a good idea for a project, Don found himself in charge of it. He'd hoped to take the concept beyond the simple gravestone usually used, and initially conceived of a grotto in which both a gravestone and a suitable statue would be placed. Don began collecting photographs, magazines and other materials that might prove useful in coming up with a design, and among the photos was one of a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary weeping. Unfortunately, the photo was mislaid somewhere along the line, and no one could remember where it came from.

At this point, the Associate Pastor at St. Catherine of Siena Church, and Padre Pio Chaplain, Fr. Thomas Vander Woude came to the rescue. When Don asked him if he was familiar with a statue depicting the weeping Virgin, Fr. Vander Woude knew right away: it was Our Lady of LaSalette He also knew where the American Headquarters of the Missionaries of LaSalette was located: Hartford, Connecticut, not far from the headquarters of the Knights of Columbus!

Don got in touch with the Missionaries of LaSalette, and Brother Peter Collins of the order proved to be extremely helpful. They had a replica of the original statue located in the French Alps (see Story of Our Lady of LaSalette) in their church in Hartford, and would be willing to cooperate with us in having a reproduction of it made.

In the summer of 1994, Kolasch was among the parishioners accompanying Fr. Jerome Fasano, the pastor of St. Catherine's, on a trip to Italy. In Rome, he contacted firms which make statuary for churches, and got estimates of the cost of the statue he had in mind. The result was discouraging: approximately $30,000 would be needed for an Italian firm to produce a bronze reproduction of Our Lady of LaSalette, far beyond what the council could afford. (On a subsequent trip to Rome, Don and Elaine Kolasch met Angela Case in a restaurant near St. Peter's. She turned out to be a professional singer, and was the soloist for the dedication ceremony.)

Upon his return to the United States, Don decided to see whether there were any artisans in the U.S. that could produce the statue at a lower cost. It fell to his wife Elaine to do much of the research, and soon she got word of a place not far away: Giannetti's Studio, in Maryland. Giannetti's has produced much of the statuary and other adornments (gargoyles, etc.) for Washington, D.C. area churches and cathedrals, and makes them in the Old World style. Could they produce the statue we had in mind for a price we could afford? The answer was yes, and it wasn't long before Don and his wife were headed north to Hartford.

There, Brother Collins and others watched nervously as the plaster statue of Our Lady of LaSalette was moved from the sanctuary of Our Lady of Sorrows Church into the trunk of Don's car. (September 15 is the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows ). Soon, they were delivering it to Giannett's Studio, where artisans spent three months studying it and devising ways of making a copy that would not damage the original, coming up with colors to match, and so on.

The statue for the memorial on the grounds of St. Catherine of Siena Church had to be made of different material than the one from Hartford; plaster isn't suitable for an outdoor location subject to weathering. Bronze would work, but was too expensive. The solution: an epoxy-like material that is strong, durable and well-prepared to handle the elements for many years to come.

The results of the Giannetti's work - clearly a labor of love - is the magnificent statue at the center of the memorial. When word of its beauty spread back to Hartford, Giannetti's quickly got orders for five more of them from parishes around Connecticut.

Don and Past Grand Knight Bob Flynn transported the original plaster statue back to Hartford when the work at the Giannetti Studio was finished. Brother Collins and the other missionaries were not only very happy to have their statue back, there were delighted at the restoration that had been done on it. It looked even better than when it had left!

Originally intended to be a simply yet powerful memorial, Our Lady of LaSalette and a tombstone with the inscription, "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you..." Jer. 1-5, ideas and suggestion continued to evolve. A small angel in prayer was placed on the other side of the gravesite. In a conversation with Fr. Fasano, he mentioned how he would like to see the Stations of the Cross, currently around the outside of the church parking lot, on the backside of the church, moved to a more prominent location, it was decided to move the stations and place them evenly around the Memorial for the Unborn. The design eventually became a roughly 800 foot long, 4 to 5 foot wide path winding through the trees with the memorial in the center.

The little angel seen kneeling next to the gravesite across from the statue of the weeping Virgin is also the work of the Giannetti Studio, and is a resized adaptation of a statue Don Kolasch found on another trip - in Georgia. The original angel was about half the size, and holding a small bunny in it's arms. Giannetti's was able to replicate the angel without the bunny, and it's hands folded in prayer.

The tombstone with the inscription from the Book of Jeremiah was produced by T. A. Sullivan & Sons, of Arlington, VA, whose owner, Joseph Poldiak, is a Third Degree Knight and member of the E. D. White Council in Arlington, VA.

While all of this work was going on, preparations for a site went throughout an interesting evolution during the spring of 1995. Fr. Fasano generously offered to allow the memorial to be located next to the new parish center then under construction on the grounds of St. Catherine's. It was obvious, however, that it would be difficult indeed to create a grotto in that area, and plans soon moved toward locating the memorial beneath an arbor..

The wooded area between the parish center and the road passing by the church would be a beautiful site for the arbor, but a lot of site preparation would be needed. It was heavily treed and filled with scrub and underbrush, fallen limbs, not to mention poison ivy!

Along the way, Don Kolasch and Bob Flynn met with Fr. Fasano and Wayne Foley, the owner of the W. M. Foley Construction Corporation, and a parishioner at St. Catherine's. Before long, the project had grown again. It would now include a winding path throughout the woods with stations of the cross, and the memorial to the unborn in the middle. Several years earlier, parishioner Antonio Vives had led an Eagle Scout project to make stations of the cross for the church, and they had been placed along the rear perimeter of the parking lot, where they tended to be underused.

The stations were removed and restored after several years of weathering by council member Chuck Porter, a master woodworker. They now line the path through a beautiful meditation garden, with benches situated in front of each station.

Site preparation for the memorial was done almost entirely by dozens of Knights who volunteered hundreds of man-hours on weekends all summer long, under the direction of council member Tim Shermer. Working with Wayne Foley, he laid out the site, figured how much construction material would be needed, and personally piloted the Bob-Cat front-end loader used to dig the path, the areas in front of the stations, and the site for the statues and memorial. Foley Construction planted a number of evergreen trees, donated some items and helped the council obtain others at cost.

The memorial could not have been built without the help and enthusiastic support of scores of people, only a few of whom are mentioned in this article. The long hours of labor and dedication by all of them are gratefully appreciated, as are the generous financial contributions made by individual Knights and their families, and other members of the parish, to support this project. We also wish to thank the many parishioners who provided support by purchasing angel pins sold after many weekend Masses to help finance the effort.