A nine-year-old Catholic boy is spearheading a drive to get people to pray for New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s conversion to the pro-life cause.
Jack, who lives in the Archdiocese of New York with his parents and four siblings, launched ConvertCuomo.com, a website that he and his father, Thomas, created, on April 10. Jack’s objective: Get at least 500 people to pray for Cuomo by Good Friday and 1,000 by Divine Mercy Sunday, April 28.
On January 22, the 46th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision, Cuomo, a Democrat, signed into law the Reproductive Health Act. As The New American reported at the time, the “law allows abortions to be performed when a pregnant woman ‘is within 24 weeks from the commencement of pregnancy, or there is an absence of fetal viability, or the abortion is necessary to protect the patient’s life or health’ — meaning that a pre-born baby may be killed at any time up to full-term and viable birth — at the medical discretion of a physician and the ‘choice’ of the mother.” Cuomo, a Catholic, had pushed for the bill’s passage for years and was so overjoyed when it finally became law that he ordered the spire of One World Trade Center illuminated pink in celebration.
“My mom and dad told me that he passed this bill and other things and it made me really upset,” Jack told LifeSiteNews. “So I wanted to think of something to do to stop abortion.”
His initial idea was to build “convert Cuomo boxes” and place them in Catholic churches around the state. Parishioners would place prayer cards into the boxes, and the cards would be collected and sent to New York’s archbishop, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who would then deliver them to Cuomo.
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Jack explained his idea in a letter to the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, who “suggested that a website would make it easier and more effective to receive prayers for Cuomo’s conversion,” reported LIfeSiteNews.
Thomas, who had built some amateur websites before, created ConvertCuomo.com at his son’s insistence. “I can’t tell you how many times he ‘reminded me’ that I needed to build it,” Thomas told LifeSiteNews.
Thomas said he is proud of his son for mounting the effort to convert Cuomo. “He has also reminded me that we must pray for our enemies,” he added.
The website contains a video of Jack explaining his reasons for creating it, a link to his letter to the friars, and a form where visitors can pledge to pray or fast for Cuomo’s pro-life conversion. It also displays this quotation from Thomas Jefferson: “The care of human life and happiness and not their destruction is the first and only legitimate object of good government.”
Jack, who knows his Bible, is confident that his effort will succeed in changing Cuomo’s mind.
“I hope that it will have up to 1,000 people praying for Governor Cuomo and that if we get enough people praying on the website abortion in New York will stop,” he told LifeSiteNews, “and I also hope that Governor Cuomo will soon have so many prayers that he will want to become pro-life.”
“Like Isaiah and how an angel touched a flaming coal to him and God told him to be a prophet and Isaiah said he was a really big sinner so he couldn’t be a prophet and God told him his sins were forgiven,” he continued.
Jack practices what he preaches, too. “I pray two Our Fathers for Governor Cuomo every day,” he said, “sometimes three.”
In addition, each night the family reviews the day’s prayer commitments from the website and prays Psalm 68, which Jack says “the Devil hates the most.” That Psalm begins: “Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered: let them also that hate him flee before him.”
Jack is well on his way to reaching his goals. In fact, he has already surpassed his Good Friday goal with plenty of time to spare. He needs just under 500 more people to commit to pray for Cuomo by April 28.
“I am positive,” he declared in his video, “that these prayers will convert Governor Cuomo and stop abortion in the state of New York.”
Image: screenshot from convertcuomo.com
