OTTAWA—Friends and colleagues of Dr. Robert Walley, who committed his life to helping save the lives of mothers and babies in the developing world, are mourning his death at age 81.
Walley died in Newfoundland June 22. His commitment to his faith and the pro-life cause has had an impact around the globe.
“What I loved most about him was that he was just a regular guy,” said Matthew Wojciechowski, vice-president of the Campaign Life Coalition.
Describing Walley as “very down to earth,” Wojciechowski said he got to know Walley in 2016 at the United Nations 60th Commission on the Status of Women. “You could tell that he had seen and experienced a lot, but he was very easy to talk to.”
Walley’s dedication to the pro-life cause and his Catholic faith were defining features of his life’s work which included founding MaterCare International, which provides safe health care for women in developing countries, particularly in Africa.
“Dr. Walley was a pro-life champion and doctor who lived his Catholic faith in word and deed. He left a great impact on me when we worked together on maternal health care at the United Nations,” Wojciechowski said of the 2016 event.
“His wealth of knowledge and experience was unmatched. His presentation broke through the lies that are spread at the United Nation which claim that women who live in extreme poverty need birth control and abortion to survive,” he said.
“On the contrary, Dr. Walley saved thousands of lives by addressing the real causes that lead to maternal mortality.”
“He never compromised on his Catholic principles and values,” said Wojciechowski.
That dedication to putting his Catholic faith at the forefront of his work as a doctor is one of the reasons the Canadian Catholic Rights League awarded Walley its most prestigious honour in 2017, the Archbishop Adam Exner Award for Catholic Excellence in Public Life.
In a statement released after his death, the CCRL praised Dr. Walley’s life’s work and called on Canadian Catholics to continue to “pray for his wife of 54 years, Susan Mary, who has been living in a long-term care facility.
“Through his work in Africa’s developing nations, Dr. Walley has saved the lives of thousands of mothers and their babies from the tragic implications of obstetric fistula, an avoidable condition exacerbated in Africa by the lack of quality maternal healthcare present in developed nations,” the CCRL said. “This work continues through MaterCare International, which he founded.”
“We now ask for prayers for the repose of his soul,” the CCRL said.
John Hof, former president of United for Life, said he only had a few brief encounters with Walley, called him “a most dedicated pro-life physician.”
Hof said Walley’s work “with and for women in Third World countries was 100 per cent focussed on their wellbeing. I believe he laboured many long, and I am sure, lonely years at his ministry.”
Walley, who emigrated to Canada from England in 1973, established MaterCare International in 1995 to carry out the work of Evangelium Vitae (the Gospel of Life) by improving the lives and health of mothers and babies.
Walleyhad a master’s of international public health from Harvard University in the United States and was an emeritus professor at Memorial University in St. John’s. His obituary said he was “instrumental to the start of the Family Life Bureau of Newfoundland, a member of the Right to Life association, appointed by Pope John Paul II to the Pontifical Council for Health, and a member of the Order of the Knights of Malta.”
He was also “a recipient of the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice (The Cross of Honour)” and “will be remembered for his love of a pint at the Duke of Duckworth.”
A private funeral was held at St. Pius X Church in St. John’s June 27.