diofav 23

Catholic News Herald

Serving Christ and Connecting Catholics in Western North Carolina
Pin It

032720 HelpersCHARLOTTE — On a cold Saturday morning, a group of 24 Catholics lined up on behind a crucifix and a banner of Our Lady of Guadalupe and processed down the sidewalk to the front of A Preferred Women’s Health Center, an abortion facility in east Charlotte. The marchers were there to pray and witness to the sanctity of life.

The procession was organized by the Helpers of God’s Precious Infants of Charlotte and led by Father Matthew Codd, pastor of St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Charlotte. The prayer vigil began with Mass and exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. Attendees prayed one decade of the rosary, then some drove to the abortion facility’s location while others stayed at the church for Eucharistic Adoration, praying for conversions of abortion-minded women and the men accompanying them. After processing prayerfully to the facility, the Helpers continued with the rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet, sang Marian hymns, and then drove back to St. Thomas Aquinas Church, where the vigil ended with Benediction.

Monsignor Phillip Reilly of Brooklyn, N.Y., founded the Helpers of God’s Precious Infants in 1989. The U.S. Supreme Court ruling Roe v. Wade made abortion legal across the country 16 years prior, and in those days the reputation of the pro-life movement was known more for civil disobedience than peaceful witness. Monsignor Reilly knew that a new strategy was needed, so he founded the Helpers with the mission of praying outside abortion facilities and counseling women to choose life instead of abortion. Over the course of 30 years, chapters of the Helpers have opened all across the world, and God has worked through their processions and counseling to close abortion facilities and save count-less souls.

The Charlotte Helpers were founded in 2013 with the guidance of Monsignor Reilly.

The vision of the Helpers of God’s Precious Infants is that an abortion facility is modern-day Calvary, where all the sins accepted and legalized by the culture of death reach their end. Catholics must imitate the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. John as they stood at the foot of the cross. The Helpers, under-standing the horror and injustice of the abortion facility, use their voices only to pray and counsel. Monsignor Reilly, quoted in his biography “Pro-Life Champion” by Frederick W. Marks, said, “There must not be anything in our demeanor or manner on the street to suggest confrontation, anger or de-bate. If we bring light to darkness, God will do the rest.”

The purpose of praying outside abortion facilities is to go where the worst suffering occurs and to be a witness of love and hope in the darkness which is the culture of death.

“We pray to obtain God’s mercy for the abortionist and his staff who do the killing,” Monsignor Reilly wrote. “We ask each mother to change her mind. We reach out to her with the love of Christ; we do not judge or condemn her for what she is going to do.”

He and the Helpers are especially inspired by the example of St. Teresa of Calcutta and her Home for the Dying, in which the poorest of the poor were given comfort and loved as they died. “We recognize (the unborn) as our brothers and sisters, welcoming them into the human family. We embrace them, spiritually. We stand with them when they die. No one wants to be alone when they die.”

— Matthew Bosnick, Special to the Catholic News Herald. Matthew Bosnick is with St. Thomas Aquinas Church’s Respect Life Ministry.