The Way Ahead

When I moved to California in January of this year, I felt strongly that God was leading me to help out in the pro-life movement somehow. I didn’t know how or why, other than I’ve been a believer in the right to life for every person since I can remember. No one should be swept away, denied an opportunity to live, to prosper, to pursue happiness just because that person has no voice, or is an inconvenience to someone else. That’s not what God intended. So, I was ‘pro-life.’ But, other than a couple of marches and writing a prayer for a church bulletin on pro-life Sunday, and praying about it, I wasn’t doing much else.

One day I heard a priest on a podcast say that the pro-choice movement had “misplaced compassion” by caring only for the woman. They needed to care for mother and child. And that those in the pro-life movement who focused only on the well-being of a child had “misplaced compassion,” forgetting about the welfare of the woman. That struck me as true and was rather eye-opening. I knew that the pro-life people I knew cared about the mother and the child. But the pro-life movement as a whole had not been very clear about that two-fold concern. In the 3 or 4  years since that observation by Father Mike, I have seen a huge paradigm shift in the message of and the focus of the pro-life movement. They are all about the woman/mom and her baby. And it is a beautiful thing.

One of the first things I did after arriving in San Diego was attend the San Diego Walk for Life. I was late and I missed most of the actual walk around a portion of Balboa Park. But I really wanted to visit the tables that were set up by various pro-life organizations from around the area. And I met one couple who had recently started a pregnancy resource center Home where they could take in women in crisis pregnancies who had chosen life over abortion. It just got better from there.

Through a series of providential meetings, I am now on the San Diego Walk for Life planning committee for 2020. And we are all about the mother and the baby and we want everyone to know it. There are more pregnancy resource centers in San Diego than abortion facilities at this point. And that is a beautiful thing. When people of all walks of life care about the two people involved in a pregnancy things like creativity, love, compassion, hard work, tears, pain, joy, hope are involved and they are all involved in the project of taking care of, assisting, supporting, loving, and accompanying a woman through her entire pregnancy, delivery, and beyond. The people who work in these PRC’s are amazing. Below is what I wrote to help get my thoughts organized about how I could help. And below that is the link to the San Diego Walk for Life website. It’s still being built, but it will have more information on it soon. One of the things up now is my blog post about the pro-life people I’ve had the honor of meeting since I arrived in San Diego. They are people who love without judgement and without condemnation. They are so humble, they don’t realize how special they are. I’ll try to keep you all up to date as I move toward next January’s Walk for Life! God bless us, every one!
Culture of Life Way Ahead

1. Ask for Divine Assistance and the intercession of the Blessed Mother to make this effort successful. Success is: greater visibility for the pro-life non-profit agencies in the San Diego area. This would lead to greater participation in the agencies’ missions, more donations in the form of goods and funds to assist more women and children.
2. Arrange public relations efforts, i.e. radio interviews, news stories showcasing the everyday and the long term goals of the relevant pro-life organizations in the area
3. Get the Catholic Church’s support and resources behind the above efforts, including the Knights of Columbus and our Bishop’s office.
4. Participate in the 40 Days for Life vigils at the abortion clinics around the San Diego area

Live, Serve, Embrace Life