Click here to find your
parish!
Who made this project possible?
The current project is sponsored by Priests for Life, and was
originally designed by Fr. Frank Pavone. Through his constant visits to parishes
nationwide, and his interaction with grassroots pro-life activists, Fr. Frank
noticed how many parishes are invigorated when they focus pro-life activity on
the local killing centers. With the help of the Priests for Life staff, he
therefore matched the remaining abortion mills with the Catholic parishes
nationwide.
Life Dynamics, Inc., has provided the database of freestanding
abortion mills that are remaining in our nation, and keeps it up to date.
What exactly is this project?
This project is an
application of the spiritual power of
the Church against the demonic power of the abortion industry. Abortion
doesn't just happen. Specific people carry it out in specific places. Likewise,
the Church, which opposes abortion, has specific places where its people gather,
pray, learn what is right, and find the strength to do it.
Obviously, all of us throughout the nation are responsible for
praying and working for an end to abortion throughout the nation,
and the
closing of every mill in the nation. With this project, however, the very
big effort of "the Church" ending "abortion" gets translated into a
particular gathering of the Church, a parish, ending the killing at a
particular abortion mill close by. This effort increases the focus by which
the energy of people in the parish can be channeled. It also provides simple
ways that everyone in the parish -- whether young or old, healthy or sick,
mobile or homebound -- can
direct their prayers
for an end to abortion. The success of the project, furthermore, is quite
measurable.
The project increases the sense of responsibility that the
People of God have for ending abortion. In a form of "spiritual adoption," which
has been carried out for a long time in reference to individual unborn children,
the entire parish, as a community, "adopts" the abortion mill, all the babies
who are brought there, the mothers and fathers, the employees and volunteers,
and all who help the mill to function.
The spiritual battle inherent in this project should not be
underestimated. One former abortion mill security guard said to a pro-life
leader that the mill was "a church -- a place of worship." Ginette Paris, a
pro-abortion author, actually wrote a book called "The Sacrament of Abortion,"
calling this procedure a sacred sacrifice to the goddess Artemis. Some have
bumper stickers that say "Abortion is a woman's
rite," and it is no
secret that witchcraft is sometimes carried out inside abortion clinics. The
lining up of the parishes with the mills is a face-off between the false church
and the true Church; between the false god, who transforms suffering into
violence, and the true God, who transforms violence into suffering; between the
innocent blood of babies that cries out for vengeance, and the innocent Blood of
Christ that cries out for mercy; between those who make a covenant with death,
saying
"This is my body, even if the baby dies," and those who renew the
everlasting covenant of Life, saying,
"This
is My Body, given up for you, that you may live forever."
Our Lord told us that the gates of hell will not prevail
against the Church. It is the Church that takes the initiative, storming the
gates of sin with the power of grace, the gates of falsehood with the power of
truth, and the gates of death with the power of life. And the gates will not
stand.
When is the project carried out?
The matching of the abortion mills and the parishes was done
in May of 2003. In some places, parishes had already "adopted" abortion mills to
pray and work for their conversion and closing. To the degree that we were aware
of those situations, we followed that matching in the current list.
Prayer and action on this project is now carried out by the
local parishes, any time of the week and as constantly as they can. The project
will be complete when every last abortion mill has closed its doors.
Where is the project carried out?
The two key places in the project are, of course, the parish
Church and the abortion mill. In the Church, prayers and Masses are offered for
the conversion and closing of the mill. At the mill itself, prayer vigils,
accompanied by sidewalk counseling, street preaching, and leafleting, can be
conducted by the clergy, parishioners and others in the community.
The home, of course, is a third place where the project
advances by means of family prayer and discussion.
Why was this project started?
Taking the step of matching the parishes to the mills makes
our prayer to end abortion much more concrete and specific. It drives home the
point that the killing of children is taking place in specific places, at
specifically scheduled times. In some cases, these places
are within one's
own parish boundaries -- an important fact, given the pastoral
responsibility that priests and bishops have
for all those within their
parish or diocese.
Often, the members of a parish -- and even its clergy -- are
not aware of the location of the nearest abortuaries. This project makes them
aware, and helps to spread that awareness to the wider community as activities
are planned for the purposes of converting and closing the killing center.
Abortion is a
local phenomenon. In this perspective,
ending abortion can seem much more realistic and achievable. Having the abortion
mill's staff quit working there, having mothers change their minds about
aborting their babies, and causing the place to close, are very measurable,
tangible results.
How is the project to be conducted?
While Priests for Life can offer many suggestions, it is up to
the individual parish, under the leadership of its pastor, to fashion its unique
response and activities. The number of things that can be done is practically
limitless.
One simple element that can unite all the parishes in this
effort is the
prayer that has been composed for the closing of the abortion mill. This
prayer can be distributed within the parish on special holy cards, printed in
the bulletin, recited at Mass or after Mass, used in the parish school, prayed
at home, and so forth.
Parishioners and clergy can likewise go to the abortion mill
for prayerful vigils, perhaps conducted in collaboration with other parishes
that are praying for the same mill. These vigils can take many forms, such as
that carried out by the
Helpers of God's Precious Infants. Parishioners can be trained as
sidewalk counselors.
Contact
Helpers of God's Precious Infants:
The Monastery Of The Precious Blood
5300 Ft. Hamilton Parkway
Brooklyn, N. Y. 11219
Telephone (718) 853-2789
Parishes may want to carry out the "Prodigal Project," by
which leaflets, written by former abortionists, are given to the abortion mill
workers as they come to or leave the mill. This simple activity has succeeded in
leading some people out of the abortion industry.
Parishes may want to start the "
Gabriel
Project" or some other form of pregnancy resource assistance, inviting
people who are tempted to abort their child to come to the loving help of the
Church rather than to the abortionists' instruments of death.
A form of
"conscientious objection" can be encouraged whereby professionals in the
community refuse to provide any kind of service to the abortion mill. Businesses
should sever all ties with the killing centers, and in cases where service
contracts are in place, individual workers can exercise their right to refuse to
violate their conscience.
The United States Catholic bishops, in their
Pastoral Plan for Pro-life Activities, ask that a
petition for a Culture of Life be prayed at every Mass. The parish can
therefore incorporate the prayer for the conversion and closing of the abortion
mill into these daily prayers.
Another pastoral aspect of this project is the outreach of
dialogue with those who work in the abortion mill and administer it. Priests for
Life provides specific guidance in how to reach out to these individuals.
How was the matching done?
First of all, the matching was done only with
free-standing
abortion mills, of which there are slightly more than 700 in the United
States. It should be noted that these are not the only places where surgical
abortions are occurring. This matching does not take into account those
hospitals that commit abortions (though only a small percentage of them do so),
nor does it identify all the doctors' offices where abortions are done, often
secretly. If parishes are aware of these additional killing centers, they are
certainly urged to incorporate them into their prayers and actions as they also
carry out this specific project linking them to an abortion mill.
The matching follows, for the most part, state and diocesan
boundaries. With a few exceptions, abortion mills
within the same diocese
were chosen for the parishes in that diocese. This was done to emphasize the
spiritual unity and responsibility of the local diocesan Church for what happens
within its boundaries.
Within a diocese, the zip code of the abortion mill was
compared to the zip codes of the nearby parishes. Most abortion mills are
concentrated in large cities. This means that within the city boundaries, fewer
parishes are covering more mills. The further out from the city one goes, the
pattern becomes one of many parishes in the same area covering a single abortion
mill, which may not necessarily be close.
In some cases, there may be an abortion mill closer to a
parish than the mill that was matched to it.
By all means, for this or for
any other reason, a parish may
indicate to us by email
its desire to change the abortion mill for which it is specially assigned, and
we will be happy to change that indication on this listing. It is
impossible to know all the local situations which, in some instances, may
indicate that such a change makes more sense.
We would like to hear from every parish, indicating a
confirmation that it will pray and work for the closing of the mill that has
been matched to it, or indicating a desire to change the mill to which it has
been matched. Moreover, we would like to hear of the activities being conducted,
and of the successes that we are confident the Lord of Life will bestow upon our
efforts.
How do I find out what abortion mill has been matched with my
parish?
Open the states page by clicking here.
Then click on the name of your state. You will see the names of the abortion
mills in that state, with a grouping of parishes listed under each one. Use the
Search and Find function on your computer to locate, on that page, the name of
your parish.
(Note: If your parish is in the diocese of Steubenville, OH, you
need to click on Pennsylvania, since you have been matched with abortion mills
in the Pittsburgh area.)