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As the New Year began, I chose to act on a resolution I had been thinking about for some time now - sidewalk counseling.

In reading Shaun McDonnell's first hand account of his experience with this form of ministry, I could easily identify with what he wrote. From being "soft spoken" in my Christian beliefs; wishing to follow the Lord to wherever He led; the feeling the inertia when going to the clinic; "scared, nervous, and part of me was looking for ways to get out this commitment."

My experiences from this past January, you will say, were good reasons for some of these feelings.

On the one hand, there were the agressive acts from the personnel within the abortion facility. First, a middle-aged woman came out onto the second floor balcony, shouting at me to leave for I had no right to be there. Then, a younger woman, the receptionist (?), stormed out not once but twice, shouting at me to stay away. Finally, a third woman, identifying herself as the facility manager, rushed out and standing no more than six feet away threatened me with calling the police.

With the latter, I had a brief conversation. I explained that the local precinct had given guidelines to follow - not obstruct the sidewalk, not obstruct the entrance, and to give only material with a religious message. My message seemed incomprehensible for she ignored what I had to said, repeating her threat.

Not once but twice members of the SPMV - the local municipal police force, came by.  The first time, the patrol officers interrupted my vigiling to question me and the second time they parked across the street, observing, questioning me only as I was leaving the site.

In both instances, I was surprised by their pro-choice bias. Without citing any violation to municipal rules, they tried to convince me of the emotional harm my presence was doing to the patrons of the facility, not to mention the staff. Also, one officer went so far as to suggest that abortion saved lives! I gathered from this that the fate of the unborn did not add up in his calculus nor the after-effects of abortion on the health of the woman was equally omitted from their considerations.

In discussion with these officers, I recalled what my mentor in the Bronx had frequently said: when in the field, one always heeds the officers' call. Mary is one of Msgr. Reilly Helpers of God's Precious Infants, a ministry that fosters peaceful, loving prayer vigils outside abortion facilities. She had always insisted that we comply with the instructions of the beat cop even if he was misinformed. Yet, afterwards she would arrange a meeting the precinct captain to clarify our aim and methods. As a result, the patrol officers would leave us alone.

Here in Montreal I'll follow this course of action.

Grace is at Work

Also, as in the McDonnell article, grace was evident in a couple of instances. Once, I was able to share with a young woman leaving the clinic about the love Mary, the mother of God, had with her child Jesus.

Second, I listened and comforted another woman who had left the clinic. In her early twenties, she came out the front door and walked down its steps and stopped, standing no more than six feet away. I turned to her and asked if she knew anyone who was pregnant. In an air of discouragement, she told that she was. We spoke briefly; I suggest a phone number she could call for support. She then headed off down the street.

Many women need support. They do not wish to carry through with their abortion, yet do not know where to find the support they need. Being at these clinics permit us to extend a helping hand to them and to loving members of Christ's body.

The following figures and anecdotes, I find, are pretty encouraging:

• Paris March for Life: On Sunday, January 22, 17 000 showed up, including three bishops, for the eighth French March for Life. The laity were encouraged by 32 French bishops to attend. L'abbé Loddé, formerly of Quebec City, was in attendance and was interviewed by the press.
• On Saturday, January 21, over 40 000 attended the seventh West Coast March for Life in San Francisco.
• On Monday, in D.C. several hundred thousand people gathered for the annual March for life. A powerful video is presented below.
• Next, in Hungary over 100 000 gathered this past week in support of the Prime Minister who is under pressure from his European counterparts for Hungary's adoption of a pro-life constitution. Poland and the Ukraine are the lone European governments supporting the government of Viktor Orban. Your prayers are needed as this nation is particularly vulnerable right now as it negotiates debt relief with the European Union. 
• Finally, on a lighter side, in today's Journal de Montréal, editorialist J. Jacques Samson, commenting on the lamentable state of the Quebec's health care system is calling for a return to hospitals run by religious communities. Tongue in cheek, he states that under the nuns Quebec enjoyed responsible admiistrators, physicians commensurately paid with their peers in the other provinces as well as their participation in the management of the institutions, including the finances.

Blessed New Year greetings to you!

We at the Quebec Life Coalition are blessed in both respects – wellness and eagerness. We are well because of the support you have shown us over the years and particularly in 2011. Thank you. We achieved our Christmas fundraising goal of $5000, thanks to your support. Also, your prayers buoyed us along.

We are also quite eager as we look towards 2012. Not only do we have our staple activities but new ones to boot. The accompanying newsletter will brief you about the former. As for the latter, 2012 will be remembered as the year we begin our sidewalk counselling program.

Sidewalk counselling

For those of you unfamiliar with this practice, allow me to introduce it briefly. Sidewalk counseling refers to being present outside an abortion facility – on the sidewalk, in order to plead with the woman thinking of aborting her child to reconsider.

There are two components. First, there is the greeter. This person stands near the entrance of the clinic, attentive of the pedestrian traffic, trying to spot a girl heading to the clinic for an appointment. On doing so, approaches her to suggest alternatives to having an abortion.

The second component is the prayer. These typically stand a little off from the doorway of the mill, spending their time in quiet or soft prayer. These offer spiritual support for the greeter.

As many of us know, the role of the prayer mustn't me undervalued, as the following example will show. When I sidewalk counselled in the Bronx, I would arrive at around 6:45 a.m. outside the abortion mill because it would open its doors at 7 a.m. One particular morning, I followed my routine until 8:30 a.m. when my colleague Julie arrived to relieve me.

When I saw Julie next, she greeted me with a radiant smile. She explained that after I had left, a girl came out of the abortion facility telling her that she had decided to keep her child on basis of having seen me praying my rosary. You see while awaiting her turn, she had come out for a smoke. I was standing some ten yards away, oblivious to her presence. At that time, she spied me in quiet contemplative prayer. This sight was enough for her to reconsider and have a change in heart. So prayer cannot be undervalued.

Toll-Free Help-Line

This new ministry of sidewalk counselling dovetails well with another one of our new programs - the free phone line. Recall that this past October 2011, we introduced yet another manner in which we have come to the help of women in crisis pregnancy. Women seeking help are not only a phone call away from the assistance they are seeking but also get to speak with a live person. This number (1-855-871-4442) is a first in Quebec available only in French. (Birthright and others are available in English and have been for a while.)

So, these distraught women no longer need to scramble around to find help. From anywhere in the province, a single number connects them with a human operator who can answer their queries and allay any anxieties.

Examples of questions already fielded in the past few months include:

• Where to find lodging;
• Where to get financial support;
• Where to find local support; and
• Prayer petition.

Finally, sometimes the caller simply needs to speak to a sympathetic person.

So, as we hit the sidewalks of Montreal, this toll-free number dovetails well as the sidewalk greeter can pass this number on to the women who may need it.

Two new features

So, sidewalk counselling and a toll-free phone line, together we can help women crisis pregnancy before that they through with a decision that they will regret for the rest of their lives.

Many thanks for your continued support,

Brian Jenkins
Coordinator for English and Multicultural Community Outreach
Quebec Life Coalition 

Yes, I want to contribute to the work QLC will be doing for Life in 2011 ! Here's my New Year's donation, so that QLC can maintain and expand its activities in Montreal and in Quebec at large. To make an online donation:

Other ways to give >>

I'm writing to invite you all to the "40 Days for Life" planning meeting, this Thursday, January 19, 2011, at 6 p.m. The agenda will be as follows:

• Opening prayer
• Go around - sharing one's vision for the current 40 Days for Life campaign Invitation to prayerfully consider serving in one of the team roles
  • Prayer coordinator;
  • Vigil Coordinator;
  • Outreach Coordinator;
  • Communications Coordinator;
  • Events Coordinator.
• Share my personal commitment to the campaign
• Ask for the commitment of other potential team members - schedule
• Assign team roles
• Determine campaign objectives
• Define the three campaign components;
• Pray together and dedicate your efforts to the Lord

We will also draw an initial vigil schedule. The vigil begins in six weeks, on Ash Wednesday - February 22, 2012, and ends on Sunday, April 1. This meeting will be at the rear of the St. Emile church situated at the corner of Sherbrooke street East and Davidson. The address is 3330 Rivier Street. Parking is available either on the street or in a lot. Hope you can make it!

Here at the Quebec Life Coalition - QLC, 2012 promises to be a busy year for all of us, full of events and activities promoting the cause of life in La Belle Province of Quebec.

Yes, that's right, for ALL of us, - those of us here in the office as well as those of you who support us through your time and prayers. Together we will be making our society, our cities a more humane place to live.

This goal will become more apparent as you read further about the series of events we are actively promoting. So sit back, remove your shoes and have a gander at what is in store and see how you can participate.

SIDEWALK COUNSELING

As disregard for the live of the unborn is the most in flagrant attack going-on in our society, our activities are biased in this respect.

For example, this month, we have begun to do direct intervention for the cause of the unborn. We have taken to the sidewalks outside a local abortion facility in an effort to stop the killing. Through our prayers and, whenever possible, peaceful intervention, we hope to offer a word of hope to and change the heart of the women who are thinking of aborting their infants.

This initiative is new with QLC, as we hope to build on the success that other communities have had in doing so.

As our familiar prayer site on St-Joseph Blvd. has a municipal ordinance preventing us from approaching any of the abortion facility's clients, we have relocated to one that does not have this interdiction.

More to follow.

 
40 DAYS FOR LIFE

A second activity, one also supportive of the weakest member of our society, will be our 40-day prayer vigils. As in 2011, the QLC is coordinating two public displays.

Of these, National campaign coordinator, David Bereit rightly calls these vigils successful as his figures attest:

• 1633 individual campaigns have taken place in 422 cities across all 50 American states and 13 countries;
• More than 500 000 people have joined together in an historic display of unity to pray and fast for an end to abortion;
• More than 14 000 church congregations have participated in the 40 Days for Life campaigns;
• More than 1800 news stories have been featured in newspapers, magazines, radio shows and TV programs;
• Reports document 5045 lived spared from abortion – and those are jus the one we know about;
• Thousands of women and men have been spared from the tragic effects of abortion, and many have stepped forward to begin post-abortion healing and recovery;
• 61 abortion workers have quit their jobs and walked away from the abortion industry;
• 19 abortion facilities have shut down following local 40 Days for Life campaigns outside their doors.

Here in Montreal, we are currently preparing for our seventh vigil. This will coincide, as in years past, with the Lenten period - beginning Ash Wednesday - February 22, and concluding Sunday, April 1. Our first planning is only a few weeks away.

A planning meeting is Wednesday, January 18. Check of website or call our office for more details.

TOLL-FREE HELP LINE

These two examples dove tail well with an initiative begun in 2011 – The Help Line. This tool-free telephone number, suitable for both English and French-speaking Quebecers, provides confidential referral services to pregnant girls.  

Pregnant? Worried?

Call Toll Free:

1-855-871-4442  

By dialing one number, a woman undergoing a crisis in her pregnancy may receive valuable referral information. Questions about her health, governmental services, lodging, and other matters are answered by a caring, compassionate knowledgeable person.

Also, maybe the caller simply needs somebody to talk with or to be listened to. This too is available and is province-wide.

This QLC is the first pro-life francophone in all of North America providing this service.

 
MAY 2012

In May, our focus at the QLC turns to the annual National March for Life Ottawa, scheduled for Thursday, May 12.

Organizers began meeting as early as this past September to work out the details of the event. There are two components to it – one local and the other in Ottawa.

 
National March for Life Ottawa

On Thursday, we then all head off to Ottawa. As in years past, the QLC will charter a bus. Particulars for the departure remain to be determined. Safe to say, that we have pick-ups from two locations – downtown and Fairview Shopping centre.

 
QLC CONGRESS

May is also the month of our yearly congress. In years these have been daylong events set in Quebec City. Plenary sessions, guest speakers and closing banquet are typical features found.

Details will follow.

 
WALK WITH CHRIST / WALK FOR CHRIST

The first Saturday of June is the date for the second annual Walk with Christ. This ecumenical event attracted a thousand participants last year. QLC as last year are involved in the planning of this event. Last year we car pooled to the event; we will do likewise this year unless numbers warrant the need for chartering a bus.

The event is featured on Facebook as are updates. Search under "Marche Chrétienne".

 
LIFE CHAIN

Another one of our regular involvements is the annual Life Chain. The first Sunday of every year over 15 000 communities across North America gather in solidarity to pray for the unborn. For an hour or so, signs in hands, posted intermittently along busy thoroughfares, we prayerfully stand in vigil. 

The following trailer comes to us complements of Canada Silent No More, an organization founded in 2004 by Denise Mountenay with the purpose of helping victims of abortion. More information about their purpose may be found here.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/54ZWnA_Uh7U

Listen to testimonies from women damaged by legal abortions.

See evidence on how abortions are hurting women physically and psychologically... worldwide studies expose the link to depression, substance abuse, suicides, sterility, pre-term births in subsequent pregnancies and Breast Cancer!

Hear doctors testify on the fact that abortion is more harmful to women then giving birth to their children.

So why are we PAYING for this procedure that harms women and children?

We are sending copies to every MP and some MLA's...Can you help us finance this project? Go to www.canadasilentnomore.com and give to promote LIFE and HEALTH for women & children. Rev. 12:11,12, Prov. 31:8...

I’m writing to solicit your prayers… on three fronts.

First, Denise (I've modified the names in this blog to maintain confidentiality) emailed us with kudos for our toll-free telephone line. She recently came across it and regrets that she had not seen a year ago, when she was pregnant. At time, pressured by family and others, she aborted her child, a decision that she painfully regrets . Please keep her in your prayer intentions.

Also, Jay called our office this morning seeking support. His girl-friend found out yesterday that she is pregnant and aborting their child is a possibility, despite the fact that Jay and his family want the pregnancy to continue. Yesterday she has belligerent with him and has isolated herself. Also, the start of an out-of-province internship is weighing on her. Your prayers for both Jay and his girl-friend are needed.

Finally, we welcome your prayers regarding a larger project. Next Monday the pastoral council at the Marian shrine Our Lady of the Cap – Trois-Rivières, will be convening in a special session to discuss whether to designate itself as a prayer centre for post-abortive women.

Aspects of this ministry include becoming a depository for post-abortive stories and a healing ministry. The agenda also includes sponsoring a national prayer campaign for post-abortive women.

A prayer of the following form will also be discussed:

Prayer for the Respect of Truth and Life

O Most Holy Virgin Mary, your Divine Son Jesus forgave the adulterous woman as the crowd was about to stone her. The Word incarnate protected her with the words “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”

Blessed Mother, we men and women wish to follow in Your Son's footsteps both in praying and in deed for the cause of Truth and Life. In the image of Our Lord Jesus, with open arms we lovingly welcome all those who have participated in the interruption life at a time when Love and Truth was absent from their lives.

Blessed Mother, this fault afflicts their consciences and causes undue suffering. We humbly ask you to intercede with you Divine Son Jesus that He shed upon them the light of his mercy through reconciliation with your Church.

We solicit your prayers and sacrifices on these three fronts.

Update (20Jan2012):

1. Denise has expressed a desire to do volunteer work with us. Further she has ok'ed the suggestion of sharing her story, whether on-line or elsewhere. Once I translate her testimony, I'll post it.
2. A follow-up telephone call to the young man - Jay, whose girl-friend was thinking of having an abortion did not reveal any hopeful sign. She has remained uncommunicative with him. What news he has is through a mutual friend. The latter informs him that she has gone on her intership and an abortion is most likely. We continue our prayers for her (and him) as she deals with the after-effects of abortion.
3. Finally regarding the marian sanctuary in Cap-de-la-Madeline, the discussion on whether to include in its apostolate a ministry to post-abortive women has been tabled to its next meeting - February 23, 2012. Your prayers in this matter, as in the others, are requested.

Over the past few days a couple of articles have appeared stirring on Parliament Hill the embers of the abortion debate. These are:

1. On Tuesday the following story care out: "Canadian MP calls for debate in Parliament". Click here to read more about the views of Jeff Watson member of parliament for Essex, on this topic.
2. Also on Tuesday, we find the similar view in "Evangelical leaders call on Canadian Parliament to open abortion debate."

In addition to these are two others that treat the issue in Prince Edward Island.

1. "P.E.I. pro-life group kicks off 'show the truth' campaign" discusses the work that pro-lifers are doing to address misinformation on the topic.
2. And finally, a CBC report on the same topic is available here.

Click here to catch Msgr. Cyprien Lacroix, archbishop of Quebec City, being interviewed and addressing issues related to promoting a culture of life.

The Primate of Canada emphasized that parochial and sacremental tasks are needed to foster a more Christ-centered view which in turn will bring about greater respect for life in our society.

The hour-long interview was conducted by Fathers Tom Lynch and John Lemire, animators at Priests for Life Canada. The Priest for Life Canada home page may be found here.

This is part of an on-going series that interviews movers and shakers of the canadian pro-life movement. Previous guests include Alex Schadenberg (Managing Director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition), Michele Smillie (Respect Life Office of the Archdiocese of Vancouver), and Monica Roddis (Life Canada). These and other interviews may be found here.

The live radio broadcast is done on the first Tuesday of each month, airing on Rado Teopoli - 530 AM. On the other hand, the recording may be heard at any time thereafter.

Free CD recordings are also available and may be useful for instructional purposes.

Enjoy.

As we celebrate the arrival of the Christ Child, it is also with delight that we learn and welcome the news of the first infants born in 2012.

Montreal beats out other communities from across Canada. Yet to whom attribute the distinction remains uncertain.

At a quarter of a second past midnight, Tyler Sephen Wilson saw the light of day at the Royal Victoria Hospital. His parents - Teresa Howick Wilson and Andrew Wilson, were thinking of spending a quiet evening at home in front of the TV to welcome 2012. Not so, instead they found themselves welcoming not only the new year but also their third child - in additon to a three year-old son and a six year-old daughter.

At about the same time and a little east, Isabel Palacios was giving birth to her second child. Nurses at the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital with iphone in hand noted that Jose Palacia Zapata arrived shortly after his infant peer on the slopes of Mont-Royal - at two seconds into the new year.

As the clocks are not synchronised, it is difficult to decide which of the two boys gets the title of Canada's first born.

Meanwhile on the northern side of the Mont-Royal, at Saint Mary’s Hospital Centre, Montreal was being graced by the arrival of yet another infant. At four seconds past the stroke of midnight, the daughter of Ms. Mathanakala Theivendran and Sivakumar Sivapatham was born, a healthy 5 pounds, 4 ounces.

Mothers and infants in all cases are doing well.

The following listing of the new births from across the country comes from Global News: