St John Neumann Church - An Example To Emulate

Any prolife activist who has been in front of abortion mills for any appreciable length of time knows that there is a directly proportional relationship between the number of prolifers in front of the mills to the number of mothers who decide not to have their children murdered.  Simply put, when our numbers out there are greater, we see more babies saved and less babies murdered.  It's the power of prayer and of the physical presence of people who care.  Over the past year that there has been a concerted prolife witness on Wisteria Avneue in Germantown, where Dr. Carhart murders late-term babies, this dynamic has been seen over and over.

The website http://www.prayforgermantown.com/ details the prolife efforts there.  It makes plain that Carhart starts the three-day murder process on Monday mornings.  Hence they ask that all good people be on Wisteria Avenue between the hours of 8am-10am, since that is when most of the women arrive to start the grisly process.  We also know that many Catholic parishes have their daily Masses at 9am, posing an immediate conflict for those Catholics who would like to be both places at the same time.

Today St John Neumann Catholic Church in Gaithersburg announced that they are moving their Monday 9am Mass to 12 noon for the express purposes of:

• accomodating those who want to be on Wisteria Avenue to reach out to abortion-minded women
• encouraging more participation of Catholics by giving them a way to be on Wisteria Avenue without missing Mass

St John Neumann priests will hear Confessions that day starting at 11:30am, and the Miraculous Medal Novena will occur after Mass.  If the noon Mass is too late for some, both St John Neumann and St Martin of Tours do have Mass at 6:30am those days.

While I won't advocate that all neighboring parishes make those Mass changes (since for some people, 9am may be the only time they can make Mass), I will suggest three things for them to do:

1. Announce in your own bulletins St John Neumann's noon Mass, so that your parishioners will know there's a Mass available should they wish to join the prolife witness on Wisteria Drive.
2. Consider how your parish can encourage your own parishioners to support this life-saving effort.
3. Your own parish priests should make an ongoing commitment to be there.  The example of a parish priest will encourage parishioners to join him.

Remember - YOU are needed to be out there to intercede and save lives!