By Tim Puet
Catholic Times Reporter

In his 2015 message to mark the beginning of Lent, Pope Francis urged parishes to “become islands of mercy in the midst of the sea of indifference.”

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has responded to this call by creating a nationwide initiative known as Walking with Moms in Need, which is designed to increase parish support for pregnant women and for mothers facing difficulties. In the Diocese of Columbus, the program is being handled by the Office for Social Concerns and coordinated by Erin Cordle, the office’s associate director.

“The program will give parishes and communities the opportunity to walk in the shoes of local pregnant and parenting women and their families who may be in need of emotional, spiritual, financial and material support,” Cordle said. “While this initiative was created by the USCCB for Catholic parishes, the materials are easily adaptable to any ecumenical or interfaith community.

“While not trying to turn parishes into pregnancy help centers or social service organizations, we can support local pregnancy help centers where they exist and we can also find and share other resources with pregnant and parenting women and their families. And where there are few local resources, we can create our own, based on the time, talent and treasures of parish communities.”

As part of Walking with Moms in Need, parishes, with the support of their bishop and pastor, are invited to take part in a yearlong process to evaluate local resources and support for mothers. Each participating parish will be asked to complete a simple inventory of the resources available in their area, assess the results and identify gaps, and plan and implement a parish response based on their findings.

The USCCB launched the Walking with Moms program on March 25, 2020 in honor of the 25th anniversary of Pope St. John Paul II’s encyclical Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life). That date was shortly after the coronavirus pandemic halted most activities throughout the nation, so introduction of the program was delayed in many areas, including the Diocese of Columbus.

Cordle announced plans for the program within the diocese in a video that was part of the annual diocesan Building a Culture of Life conference, which took place virtually in October 2020 because of the pandemic. “Due to COVID-19, many moms and dads are facing situations none of us could have imagined,” she said in the video.

“The deaths of family and friends have resulted in horrific impacts. The stressors on families also have been amplified with the loss of income, health care, housing and safe education, to name a few things. Walking with Moms in Need has been designed to help parishes address some of those stressors.”

The diocese has a number of organizations dedicated solely or in part to assist expecting and parenting mothers. These include the Elizabeth Ministry of Westerville St. Paul Church; the Pregnancy Decision Health Centers (PDHC); the Women’s Care Center; Mommies Matter; Catholic Social Services; Birthright; Back in His Arms Again; and the Bethesda Healing Ministry. Representatives from most of those organizations spoke on the introductory video for Walking with Moms.

The Elizabeth Ministry is an international parish-based ministry that supports mothers in a variety of ways. Ministry representative Jessica Miller said that at St. Paul Church, it sponsors a prenatal blessing service conducted by a priest or deacon once every three months in the church. It also has hosted expert panels on fertility and adoption for families facing those issues.

“We often are contacted by someone who suffered a loss,” Miller said. “We talk with them and try to stay in contact. On Mother’s and Father’s Days, we’ve presented moms and dads with tea or bookmarks or candy as a way of expressing our love.”

Since 1981, PDHC has provided education on healthy pregnancy and reproduction, as well as free pregnancy testing, ultrasounds and maternity items. “We help mothers and mothers-to-be get information, slow down and see what they really have going on,” said Brenda Bixler, PDHC head nurse. “When women undergo an ultrasound and see their baby’s heart beat for the first time and see there’s a life inside them, not just a blob of tissue, they often start the bonding process with their child.”

PDHC also offers abortion pill reversal (APR), through which women who take only the first pill in the two-pill RU-486 abortion process often are able to save the baby they had considered aborting. Bixler said PDHC recently celebrated the birth of its first “APR baby.”

Madeline Presavento of the Women’s Care Center said most women who seek its assistance are facing relationship, financial or emotional challenges. “Our first mission is to treat women with value and dignity and reflect their strengths back to them,” she said. “We give women a space where they can feel comfortable and talk about and validate their challenges. 

“Having a baby means women often need diapers, wipes, cribs, car seats, baby monitors, strollers and other furniture. These are big-ticket items, and when a woman is here, she might not be thinking down that road. If we can help alleviate the financial burden for her, we’re going to do that.”

Mommies Matter is another organization that accompanies expecting and parenting mothers through pregnancy and beyond. “The most important thing we can give single mothers is community,” said Monica Flynn, a representative of that organization. “We were not meant to raise children alone. A mother needs someone to talk to her, to deal with issues, who meets her where she is and helps her raise her children.”

Flynn and her husband have a daughter who has three children under 3 years old and is living with her parents while her husband is with the military in Afghanistan. “She doesn’t have to worry about finances, and she has a healthy relationship with her husband and the support of her family, but it’s still very difficult for her,” Flynn said. “This just highlights how people really have to be with each other after a baby is born.”

Barbara McKenzie, director of the Catholic Social Services (CSS) office in Portsmouth, said, “In this area, support can be a great obstacle for mothers. They may be alone, or their families are unable to help, so they turn to our parishes.” 

She said a key role of CSS is “to educate parents, helping them understand the different stages of childhood, the expectations they should have at various times. Mothers have to be nurturing, but they also have to be nurtured, to be taught to take care of themselves so they can provide better for their child. We direct them to resources such as baby pantries, food banks and churches. The churches can learn to partner with agencies to provide for the needs of the people who come looking for help.”

Birthright of Columbus has helped women with unplanned pregnancies for more than 50 years. “With Birthright, a mother is never alone,” Cordle said. “They know the importance of simply being with her, being a compassionate listener and respecting that it is her life and her plan. 

“Along with providing love and support, they help with essentials such as pregnancy testing, medical needs, housing and counseling referrals, as well as maternity and baby items. Birthright is available to support mothers for as long as it is needed.”

Longtime Birthright volunteer Barb McMullen said the organization has been especially busy since December, when the first babies conceived during the pandemic were born. “I remember one heartbreaking case involving a homeless woman whose baby died in the hospital,” she said. “Through the Back in His Arms Again organization and a funeral home, we were able to cremate the child free of charge,” she said. “But the woman wanted to find an urn for the baby’s ashes, and a cemetery plot. I lost touch with her and don’t know what happened.

“Birthright is my passion,” McMullen said. “I see so many problems, and it’s frustrating that I don’t have all the answers. Pregnant women are a blessing. We need to look more deeply and see the needs of moms, to see the gaps they’re facing and close them.”

The Back in His Arms Again ministry McMullen mentioned honors life from conception until death. It is a charitable organization of collaborative resources providing education, care, guidance and financial services for families in need who are experiencing a loss.

Its Garden of Holy Innocents is located on land donated by Resurrection Cemetery in Lewis Center. Many Columbus-area hospitals offer the option of using the garden to families who have experienced a miscarriage or had a child who died during pregnancy.

The Bethesda Healing Ministry is dedicated to hospitality and healing for men and women dealing with the effects of abortion. For more than 25 years, it has enabled people to take a rich healing journey through fellowship, prayer, the sacraments, a structured scriptural/experiential manual, retreats and days of recollection. Until the pandemic hit, it sponsored twice-monthly open meetings in the former Columbus Christ the King Church convent. It hopes to resume those meetings once it is safe to do so.

The Walking with Moms program involves five steps: introduction and building a core team; launching the parish inventory process; sharing inventory results; announcing a parish response; and putting that response into action.

Gahanna St. Matthew Church parishioner Brooke Warren said her parish has selected its core team of 10 people and has an email list of about 20 others who are interested in the program. She said the team includes women of all ages, but most are young mothers.
Team members have met twice in the past four months, have put together a spreadsheet listing about 50 resources and are working on an initiative in which other parishes can join.

She said the big questions her group wants to answer are: “How can we be with mothers through pregnancy and beyond, especially a child’s first year? What resources do we have? How can we get to them? And what can we do as parishes?”

Warren also is involved with her parish’s marriage preparation program and with Natural Family Planning activities. “I feel I’ve been called to help build strong families, which helps my own family stay strong,” she said. “Walking with Moms In Need seems like something which will provide great encouragement to families and build up the Church.”

In her remarks introducing the program, Cordle said, “Having received the gift of the Gospel of Life, we are called to be the people of life and the people for life. It is our duty to proclaim the Gospel of Life to the world. In every child who is born and in every person who lives or dies, we see the image of God’s glory. We celebrate this glory in every human being as a sign of the living God.

“In a document titled Living the Gospel of Life, the U.S. bishops said, ‘We cannot simultaneously commit ourselves to human rights and progress while eliminating or marginalizing the weakest among us. Nor can we practice the Gospel of Life only as a private piety. American Catholics must live it vigorously and publicly … or we will not live it at all.’             

“The U.S. bishops have gifted us with an amazing opportunity to be ‘islands of mercy in the midst of a sea of indifference,’” Cordle said. “In the words of Ohio’s state motto, ‘With God, all things are possible.’”

For more information on Walking with Moms in Need, go to www.columbuscatholic.org/respect-life. To see Cordle’s introduction to the program, go to www.bclc.life.