In November 2008, Our Lady placed her protective shawl over me during the terrorist attack at the Taj Hotel in Mumbai. I believe she saved my life to help others draw closer to Christ and that she protects all who pass through Good Counsel’s doors.  

The suggested donation is $12 in honor of Our Lady’s feast day, December 12. Your gift can be made in honor or in memory of a loved one.  Your intentions will be placed in the Good Counsel chapel and with the Franciscan Friars for the Renewal for prayerful remembrance.

The 40 ft x 23 ft mural will be hand-painted on the side of the Good Counsel home in the South Bronx exactly as this mural appears on the friary of the Franciscan Friars for the Renewal.

Sincere thanks for your participation,

Peter O’Malley, Volunteer

Posted By Theresa Bonopartis On July 13, 2010

• On Thursday, March 25^th from 11-12:30pm we will be at the Spring Valley, “40 Days for Life” holding “I Regret My Abortion” signs

• Sunday, March 28^th, Fr Mariusz Koch, CFR and I will be on “Sunday Night Live”, at 7pm, with Fr Benedict Groeschel, CFR, speaking about our post abortive work

• April 8^th we will be at Columbia University from 12-1:30pm doing a Silent No More presentation

• April 10^th is our Poor Pre Natal retreat, a retreat for couples who aborted due to a adverse diagnosis (for more info call 877-586-4621, flyer above)

• Tuesday, April 13^th we will be doing an “Evening of Prayerful Remembrance” at Caldwell College in Caldwell NJ in conjunction with the college and the Diocese of Newark

• Wednesday, April 14^th at 7pm we will be giving a presentation along with SNM at Fordham University

• Monday, April 19^th, “Treating the Post Abortive Client”, a training for mental health professionals and clergy , will be held at Dunwoodie Seminary in Yonkers, NY

• April 21, Wednesday, we will be giving a talk at Sacred Heart High School in Greenwich Ct

• Saturday, April 24^th, a “Day of Prayer & Healing” women’s post abortion retreat (call for details)

• Saturday, May 1^st, a “Day of Prayer and Healing” for  post abortive men (flyer attached)

Laurie Collins used to work in our home on Staten Island and has since gone on to write and sing powerful music in support of the Culture of Life. Find the music video for her latest song, “Choose Life!” at the link above.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Burlington County – Memorial Park, Cinnaminson, NJ

Burlington County – Freedom Park, Medford, NJ

Camden County – Haddon Lake Park, Haddon Heights, NJ

Gloucester County – Washington Lake Park, Washington Township, NJ

Sea Isle City Boardwalk (in cooperation with the city of Sea Isle)

In support of homeless, pregnant women and their children with a safe, loving home; food; medical care; education; job skills; social skills; counseling; spiritual guidance; parenting, nutrition, and computer  classes; and so much more!!

Registration: 8:30 AM- 10:00 AM

Walk: 9:00 AM-12:00 Noon

Make the difference in the life of a child!

For more information, to obtain forms or to sponsor a walker, go to www.goodcounselhomes.org or contact Brenda Quinn (856)423-3468; olvbquinn@aol.com . You can also mail a check made out to “Good Counsel –South Jersey” c/o 268 Genesee Rd., Clarksboro, NJ 08020

SUNDAY – MARCH 14, 7PM ET / 4PM PT
SUNDAY NIGHT LIVE WITH FR. GROESCHEL - Hear about how and why Chris Bell and his spiritual director, Fr. Benedict Groeschel, founded Good Counsel Homes for women who are pregnant and homeless in New York City.

Subway ad campaign offers compassion and healing

http://www.cny.org/archive/ld/ld15031110.htm
By CLAUDIA McDONNELL

An ad campaign in the New York City subways this month offers hope to women who are suffering from a problem that’s often hidden or suppressed, with painful consequences: sadness and distress following an abortion.

The ads point the way to peace of mind, and it all begins confidentially, with a visit to a Web site.

“Abortion Changes You” is the name of the campaign. It is aimed not only at women but also at men who have been affected by abortion. It is nondenominational and is not connected to any church or religious group; it’s an outreach to people of all faiths or of none. Private donors have underwritten the cost. The ads went up March 1 and will remain through March 28.

This is the second time the ads have appeared in the subways; a previous campaign took place in the fall of 2008. This time, however, the outreach is more extensive; the number of subway cars with the ads has doubled to 2,000.

The campaign conveys an additional message, besides the one that appears in print: If the pain of abortion has gone deep, like a subway train descending into a dark tunnel, there is a way out of despair. Those who suffer can find hope, help and healing.

The ads carry the words “Abortion changes you,” with a photo of a woman or man and a simple statement: “I thought life would be the way it was before,” or “My child would have been 6 this year” or “We made the decision together but I’ve never felt so alone.”

Below that statement is the campaign’s Web address: abortionchangesyou.com. The site offers a compassionate message, suggestions on how to begin healing and resources for further help.

The campaign is being sponsored by the archdiocesan Family Life/Respect Life Office. The office is directed by the Sisters of Life, whose apostolate includes postabortion ministry. The sisters have a program, Entering Canaan, which offers days of prayer and healing for women and for men.

Theresa Bonopartis helped the Sisters of Life to develop Entering Canaan. She is the director of Lumina, a postabortion ministry sponsored by Good Counsel Homes, and she has worked for 20 years with women suffering from negative thoughts and emotions including grief, remorse, anger, shame and guilt. Last weekend Lumina presented its first program for siblings of aborted children.

Discussing the Abortion Changes You campaign in an interview, Ms. Bonopartis said, “Personally, I love the ads,” and added that the campaign “is probably more effective than we’ll ever know,” simply because it might encourage women to seek help on their own—whether or not they approach a particular program.

Ms. Bonopartis herself had an abortion, and she said that women with postabortion stress “are walking around feeling isolated and alone.” Even family members usually don’t talk to them about what they are experiencing, she said.

“The ads let them know they’re not alone,” she said. “They legitimize what they’re going through.”

A woman named Mary spoke with CNY about her abortion many years ago. She said that her husband insisted that she abort her third pregnancy because of the severe postpartum depression she had experienced after giving birth to their two children.

“I gave in and had the abortion,” she said. “I no sooner did it than I realized I had made the biggest mistake of my life.” A few months later her husband died suddenly, and the strain of adjusting to widowhood and caring for her two young children led her to put her anguish out of her mind. Years later it came back. When psychological and medical treatment failed to help, she decided to commit suicide.

While putting her possessions in order, she found a newspaper clipping about the Entering Canaan program, and she called the Sisters of Life and attended a session.

“That was the beginning of my healing,” she said. Now she speaks at weekend retreats for postabortive women.

Ms. Bonopartis said that the Abortion Changes You outreach is important because it shows women that their suffering is real. The American Psychological Association states that postabortion stress does not exist, she noted, yet Lumina gets 200 calls a year from people suffering from it, with hardly any advertising other than word-of-mouth and notices in churches.

Abortion Changes You was founded by Michaelene Fredenberg, who had an abortion at 18 and struggled afterward with deep grief and anger until she found help through counseling therapy and from friends. She now speaks and writes about her experience.

I Place Before You Life and Death: Good Counsel Homes vs. Feminists for Choice

Catholic Online

Two organizations with two different perspectives. One chooses life, the other death. They reflect the greatest challenge facing our Nation and the contemporary age. 

BRONX, NY (Catholic Online) – On March 10, 2010, two contrasting events will be taking place, both offering themselves as a “solution” to an unplanned pregnancy. One leads to life and the other to death.´I Place Before You Life and Death´: Good Counsel Homes vs. ´Feminists for Choice´
 
First, Good Counsel Homes, will be celebrating their 25th anniversary of service. Good Counsel Homes were founded on March 10, 1985, by Father Benedict Groeschel, CFR and Christopher Bell, for homeless pregnant mothers and single mothers with babies.

Good Counsel currently has four homes as well as their post abortion ministry, Lumina/Hope & Healing after Abortion. 

Over 5,500 pregnant women and children have been assisted by Good Counsel over the past twenty five years, and over 1,100 post abortive women and men.

In addition to their direct help, Good Counsel has been instrumental in assisting other maternity homes across the country, so that pregnant women in need can chose life for their children to life and receive the necessary life skills training to live independently.

In stark contrast, Feminists for Choice will also hold a major event. They will be celebrating
their annual “National Day of Appreciation for Abortion Providers.” We are told its purpose is to “show our support for these amazing health care professionals” who “make choice a reality.” Of course, the “choice” is to terminate the life of your child.

What a stark difference in “caring” for women. One takes you in, nurtures and houses both women and their children, and respects the Right to Life. The other asks us to celebrate an alleged “right” to abort your baby and then makes abortionists into heroes.

One has to wonder if Feminists for Choice will be showing appreciation for Kermit B. Gosnell, the Philadelphia abortionist who is responsible for the deaths of two women, and was also found to have the bodies of twenty five dead fetuses in his clinic. Over 40 civil lawsuits have been filed against him, while women continue to come forward with stories of botched abortions.

Two organizations with two different perspectives. One chooses life, the other chooses death. They reflect the greatest challenge facing our Nation and the contemporary age. 

“Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!” Deuteronomy 30:19
—–

Theresa Bonopartis is the Director of “Lumina/Hope & Healing after Abortion“, 1-877-586-4621, lumina@postabortionhelp.org and the Co-Developer, “Entering Canaan” post abortion ministry.  

Yes, it’s 25 years ago today that the doors opened at St. Francis’ former convent in Hoboken to take in a young mom and baby boy. You’ve continued that welcoming and added much compassionate love and support, building a family too large to count. 

Fr. Benedict Groeschel said long before the first home opened, “From the Cross flowed water and blood. If it’s His work, it will come about through His blood.” Births are bloody, but they are also joyful. Jesus came into the world like any other baby and he was reborn on the Cross through blood and water. He re-births us through His blood and water on that Cross.

I think of all this during this quarter century because of the many lessons this mission has taught me, and probably you.  One great lesson is that we are in a battle. A real fight inside and out.  The outer battle is not really with other people who challenge us by their confrontational comments, threats, demands or anger. Those things can help us improve our supreme imperfections. The outer struggle is with the Evil One who seeks to persuade, surprise or divert us by fear, greed or pride from doing the Good that God wants us to do. We have to stay alert and ready all the time to see what is truly Good and what is not.  The bigger battle is inside where even the Devil can’t touch us. Inside where we are alone and have to listen hard, sometimes very hard, and all the time to hear the voice of the Lord.

Having had the privilege to be part of recent Case Conferences and year-end reviews of our work, at every turn I heard of how one or another of our Good Counsel family has gone the extra mile to bring back the lost sheep — or more specifically to try to keep that little lamb from wondering off. 

There are children in our homes celebrated before as well as at their birth and many days after that. There are many moms who are enjoying safety and security which was unknown in their short lives before coming here.

Another battle is in the mirror. Do we see a difference or do we see ourselves in the moms and babies who come to us? Made in the image and likeness of God, don’t we see each other in all others?

Good Counsel has taught me a lot and you probably have some great insights too. I hope you take a moment today to pause, as I will in a chapel before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, to Thank You Lord for the opportunity to be here with You, Lord, and with you, especially with and for the ladies and babies You send to increase our family, to increase our sight of who You are and to increase our ears to hear You and to be able to help You in each other.  Thank You Jesus.

by Tom Hoopes

How are you doing? I asked cheerily when Father Benedict Groeschel came on the phone.

“Awful,” came the familiar Jersey City accent, “just awful.” The voice was wispy and thin, giving the message credibility.

Father Groeschel is an honest man, and after 50 years of being a priest, he’s also an old man. But our conversation was lively, lengthy and peppered with the wit and wisdom that has made him what he is.

What is he?

“He’s part Mother Teresa, part Fulton Sheen,” New York Times columnist Ross Douthat told me. “He’s the kind of figure who would have landed on the cover of Time Magazine in a different era in American history. But we’re lucky to have had him in ours instead.”

On Oct. 18, a special celebration is set to mark Father Groeschel’s 50th anniversary as a priest. The celebration will be held at the Holy Family Church in Nutley, N.J. Celebrants are to include Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the Vatican’s nuncio to the United Nations, and Newark, N.J., Archbishop John J. Myers. His actual anniversary date was June 20, but it was overshadowed by the opening of the Year for Priests the day before.

Or, maybe, “overshadowed” isn’t the right word. To many, he is a priest par excellence.

He is a preacher. “Tens of thousands of people have benefited from his writing and through his media communication,” Archbishop Myers said. Many know him through his 30 books. Many through his more than 100 audio and video series. Many more through his weekly EWTN television program, “Sunday Night Live.”

He is a teacher. He has taught at New York’s St. Joseph Seminary, Fordham University, Iona College and Maryknoll Seminary. And he still teaches a yearly course at the Institute of Psychological Sciences.

He is a counselor. He founded the St. Francis Home in Brooklyn for runaways and young people. His approach impressed Cardinal Terence Cooke so much that he put Father Groeschel in charge of a spiritual-formation program for New York priests, work he has carried out for 35 years since. His Good Counsel Homes for pregnant women started in a spiritual direction session with Christopher Bell, who would become its executive director.

He is also a walking miracle.

“I’ve been hit by a car and had a stroke, but I’m still going,” he said. “I am very grateful for every day.”

Organizers of the event are glad he’s “still going.”

“Here’s how important Father Groeschel is,” said Austin Ruse of C-FAM, a pro-life U.N. lobby. “I remember him getting hit by a car and nearly dying with nearly the same sense of impact that I remember 9/11. Of course, he would scoff at this. But he is so important to the Church and to the pro-life movement, that the thought of losing him instills in me and others a kind of panic. We owe him so much.”

Father Groeschel does scoff at the acclaim.

“I totally dislike the whole thing. I never wanted to have any celebration of my 50th. I don’t believe in these things,” he said. “Ordained priests should celebrate their anniversary by putting a rope around their neck and ashes on their heads and asking God forgiveness for their sins.”

The organizers were able to get his approval, however, by using the event to raise money for Good Counsel Homes for homeless pregnant women and children, which was praised last year in the Wall Street Journal as a model for the country.

But ask him about his many accomplishments and Father Groeschel will likely change the subject to one of his new favorite topics: the trip he expects to take soon, to purgatory.

“I’m very aware of my shortcomings,” said Father Groeschel, whose book on purgatory, “After This Life,” will be released next month. “I’m getting ready to go to purgatory. I know what I’m going to be doing in purgatory. I will be reading The New York Times and drinking bubblegum soda and eating Twinkies.”

He points to a beautiful passage about purgatory in Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical Spe Salvi (“Saved by Hope”), but adds, “I’m looking forward to purgatory. I’m from Jersey City and it’s just like purgatory. I’ll be right at home.”

Early life

His parents were Peter and Marjule Groeschel. Father Groeschel takes immense pride in them, and though he won’t tout his own accomplishments, he touts theirs.”My mother used to buy vegetables from Frank Sinatra,” he said. “My dad was the chief field engineer at Turner Construction. He built Madison Square Garden and the United Nations building.”

Little Peter Groeschel — he took the religious name Benedict in the novitiate — knew his calling from a young age.

“I knew I was going to be a priest when I was 7 years old,” Father Groeschel said. “I know the day and the hour” of the call. “I didn’t want to be a priest. I wanted to be a fireman. I was praying in church and I was told, ‘You are going to be a priest.’”

His family was utterly supportive of his decision.

“I’m looking at a snapshot on my desk of my first Mass,” Father Groeschel told me. “They were very happy.”

What would they say to him 50 years later? “They would say, ‘Take it easy. You’re working too hard.’” Not that they followed their own advice. “We were a whole family of obsessive compulsive neurotics,” he said.

For Father Groeschel, the men who most exemplify the priesthood are Venerable Solanus Casey and Cardinal Cooke.

He called Father Casey “a man who moved among the angels.”

“He worked miracles,” said Father Groeschel. “He could talk to wild animals. I watched him put a big swarm of bees back in the hive. Everyone was getting bit and running, and Solanus, with his bare hands, took handfuls of bees and put them back. I was watching this!”

Cardinal Cooke was “a holy, humble, dedicated, good man.”

In 1984, New York’s Cardinal John O’Connor appointed Father Groeschel promoter of the cause of canonization of Cardinal Cooke.

100 Years

Ordained the year Pope John XXIII called the Second Vatican Council, Father Groeschel has seen the Church in its most tumultuous periods in centuries. I asked him about the changes he has seen — and what he expects the future will bring.

“I think it’s St. Francis de Sales who said you should not hate your own times, so I desired not to hate my own times,” he said. But “I detested the ’70s and ’80s with a profound detestation,” particularly “the collapse of religious life.”

That’s changing.

“Now, very interesting, and observable in older teenagers and young adults, say up to about 35 — there is a stronger religious conviction, a greater sense of moral responsibility,” he said.

“The ones who go to some of the Catholic colleges are better Catholics than the ones who run the place,” he said. “There is a movement toward a more serious commitment of faith and morality than there was in the ’70s and ’80s.”

What of his own future? That prompted more talk on purgatory.

“I didn’t really lead a holy life. I don’t have any sense of self-congratulation,” he told me.

“On Judgment Day, they’re going to ask us why we didn’t do better with all the graces of the priesthood we were given. Just think — all those graces, and we don’t do it any better. When I finally get there, I’m going to say to St. Peter, ‘Well, I tried.’”

After visiting the Facebook page for Father Groeschel’s 50th anniversary and reading the testimonials to his witness and work, I read that encyclical passage he recommended.

“As Christians we should never limit ourselves to asking: how can I save myself? We should also ask: what can I do in order that others may be saved and that for them, too, the star of hope may rise? Then I will have done my utmost for my own personal salvation as well” (No. 48).

Maybe Father Groeschel doesn’t need to worry after all.

Franciscan Friars of the Renewal

They are often known as “Father Benedict Groeschel’s order,” but the priest himself always insists that he wasn’t a founder of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal.

Furthermore, he hopes the congregation won’t last — that is to say, he always intended the friars to become Capuchins.

Father Groeschel began his priesthood as a Capuchin — and even served as a delegate to the general chapter of the Capuchins in 1974. Then, in 1987, he was among the earliest members of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal.

Father Groeschel clearly loves his community. Their youth work is impressive. They are a constant presence at youth rallies, Eucharistic revivals and World Youth Day.

But he also clearly longs for his Capuchin roots.

“We started out as Capuchins and things kind of changed in the ’80s and ’90s, and we thought it was necessary to start a renewal,” he said. “The Vatican and the general agreed with us, but some of the American provincials kept us from doing that, so we went out on our own.”

Eventually, he hopes the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal become Capuchins, but he is proud of what they have accomplished.

“Surprisingly, we have grown very quickly in 20 years,” he said. “We started with seven men, and we are 135 now with about 30 sisters. We’re in the missions, we’re in Europe, and this country. The community does very well. It’s very young. The principle focus is to care for the homeless and very poor.”

As of 2008, the community serves in New York City, Albuquerque, N.M., Fort Worth, Texas, London, Limerick, Ireland, and Comayagua, Honduras. The friars opened a new friary in Matagalpa, Nicaragua, last year.

Good Counsel Homes

Father Groeschel asks that any 50th anniversary gifts be made to Good Counsel Homes, an agency he co-founded in 1985 that helps homeless pregnant women and single mothers. To contact Good Counsel Homes, visit goodcounselhomes.org or call (201) 795-0637.

In addition, Our Sunday Visitor is honoring Father Groeschel’s many contributions to the faith by doubling the net royalty on all of his OSV titles through Nov. 30. The proceeds will go to Good Counsel Homes. Visit www.osv.com and click on the Books link for more information.

Tom Hoopes is writer in residence at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kan.