Praise be the Sacred Heart of Jesus! After nearly fifty years of legal child-killing across our nation, Roe has fallen! States can now act to protect innocent human beings from abortion in their borders! Although we press on until all humans are acknowledged as persons everywhere and abortion is unthinkable, something egregiously wrong has been undone and that is a victory to celebrate!

Before I go on, I want to apologize for how terrible I have been with getting out our monthly updates! I have been incredibly busy with taking on the task of making sure that twice per week someone is outside praying and counseling to rescue children every hour that Planned Parenthood and now also Your Choice Healthcare are open. Some weeks, I am spending twelve of my sixteen hours dedicated to Catholics for Life on the sidewalk at abortion facilities. Factor in driving, going to Mass to pray for those we counseled, and planning our twice monthly evangelism events, and I am overwhelmed. If you do not immediately get newsletters and updates, you know why. Now, back to the overturning of Roe!

How providential that on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, despite great violence and death threats from pro-abortion extremists, five Supreme Court justices (all baptized Catholic, and four still practicing) held strong and struck down Roe and Casey! What my wife explained as well is the anniversary of this monumental event in future years will fall on the Solemnity of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, the saint who was filled with the Holy Spirit as a second-trimester fetus at the greeting of the Virgin Mary who bore our Incarnate God developing as a first-trimester embryo! What a witness to the dignity of the human person in all stages and the love of our God who became one of us. A priest also pointed out to me that the reversal of Roe comes just months after Pope Francis consecrated Russia by name to Mary’s Immaculate Heart in union with all the bishops, which Our lady promised would stop the spread of Russia’s errors. Russia was the first nation in the modern world to legalize elective abortion in 1920. God’s grace and providence is all over this event, and comes with the bidding of the prayers, fasting, penance, and work of so many faithful over so many years- all of you included!

Our Lady of America promised to use America as her instrument in bringing peace among men and nations if we process and place her statue in the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. As Mother Teresa says, abortion is the greatest destroyer of peace in our world today, but we are on track to help end this injustice now. We must answer her call and trust in the infinite graces She alone can mediate to us and our nation to help us bring peace to the womb and the world!

Here in Ohio, we were blessed to have an attorney general who worked to make sure our heartbeat law was enforced the same day Roe was overturned, canceling dozens of abortions across the state and I believe saving many lives! My sister and nephew had the honor of counseling the last clients at Planned Parenthood that day, before they closed and stopped abortions for several more days! Since then, I have seen the abortions at Your Choice Healthcare be reduced by 50-70% when they are open! Praise God! Now, the Ohio legislature is on track to ban abortion this November! Pray they stand firm in that!

Apart from sidewalk counseling and street evangelism, Catholics for Life’s third most important initiative was to host a Eucharistic procession to Planned Parenthood. This is something I have been working on for years. A procession would bring the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, the greatest avenue of grace we have, to our city’s last surgical abortion facility. We worked with St. Catharine to have this scheduled for the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, June 25th.

Although I was so excited for this, with the decision being released the day before and national calls for a night of rage and violence by groups like Ruth Sent Us and Jane’s Revenge, we canceled the procession and had adoration and a rosary after Mass in St. Catharine Church with over one hundred of the faithful in attendance.

This was still a glorious way to give thanksgiving to Our Lord and Our Lady for the overturning of Roe. Afterwards, more than seventy people came to a cookout celebration and to hear a post-Roe presentation. It got a little exciting when one man stood up and started yelling at us for taking rights away from women. When Father Morris and I tried to talk to him about issues he was raising concerning incest and women not having help to raise children, he said he did not want to hear what we had to say and walked out.

Although we cannot really share better news than the overturning of Roe, here are some updates from our regular monthly outreaches. At Planned Parenthood this month, we had one woman turn-away and go to the Women’s Care Center! For our Third Friday Initiative, we led outreach at the Ohio State University where we talked to abortion supporters, were brought doughnuts from a woman who was pregnant as a teenager, and had little girls take rosaries so they could learn to pray it with their half-brother who is Catholic.

Our June Torchbearers team of just three was the smallest outreach team we have ever had, but it was one my favorite days of outreach! At Planned Parenthood, we spoke to a Chinese immigrant who was considering abortion (pray for Fionna and her baby), prayed over a prostitute, and had a long discussion with an atheist. At Columbus State Community College, we gave a rosary to a woman who went to Catholic school, encouraged a fallen-away Catholic to return to Our Eucharistic Lord, gave a bible to a young student who did not have one, and gave out gospel cards to others. Before our outreach we prayed that someone who was struggling and desired to encounter God would come to our table. A few minutes later, up walked LaShawn who was skipping class to get coffee. She shared with us so much anger that she is experiencing and her despair that God does not speak to her. We explained how He placed us there to talk to her. As we shared the gospel and prayed over her, she started to cry. She took a Miraculous Medal and bible from us but turned around to come back for a rosary too. As we were explaining the rosary and Mary’s role as the Mother of all the faithful, LaShawn started crying again! It was such a providential and powerful encounter!

Souls like LaShawn still need reached, minds still need changed, and babies still need rescued. Even if our work changes some with the overturning of Roe, it is far from over! Next month, I will share what Catholics for Life looks like in a post-Roe America and more specifically Ohio. Until then, may Jesus Christ Our Lord bless you abundantly as we live through these exciting times that He created us for! AMDG!