Dear Editor: I read with interest the letter of reader Carl Battista in the February 23, 2019 issue (Readers’ Forum, “A Modern-Day Herod”). Mr. Battista states that “protests and Right to Life Marches have not worked,” and I agree that these efforts have failed to move many politicians from endorsing the “pro-choice” position. However, peaceful, prayerful witnessing outside of abortion facilities have worked wonders over these past many years.
Since the founding “The Helpers of God’s Precious Infants” by the Brooklyn Diocese’s own Msgr. Philip Reilly in 1989, an organization dedicated to such witnessing, over 25 abortion businesses have closed. Included in that total is the closing of Ambulatory Surgical Center in Brooklyn, where over 250,000 abortions were performed since its opening in 1970 to its closure in 2012.
The Helpers hold large monthly prayer vigils beginning with Mass at churches located near such businesses. The next one will be held on March 23, 2019 at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Church in Forest Hills, beginning with Mass at 7:30 a.m. followed by a rosary procession to All Women’s Medical Pavilion in Kew Gardens. Anyone interested in preserving the sanctity of life is encouraged to attend.
KEVIN AND SUSAN MOORE
Maspeth
Don’t be so quick to concede a faithless cynicism that deals with a matter, the changing of hearts and minds, that only God can know. God never allows honorable human effort to go to waste. Only God knows the extent to which hearts and minds are changed by human witness, but it is certain that there are repercussions to such efforts that serve God in His own time.