Parishes mobilize to ‘walk’ with at-risk moms

Walking with Moms in Need and Respect Life team members from St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Destrehan include (from left):  Brenda Guillot, Kim Bourgeois, Courtney Saucier, Peyton Decker, Lauren Sensebe, Cindy Hall, Tanya Ibieta Ory, Cherie Decker, Patty Loftus and Angela Bergeron. (Photo courtesy of St. Charles Borromeo)

By BETH DONZE
Clarion Herald

In 2015, Pope Francis expressed his vision for Catholic church parishes by using a powerful metaphor: Parishes are called to be “islands of mercy in the midst of a sea of indifference.”

Heeding that call is a USCCB initiative called Walking with Moms in Need, in which Catholic parishes are asked to “walk in the shoes” of pregnant and postpartum women – a group that includes women in crisis pregnancies, their children and those struggling to meet everyday needs.

The initiative’s premise is that all adult Catholics should know how to help mothers in difficult circumstances or, if they are unable to do so, to refer them to someone who can.

“Sometimes it’s a single dad and not a single mom, so ‘walking with moms’ could be walking with anyone. But instead of just giving them a phone number, it’s walking the path with them,” noted Michelle Black, director of the Respect Life Office of Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans (CCANO), whose office provides guidance to parishes’ fledgling Walking with Women in Need efforts.

After the Dobbs decision in 2022, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the U.S. Constitution does not confer the right to abortion, “we got a little more traction in the parishes, because the whole point is we need to do more to support women if they really don’t have the choice of abortion,” said Black, who in her dual role as director of the Office of Pregnancy and Adoption Services spends part of her week at the center formerly known as ACCESS, a Metairie hub that provides free and confidential pregnancy testing and support, ultrasound services and a diaper bank that also stocks baby basics.

“Are we ‘pro-birth’ or are we ‘pro-life?’” Black asked. “We’re pro-life, and we’re going to show that by saying the parishes are kind of a place of refuge where you can come and get assistance.”

Growing local movement

Walking with Moms in Need currently boasts a formal presence in eight church parishes in the Archdiocese of New Orleans, and another five are actively working on it, Black said.

“Besides that, we have another 10 people who are  saying, ‘We need to do that,’ let me get the community together,” Black said.

Parishes can do as little as putting out a resource directory on women-focused services and ministries or holding regular events such as diaper drives. In parishes that have existing food pantries and ministries that extend help to the poor, for example, lay ministers can become more adept at identifying guests in need, especially if they are pregnant or arrive with young children, Black said.

“Or you can help people by giving them rides to (a more distant) food bank or to a doctor’s appointment; you can have support groups in the parish; you can have mentoring relationships – it can be as much or as little as you want it to be,” Black said.

In 2021, the Respect Life Office assisted the Walking with Moms in Need pilot parish of Divine Mercy Parish in Kenner. Already equipped with a parish ministry that provided food and other support to the needy, Divine Mercy developed a resource guide of pregnancy-related services, launched it at Masses and put the guide on the parish website. Divine Mercy also conducted diaper drives and raised money that CCANO’s Pregnancy Services used to purchase new cribs and car seats – vital revenue because “you can’t give out used ones,” Black said.

“Putting that (resource guide) into the hands of parishioners is really the first step. What parishes do beyond that is great,” Black said. 

“We’ve had a ton of referrals (to Pregnancy Services) from Divine Mercy, where people from their church have come over here to pick up diapers and supplies for some of the people in their parish,” she added. “This is how it should work – removing the barriers for that client who might not have transportation to get to us, but who can still get diapers and other baby items (at the local church parish level).”

Guide at fingertips of all

Tanya Ibieta Ory, the Respect Life coordinator and Walking With Moms in Need leader at St. Charles Borromeo Church in Destrehan, said her parish stepped up its efforts in 2022, after Archbishop Gregory Aymond wrote to all parishes asking them to more proactively reach out to pregnant women and struggling families. St. Charles Borromeo now has a core Walking with Moms in Need team of eight parishioners; 16 people on its Respect Life ministry leadership team; and an email list of 130 addresses it can use to contact parishioners who indicated they want to help whenever called upon.

Although St. Charles Borromeo already had a very active Respect Life ministry that organized activities such as rosaries, pro-life movie screenings, baby bottle drives and prayer outside abortion clinics, it recently bolstered its outreach to mothers by assembling its own 20-page resource directory listing governmental, non-profit  and faith-based services for pregnant women and new mothers. The directory, created for residents of the River Parishes and beyond, was distributed at all Masses on the weekend of “Sanctity Sunday,” Jan. 20-21. Ibieta Ory explained its use during Mass announcements. The directory’s categories of help include medical and dental care, battered women’s shelters, counseling and adoption services, feeding and homelessness efforts and healing-after-abortion ministries.

“We wanted a copy of this in every single parishioner’s hands – if you just put it on the website or in the church office, it’s not going to do anything,” Ibieta Ory said. “Now, if (a parishioner) encounters someone who needs help, they can do it – because sometimes a woman might not want to come to the church office and say, ‘I need help.’ She might be embarrassed or ashamed, and we want to let them know that they don’t need to be embarrassed or ashamed. You can (assure them) all you want, but they still might not want to be public about it.”

Seeing results

Just two months into the directory’s dissemination, parishioners are feeling more comfortable about using it in their personal encounters with moms and in their own parish ministries, Ibieta Ory said.

For example, a parishioner with St. Charles Borromeo’s Ministry of Care group (offering temporary food, rent and utilities assistance) told Ibieta Ory, “‘I’m so glad to have this directory! Now, when people come to us for food or help with their light bills, I can talk to them and assess their needs and use this to direct them.’”

When a young couple with children showed up unannounced at the parish office looking for shelter for the night, staff and clergy were ready to help.

One of St. Charles Borromeo’s deacons also offered the directory to a young single  pregnant woman preparing for confirmation.

“I think we feel more focused and more prepared to deal with what arises,” Ibieta Ory said. “People want to do something (to help expectant and young mothers), but they just don’t know what or how. But if we put out the call, they respond. When we had a diaper drive in 2023, we put a playpen in the back of church and (Mass goers) filled it up to overflowing eight times. We had to empty it out after every Mass!

“People always want to criticize us – Catholics specifically and pro-life people in general (by saying), ‘You don’t care about the babies after they’re born.’ That’s just not true, and that’s never been true. You can’t tell us that we don’t care here,” Ibieta Ory added. “The biggest surprise for me and the other members of our team is exactly how many resources are out there to help moms, babies and families across the Archdiocese of New Orleans, and particularly in our own parish!”

For more information, email Michelle Black at [email protected] or call (504) 885-1509.

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(Pictured below): Michelle Black, director of the Respect Life Office and the Office of Pregnancy and Adoption Services for  Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans, stands inside her Metairie office's storage room of baby supplies. She said parishes that want to start a Walking with Moms in Need effort can start small – perhaps by training the laity to identify needs as women access existing parish services, such as food pantries. “Just take these little steps (and) know that if you do anything, you’re helping,” Black said. (Photo by Beth Donze, Clarion Herald)