Project Gabriel offers pregnancy support
Joe Kohn of The Michigan Catholic
Published October 13, 2006
White Lake Twp. How do you talk to an angel?
Now, the answer, for those who are pregnant and need help, is simple:
Call (877) 734-2444.
Thanks to volunteers at St. Patrick Parish in White Lake Township, that number is a gateway to emotional and material support for women who are pregnant and have nowhere to turn. The help comes from a parish community taking part in a national movement named the Gabriel Project, after the angel that appeared to the Blessed Mother to announce she would bear the Son of God.
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Photo by Joe Kohn | The Michigan Catholic
Ann Rogers holds a magnetic bumper sticker, which is used to let women know about the Gabriel Project. The project is a support group for women who are pregnant and need help. | Volunteers in the project are called Gabriel's angels.
"The message to Mary was 'Do not be afraid, the Lord is with you,'" said Ann Rogers, who's heading up the Gabriel Project at St. Patrick. "That's the same message we try to express to the women who need our help."
The Gabriel Project first started more than a decade ago in Corpus Christi, Tex., and has spread across the country in different ways through various independent chapters. The main goal of each chapter is to help women in tough situations make it through their pregnancies with the support they need.
Ideally, the support will help give women an alternative to abortion.
The project has been supported and encouraged nationally by Fr. Frank Pavone and his Priests for Life apostolate.
A woman typically learns about the program through personal connections, other ministries, or by seeing a sign in front of a church. The St. Patrick's group is using magnetic bumper stickers to advertise their existence.
Those who need help can call the toll-free number listed, and be connected to someone at the parish who's been trained to give them counsel a Gabriel's angel and who can put them in touch with resources they need, such as the St. Vincent de Paul Society, Catholic Social Services branches and crisis pregnancy centers.
St. Patrick started the project this year and already has 35 volunteers people trained to give one-on-one counseling, parish nurses, and those willing to give women transportation and even some material needs.
"I just wanted to serve God's little ones and help the poor women who are in doubt," said Linda Woodford, a parish nurse at St. Patrick who's volunteered her time and skills to help the Gabriel Project. "We want to say, 'I will be there for you emotionally and I will be there for you financially.'"
Rogers explains that the program is a complement to crisis pregnancy centers. Whereas the centers are like an "emergency room" to give immediate support, Rogers said, the Gabriel Project is meant to provide the long-term, nurturing relationships also necessary for crisis pregnancies the "intensive care unit," so to speak.
Already, the St. Patrick Gabriel Project has found its first woman to help, a woman from a Detroit correctional facility who the parish deacon, Deacon Mike Chesley, had been ministering to.
Other local parishes have expressed interest in the Gabriel Project, too. St. Gerald Parish in Farmington, for example, is starting a chapter.
"It truly is the new evangelization that the holy father (Pope John Paul II) talked about," said Rose Wingfield, chairwoman of St. Gerald's peace, justice and life committee. "It is one-on-one ministering and bringing Christ to someone in need."
Though there are a variety of resources to start Gabriel Projects, St. Patrick is looking at the project in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis as a model. Through a network of dozens of parishes, about 100 women in the Indianapolis metro area have received assistance from the Gabriel Project so far this year.
 What they do
Volunteers in the Gabriel Project help women in difficult or unexpected pregnancies by
giving one-on-one counseling and emotional support cooking meals for the mother providing babysitting seeing community resources for the mother and/or child collecting material goods, often through postings in parish bulletins. | "It's very grassroots, and it's even moved beyond our archdiocese," said Eileen Hartman, who started the Gabriel Project at her parish, St. Bartholomew in Columbus, Ind., in 1999.
Hartman, a former teacher and court-appointed advocate for children, said that when she did a trial-run of the Gabriel Project seven years ago, the volunteers immediately found women to minister to the first being a Hispanic woman who didn't speak English, whose due date was the Feast of the Assumption.
"Maybe Mary was telling us it really wasn't our project," Hartman said. "It was God's project and we were just here to help."
Whatever the case, she and her volunteers have been busy since 1999 helping establish the project at parishes in the Indianapolis area and caring for women in difficult pregnancies.
Those involved in the Gabriel Project in the Detroit area hope for similar growth.
At St. Patrick, pastor Fr. Thomas Meagher, relayed a good illustration of the Gabriel Project's purpose to his parishioners. He likened it to a nest of barn swallows who had made their nest outside the parish offices. The parishioners looked out for the birds, which, in turn, were looking out for their young.
"It's funny, because Jesus said 'Look at the birds in the air,'" Fr. Meagher said.
"The Gabriel Project is important because it's for the people who are trying to make difficult choices in their life," he added. "It's an opportunity for people in the parish to be seen as witnesses and, as a ministry, to be concerned about Jesus' little ones."
Learn more about the Gabriel Project by visiting www.goangels.org or calling (877) 734-2444.
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