“Let the Children Come to Me…”
— Posted by John (July 24, 2007 at 3:44 pm)
Fr. Steve Lesniewski (right) kneels in prayer with children from his parish on the sidewalk outside a Chicago abortion clinic
Last Friday, Father Steve Lesniewski brought over eighty children from Immaculate Conception Parish in Chicago’s Brighton Park neighborhood seventy blocks north to pray outside of American Women’s Medical Center abortion clinic at the North Side intersection of Western & Diversey Avenues.
(Father Steve, who has been sidewalk counseling since he was a teenager, is featured in our video documentary on sidewalk counseling, No Greater Joy, which can be viewed online here.)
Several adults, including many of the parents of the young children, led the Rosary, the Divine Mercy Chaplet, and meditations on the Stations of the Cross, all in Spanish.
I was honored to take part in this beautiful multi-generational prayer vigil, which had a total attendance of well over 100:
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Lauren says:
this is the lowest form of speech. Expecting children to understand such a complex adult issue is sickening. What is wrong with you seriously? Seriously allow your children to develop their own views and stop using them as pawns in your own personal political statements. it’s sick.
Comment posted July 30th, 2007 at 5:22 pm
John says:
Lauren said: “this is the lowest form of speech.”
Um, Lauren? What exactly are you saying here? The only form of speech I mentioned in this post is prayer.
“Expecting children to understand such a complex adult issue is sickening.”
What’s so complex about understanding that it’s bad to hurt babies?
Comment posted August 1st, 2007 at 11:12 am
Monica says:
About 10 yrs ago, I worked in the vicinity of FPA on Washington St. On my lunch hrs through the week or early, before work, I was able to talk to women before they went inside. Fr Lesniewski was the only priest I *ever* saw praying there – despite there being very many in close proximity. He is indeed an exceptional
person.
As for bringing children – well, we unfortunately have to tell them about abortion because, again – unfortunately, there are groups such as Planned Parenthood who desperately want to “inform” them before their parents decide when they should know about reproduction and abortion.
When they do find out and understand the horror of it, they naturally want to do something positive, such as pray for it to stop. See, they haven’t developed the cynicism required to understand “abortion” as something good. Thank God for that – and Fr Lesniewski, for that matter.
Comment posted August 1st, 2007 at 7:23 pm
John says:
Monica,
Well said!
Comment posted August 3rd, 2007 at 8:28 am