Visitation House
Annual Fund Raising Dinner
March 24, 2010
Remarks by His Eminence
Cardinal Justin Rigali
I wish to express my gratitude to Bishop McManus for his kind invitation to be with you this evening. I am delighted to support the important work of Visitation House.
Five years ago, the vision of a small community of disciples of the Gospel of Life to establish a home for homeless mothers was realized with the foundation of Visitation House. Last year, sixteen babies were born into a safe and loving environment thanks to your efforts, and this evening eight expectant mothers are in a warm and safe house, and not on the street, because of your help.
Two of the greatest scourges which our country endures are the killing of unborn children and homelessness. The first is an unimaginable holocaust which compromises the moral fabric of our country. The second grows from our failure to meet even the most basic needs of families, especially in urban minority settings. When a homeless woman is so desperate as to consider the termination of her pregnancy these two horrors merge into one.
Such horrors touch not just the life of the mother, but threaten the innocent child whom she carries in her womb as well. If Visitation House did not exist, how many more children would have been taken from us? If Visitation House did not exist, how many more mothers would have carried the stain of guilt in their hearts? If Visitation House did not exist, how many more women living on the Streets of Worcester would have been pressured to abort their child?
This is precisely what our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, was talking about when he insisted that “the protection of unborn human life likewise requires attention: care must be taken that pregnant women in difficult conditions do not lack material help...” (Pope Benedict XVI to Members of the Regional Board of Lazio, January 12, 2006.)
The Visitation
Your work for Visitation House can only be understood, however, by meditating on the mystery of the Visitation of our Blessed Mother to her Cousin Elizabeth.
The story of the visitation is the story of an encounter of four persons: two mothers and the two infants they carried in their wombs. The unborn infants were, of course, our Blessed Lord and his cousin, Saint John, soon to be known as the Baptizer. And the mothers were our Blessed Lady and Saint Elizabeth.
The Visitation is introduced by the Annunciation, as the Angel Gabriel declares to the Blessed Virgin Mary that she is to bear a Son and name him Jesus and that her older cousin Elizabeth is already in the sixth month of her pregnancy.
As Saint Luke tells us, the Blessed Virgin’s first reaction to this great good news is to proclaim her acceptance of the will of God, despite her fear. Then, no sooner does the angel leave her presence than the Blessed Virgin sets out “in haste” for the hill country where her cousin Elizabeth lives.
Why does Mary so quickly set out on such a laborious journey? Precisely because, as our Holy Father has reflected, she is moved “by the mystery of love that she had just welcomed within herself, [and so] she set out "in haste" to go to offer Elizabeth her help. This is the simple and sublime greatness of Mary!” (Pope Benedict XVI, homily for the Marian Vigil Concluding the Month of May, May 31, 2008.)
What happens when Mary reaches Elizabeth’s house is an interaction more beautiful than any artist could depict.
Moved by the love of the child she carries in her womb, the Blessed Virgin runs to greet her cousin, who exclaims: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” Meanwhile, John the Baptist welcomes the Christ and the Blessed Mother by leaping for joy within his Elizabeth’s womb.
It is good that your house bears the name of so beautiful a mystery as the Visitation, the only time in all the scriptures when the actions of two unborn children play such an important role.
Likewise, the deep and mutual love and concern of both pregnant mothers for each other prefigures the care and concern which you demonstrate every day for the unborn and homeless child and the mother. Truly it is of such little ones that Christ spoke when he said whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, that you do unto me. (Matthew 25:40)
You carry on the tradition of the Visitation in your support of homeless mothers and their unborn children. It has, truthfully, been a while since I have spoken at a Pot Luck Supper. But I could not resist being among you this evening as you seek to promote and sustain such an important work.
Pope John Paul II on Lent
In one of the first Lenten messages of his Pontificate, the servant of God, Pope John Paul II, reflected on how this Holy Season can foster “a spirit of recollection, prayer and attentiveness to the Word of God [and] encourage us to respond generously to the Lord’s call as expressed in the words of the Prophet: Is not this the fast that I choose… to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house? … Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and he will say: ‘Here I am’” (Cf. Isaiah 58:6,7,9)
In calling us to a deeper concern for the poor, the Holy Father reminded us that the first victims of poverty and homelessness are often the children. It is for this reason that we must “recall with what determination our Lord Jesus demonstrated his solidarity with children: he called a small child to himself, set him in their midst and declared: Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and he commanded: Let the children come to me.” (Matthew 18:2, 5; 19:4)
The Holy Father continued: “I strongly urge you, in this liturgical period of Lent, to allow the Spirit of God to take hold of you, to break the chains of selfishness and sin. In a spirit of solidarity, share with those who have fewer resources than yourselves. Give, not only the things you can spare, but the things you may perhaps need, in order to lend your generous support to the actions and projects of your local Church, especially to ensure a just future for children who are least protected.”
This is the work of Visitation house, a work which is at the front lines of the struggle to protect the life of every human being from conception to natural death.
I will pray for the success of this good work and I thank God for the ways in which the miracle of the Visitation is lived out today on Vernon Hill in Worcester.
