Under the name Concerned Citizens of the High Desert Catholics united with members of a variety of other Christian congregations to respond to an application made to the City of Victorville by Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the United States, to open their largest clinic in San Bernardino County. Hundreds of parishioners, including many from Holy Family in Hesperia, Christ the Good Shepherd in Adelanto and St. Joseph in Barstow, attended City Council and Planning Commission meetings. Catholics from parishes such as Our Lady of the Desert in Apple Valley and Blessed Junipero Serra in Phelan, protested at the proposed Planned Parenthood site. Knights of Columbus like Martin Barrera and youth, including the daughters of Irene Beltran, protested peacefully and prayerfully day after day throughout much of the summer under the scorching desert sun.
Concerned Citizens’ spokeswoman Lisa Hayes and development consultant Robert Larivee filed appeals to the Victorville Planning Commission’s approval of Planned Parenthood’s building renovation permit.
And when the appeals ultimately came before the Victorville City Council, one City Council member recused himself, two voted for the appeals and two against. Without a majority in favor, the law states that the appeal must be denied.
Hundreds of disappointed citizens filed out of the council chambers. Father Patrick Travers, pastor of Holy Innocents parish in Victorville, looked stern. “How will we get our people the resources they need, so that they do not turn to Planned Parenthood?” he asked. How to spread the word that centers like Call for Life in Hesperia offer compassion and practical help for women in crisis pregnancies? How to raise the funds to help Rose of Sharon Pregnancy Resource Center in Victorville expand into a medical clinic?
“How will we help our youth, the targets of Planned Parenthood?” asked Sister Chilee Okoko, DMMM, director of the diocesan Ministry of Life, Dignity & Justice. Father Ciro Libanati, pastor of St. Joan of Arc parish in Victorville, expressed his appreciation that Nabor and Lupita Manriquez had recently trained to become Natural Family Planning Instructors for the Spanish speaking engaged and married couples of the High Desert. Fr. Libanati personally pledged to help financially support their training but also wondered where the High Desert would find NFP Instructors for the English speaking community.
How to encourage every parish in the High Desert to send volunteers and leaders to the Sanctity of Human Life Parish Ministers Formation Program Specialization Course in the Spring of 2013, where they will learn to develop Parish Respect Life Ministries, to provide information and inspiration for every parishioner?
In the High Desert the work of making Blessed John Paul II’s Gospel of Life an integral part of their community has just begun. But one can’t help think that there must be rejoicing among the angels and the saints over how these parishes have dared thus far to change a Culture of Death to one of Life.
Marie Widmann is the Director of Pro Life Catholic Ministries for the Diocese of San Bernardino. October is celebrated throughout the United States as Respect for Human Life Month.