Michigan chapter of Helpers of God’s Precious Infants continues to change hearts since passing of founder Dan Goodnow
DETROIT — On Oct. 18 of this year, the pro-life cause lost a longtime prayer warrior when the founder of the Michigan chapter of Helpers of God's Precious Infants passed away at the age of 86.
A member of the Michigan ministry remembers Dan Goodnow as a “soft-spoken, humble, gentle, gracious” person.
“He was really an extraordinary man,” said Kathleen Geralds, who participated for 10 years with Helpers of God's Precious Infants, a sidewalk prayer ministry that continues to hold peaceful prayer vigils outside two abortion clinics on 8 Mile Road in Detroit and Eastpointe.
Goodnow, a member of the Knights of Malta, established the Michigan ministry as a way to reach the hearts of women and men facing unplanned pregnancies, offering support and prayers through a simple witness of presence. According to the Order of Malta, the ministry reaches as many as 11,000 women per year, and often hosts special Masses, vigils and rosary processions, many of which have been attended by Detroit's bishops.
It started in January 2000, when Goodnow would go out by himself in the cold.
“Dan would be out there five, six days a week in heat and freezing rain,” said Geralds, who now offers support services for the ministry. “It was beating him up physically. God used up every last ounce of him. People would ask him why he did it. He would say, ‘Well, when your Father (God) asks you to do something, you do it.'”
A quarter of a century later, members of the group who knew Goodnow believe his quiet legacy will continue to live on through the witness of the lives the ministry has changed.
Deacon Gerald Smigell has been a volunteer with Helpers of God's Precious Infants almost since his ordination in 2000. He remembers meeting Goodnow at the first prayer vigil he attended. “I went to one of the vigils, and Dan came up and asked me if I would like to become a counselor. That was it. That is when I began.”
Deacon Smigell appreciates the ministry’s simple, non-confrontational approach.
“It is based primarily on praying the rosary and handing out rosaries," said Deacon Smigell, 86, a senior deacon from SS. Cyril and Methodius Parish in Sterling Heights. "We offer a rosary to women as they are going in and out of the clinic. It was the rosary foundation that drew me to want to participate in it.”
Helpers of God's Precious Infants first began in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1989 as a project of Msgr. Philip Reilly, who held the first prayer vigil on Oct. 7 that year, the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. Msgr. Reilly, who died Nov. 30 at the age of 90, was not shy about invoking the Blessed Virgin Mary's help.
“The most powerful thing we can do is to go where these babies are dying and ask the intercession of Mary to conquer this demonic force,” Msgr. Reilly said in a video posted on the ministry's New York website.
On its website, the New York chapter likens the ministry to the philosophy of St. Teresa of Calcutta, who is known for, among other things, opening homes for the dying around the world. These homes care for the dying who are the “poorest of the poor” so they can die “having experienced the love of Christ.”
Since then, the ministry quickly spread to include more than 60 chapters in 37 states, including the one in Michigan founded by Goodnow.
“The objective of Helpers is saving souls,” Geralds said. “We want to save babies, and we want to save families from all the pain that abortion brings, but our objective is to try to save souls — the parents, the abortionists, everyone we encounter.”
The ministry works in conjunction with Pregnancy Aid, a Detroit-based pregnancy resource center that provides counseling referrals, baby supplies and material support.
“Whatever they cannot provide, we will," Deacon Smigell said. "We actually provided a woman with help to repair her furnace. She had no heat in her house. I went to a lady’s house and set up a crib because she had nobody to do it. We help with temporary housing for women who need it. Almost anything they might need.”
The volunteers say the witness of prayer warriors like Goodnow and the success stories keep them going. Thousands of women have changed their minds after encountering the sidewalk counselors — including at least 14 families with sets of twins, Deacon Smigell said.
“I personally was involved in four of those twin change-of-hearts,” Deacon Smigell recalled.
He especially remembers one encounter.
“A man pulled up in his car and called Dan over. He pulled out his phone and said, ‘I have to show you a picture. Thank you for being here to help me save my family.’ He showed Dan a picture of his 5-year-old triplet boys,” Deacon Smigell recalled.
On his first day of counseling, Deacon Smigell remembers another man coming up and asking for a rosary.
“He said, ‘My wife and I were coming here fully intending to abort our baby, and there were all these people standing in the median praying rosaries and singing.’ It was one of those prayer vigils Dan would have twice a year with the (arch)bishop. The man said, ‘We heard all these people praying and singing, and it melted our hearts. And we could not do it,’" Deacon Smigell said. "I asked him how old his child was now. He said, ‘Our daughter is 2 years old.’ And I asked her name. He said, ‘Miracle.’”
Deacon Smigell recalls another man who had gone into the clinic with his female companion, and later came out to have a cigarette. He noticed a baby buggy the Helpers had with them, and on the buggy was an ultrasound photograph.
“He was looking at the picture. And he said, ‘Tell me about this,’" Deacon Smigell said. "My wife was pushing the baby buggy. She explained it was an ultrasound picture of a 10-week-old unborn baby. She said all its organs are present. And the baby can feel pain. He said, ‘What is all this blob of tissue (stuff) about?!’ He put out his cigarette and went inside and got the woman. They accepted our help and left.”
The two clinics at which the Michigan Helpers pray "are almost across the street from each other," Deacon Smigell said.
While one of the clinics cooperates with the Helpers volunteers — even allowing volunteers to use the clinic's parking lot and sending women who need help out to talk to them — the other clinic presents more of a challenge, Deacon Smigell said.
“About a year ago, they started sending escorts out there — men and women with big umbrellas who cover the women up so we can’t talk to them as they are going from the parking lot to the clinic,” Deacon Smigell explained. “They (the escorts) really antagonize us as much as they can.”
Geralds said another challenge has been an ordinance passed by the Detroit City Council that prohibits sidewalk counselors from approaching within eight feet of a woman entering an abortion clinic.
“The St. Thomas More Society is already engaged in the court system on this,” she said. “It is blatantly unconstitutional, yet the Detroit City Council passed it. There are other communities that are considering the same sort of thing. But it is in effect, and we are obeying it.”
Deacon Smigell said the ordinance doesn't prevent women from approaching the volunteers, who readily offer to help.
Since Goodnow's passing, both Deacon Smigell and Geralds say the ministry needs more prayer warriors to join them. Geralds said the ministry currently has about 24 active members.
“We are stretched thin," Geralds said. "If God blessed us with enough volunteers, and we had a superabundance of people, we wouldn’t be adverse to looking at having sidewalk counselors at other locations.”
“There used to be quite a few more of us,” Deacon Smigell admits. “Our group is getting older. Sometimes people counsel for a year or so and drop out, and we recruit new ones.”
Deacon Smigell said new volunteers don't have to commit right away, but are invited to simply come out, pray for a morning, and see how God moves their hearts.
“What we suggest is that someone who is interested come out and pray the rosary with us, and observe what goes on. Saturday mornings are a good time, from 10 a.m. to noon. Then we have training sessions. We have a training manual. We tell them what to say. How to respond to certain questions. We really prepare them,” Deacon Smigell said.
He adds post-abortive women who feel called to the ministry can be especially effective counselors.
“We have had seven different women counsel with us from time to time who have had an abortion, because it was a very healing ministry for them,” he said.
Geralds believes the ministry work has helped her grow spiritually.
“I gain so much. I am so extraordinarily blessed. I work with saints," she said. "I am not being glib. I am so blessed working with these people. It has been, and is so good for me.”
For more information about Helpers of God’s Precious Infants in Michigan, go to helpersmi.org.
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