Mary and Joseph Life Center in Nairobi serves women in crisis pregnancies

(This article was first published by California Catholic Daily on October 27th, 2024)

Of the 98 Catholic parishes in the diocese of San Diego, two steadily send counselors and prayer warriors to Planned Parenthood at First and Grape.

One is St. Anne, the Traditional Latin Mass parish in Barrio Logan, whose pastor, Father John Lyons, leads a group mid-day on Tuesdays to pray and engage abortion-intent women.

The other is Our Lady of the Rosary, the Italian national parish run by the Barnabite order in the heart of Little Italy. On the first Saturday of the month after the 7:30 Mass, a band of prolifers walk from the parish at State and Date streets to the Planned Parenthood abortion clinic at First and Grape. They pray the Rosary on the way and in front of the clinic.

So it was no surprise that Father Patrick Devine, PhD, founder of the Mary and Joseph Life Center an Irish missionary working in eastern Africa, was staying at the rectory at Our Lady of
the Rosary this week and was open to share on his work.

Father Devine, who has worked as a priest of the Society of African Missions in Tanzania and Kenya, mostly in resolving conflict between tribes, is author of an academic work, Persistent Conflict between the Pokot and the Turkana; Causes and Policy Implications. These tribes, fighting each other in the North Rift of Kenya, even under British rule, where the disputes beganwith livestock raiding, were instrumental in leading Father to the founding of the Shalom Center for Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation (SCCRR).

But due partly to the urbanization of Kenya, and in particular the hardships of living in slum environments, among other factors, he has been confronted with another moral, ethical and legal problem – abortion. The figures have climbed to over 300,000 abortions some years in a country with a population of 55 million.

Father Devine has launched the Mary and Joseph Life Center. Three main purposes of the Mary and Joseph Life Center are to: 1. Offer pregnant women and girls, fathers
responsible for the pregnancy, and families, who are considering and/or are being coerced to have abortions, other options to have their baby(ies) born.

2. Offer educational workshops/seminars that are oriented to help prevent crisis pregnancies and help those already in need with supportive guidance for psychological, spiritual, and economic livelihood resilience.

3. Offer counseling, medical support, guidance, and empowerment to women who have had abortions and are seeking assistance for trauma, self-esteem and healing in one form or another.

From their Facebook page “The Mary and Joseph Life Center endeavors to promote the human rights and dignity of women and children, from the moment of conception to natural death and, also addresses all acts of violence against them.”

The center offers crisis pregnancy help, including sonograms. Plus education and seminars promoting chastity and theology of the body.

Watch these videos here and here and please consider donating to help the center in its work.

For more information, see the Mary and Joseph Life Center.