Southfield — Skye McCann was single, out-of- work and homeless when she learned she was pregnant last spring.
But McCann eventually found out about Mary’s Mantle, a Catholic home for expectant mothers in Southfield, and was able to move there in September.
|
And after giving birth to a healthy baby girl, Serenity Harmony McCann, on Nov. 20 at Providence Hospital, she was able to return there for up to three months to recover, find a job and otherwise continue to prepare for her future life.
“They’re very loving and caring, and want to help you do something for your life that you haven’t been able to get done,” McCann, 26, says of the staff and volunteers of Mary’s Mantle.
She says she was immediately made to feel welcome when she visited the house.
The idea for Mary’s Mantle arose out of a frustrating and tragic experience pro-life activist Beth Collison had back in the spring of 2009, when she was approached about finding a place for a young woman who needed a place to stay if she was to stand up to pressure to have an abortion.
Sadly, nothing could be found right away, and the expectant mother succumbed to her boyfriend’s insistence and had the abortion.
Collison got busy talking to other pro-life activists and praying about it, and within a few days had the offer from Peggy and Michael O’Dea of a 2,500-square-foot house in Southfield, if she could just take over the mortgage payments.
With support from her pastor, Fr. J.J. Mech of St. Anastasia Parish in Troy, the Knights of Columbus and other benefactors and volunteers, Mary’s Mantle was ready to accept its first residents by this past June.
“Our goal is to give these women the option to choose life, and they will be given a place to live for up to a year,” Collison explains.
But she adds that Mary’s Mantle is not just a place to stay, not just a shelter, but a structured program that includes work and prayer, as well as instruction on parenting and other life skills.
The house can accommodate up to four women — three live there at present — as well as two live-in “housemothers,” one religious sister and one laywoman.
In addition, there is a caseworker who helps them connect with available public and private social services and gives them a realistic picture of what they will need to earn in order to live independently.
And volunteers also come during the day to help in various ways.
The operation of the house is overseen by Carolyn Weidenbach, executive director of Mary’s Mantle, and former principal of Our Lady of Loretto School.
Weidenbach explains that Mary’s Mantle residents do have some free time, but must spend at least 30 hours a week working, going to school or volunteering somewhere.
Each resident takes turns at household chores, which McCann says is no more than they will have to do once they are out on their own.
Regular weekly church attendance is also a requirement. The program is not restricted to Catholics, and the women may go wherever they please, but both Catholic and non-Catholic residents have been accompanying the house mothers to nearby Transfiguration Church for Mass. And residents and staff gather in the house for daily morning and evening prayer.
For McCann, living at Mary’s Mantle has meant getting in touch with the faith into which she was baptized but never received instruction or other sacraments.
Pamela Porter, 28, another resident (who may have had her baby by the time this story is printed), says she values Mary’s Mantle’s Catholic atmosphere even though she comes from a nondenominational Protestant background.
“The Catholic background, the religion you get here, makes you feel good and gives you hope,” she says.
In fact, Porter has been accompanying Sr. Ruth Kienitz, PCPA, almost every day when she goes to daily Mass.
Porter also cites the moral support each resident receives from the other residents — young women in similar circumstances to themselves, as one of the great things about the program.
Sr. Kienitz is a formerly cloistered nun currently exploring — with Vatican permission — whether she has a calling to a more active apostolate.
Speaking of the routine in the house, with the residents preparing meals and dining together, as well as praying together and working together to make items that can be offered for sale, she says it is important to foster a sense of family life among them.
“Family life is so wounded and broken today. Once they understand family, they can grow closer to God,” Sr. Kienitz says.
Deacon Don Leach of Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish in Plymouth serves on the board of Mary’s Mantle. He is an enthusiastic supporter of the program, as is Fr. John Riccardo, the parish’s pastor.
Deacon Leach says he once had a similar experience to Collison’s, in which a young woman would have opted for life if only she had a place to stay. But the time he had come up with one, she had given in to her parents’ pressure to have an abortion.
He urges other pro-lifers to step up to the challenge of helping young women choose life by supporting Mary’s Mantle.
“It’s not about theories, it’s not about theology — it’s about real persons who need us to show solidarity and stand with them,” Deacon Leach says.
Weidenbach says Fr. Riccardo would like Mary’s Mantle to already start thinking about getting another house going in western Wayne County, but she wonders whether sufficient support could be lined up.
Not that she has any doubt as to the need — although there was once a house with a similar mission on the grounds of the St. Vincent and Sarah Fisher Center, Mary’s Mantle is now the only Catholic program of its kind in the area, she says.
But then, perhaps it doesn’t hinge on their abilities alone.
“The Lord hand is very visible in how this home came together and He continues to help us over the hurdles,” Collison says.
