Visitation House values motherhood

By Tanya Connor
 The Catholic Free Press

WORCESTER – Motherhood involves accepting one’s loss of control, realizing children are a gift and, like Christ, even giving one’s body for them, a philosopher told 250 people at a fundraiser for mothers in need.
Janice Chik Breidenbach, associate professor of philosophy at Ave Maria University, contrasted natural motherhood with modern values in her keynote address at the Visitation House dinner, held April 28 at the College of the Holy Cross. 
In brief remarks, Nicole Renaud told how Visitation House helped her when she lived there. The home on Endicott Street serves women with unplanned pregnancies and their babies.
A silent auction, a video about the home, and awards were also part of the evening.
Dr. John W. Harding, a longtime Visitation House board member involved in pro-life ministries, was posthumously awarded the Ruth V.K. Pakaluk Legacy Award, named for the pro-lifer who is called the home’s inspiration. 
Eve Lindquist, Visitation House executive director from 2007-2020, was given the Lifetime Achievement Award. 
Since Grace Cheffers, who succeeded Mrs. Lindquist, stepped down early this year, the board has been seeking a new executive director, according to Jill Bowman, president of the board of directors.  
She said the fundraiser, held again this year after cancellations during the pandemic, is expected to nearly reach its $100,000 goal. 
A longtime Visitation House supporter, Cindy Dorsey, served as emcee and challenged attendees at the $100-per-person dinner to give, in addition, whatever God wanted them to give. She said it costs $108 per day to feed, house and educate one mother there.
The board members, who organized this year’s dinner, want to show that the house is “about the whole person, not just a shelter,” Mrs. Bowman told The Catholic Free Press. She said the home addresses residents’ spiritual needs, teaches them skills such as budgeting and how to present themselves, and tries to build their confidence, among other things.
After Bishop McManus said grace and guests ate, Professor Breidenbach gave her talk, “Why Motherhood Matters: Reflections on the Significance of Maternity in Modernity.” 
Her “philosophy of motherhood” has been formed most by her husband, Michael, a historian and research consultant, and their 3 ½-year-old, Paul Thomas, the program booklet said.
“Before I had a baby at age 35, I thought it would be a huge drag on my life,” Professor Breidenbach said. Instead, she found it “the most philosophically rich and rewarding experience.”
She spoke about modernity viewing motherhood from perspectives of control, seeing children as commodities, and career.
People can try to control conception, birth dates, hours between feedings and diaper changes, she said, but “natural motherhood is all about the … acceptance of the loss of control.” She said it was appalling for her and her husband that “our baby would cry at Mass … With a baby we became messy, loud. … This kind of public humiliation was good for us.”
“Modernity says that a child is a commodity” that can be purchased. But to natural motherhood, a child has no price; “a child is undeserved, there’s a kind of giftedness,” Professor Breidenbach said. 
Modernity values careers and urges women not to let motherhood get in the way, she said. 
“You’ve got to set priorities” – you first – the thinking goes. We own ourselves.
In motherhood “the mother lives so the child can live,” she said. A mother’s love is like Christ’s love in the Eucharist; through pregnancy and nursing she gives her body to her child. And a mother can “sow the seeds for another person to hear the call of God.”
Ms. Renaud shared part of her story: She was pregnant and homeless in 2017 when someone told her about Visitation House. “The Visitation House made me feel at home,” she said. The love and support amazed her. The home provides for babies’ needs and teaches mothers.
Ms. Renaud said she returned to school, is now a nursing assistant and directs others to Visitation House. Her daughter is 4 years old.
John Gregory Harding accepted his father’s award on behalf of the family. As a pediatrician, his father saw that “sometimes you had to treat the mother first to get to the child,” perhaps comforting a distraught woman before looking at her son’s injury, he said.
Mr. Harding said his father’s “priorities (were) mothers and children.” If that wasn’t so “he wouldn’t have gotten himself arrested in front of the abortion clinic in Shrewsbury” for trespassing when picketing. But a police supervisor set things right: “You can’t arrest Dr. Harding. … He raised half the children in town.” (Dr. Harding had even hosted a local cable program called “Raising Children with God.”) 
Joseph Williams, Visitation House founding board member and chairman emeritus, presented Mrs. Lindquist with her award after describing her tireless work for the home – even when she was hospitalized. The program booklet noted that her cultivation of relationships with parishes, organizations, businesses and other donors led to the generation of more than $5 million in cash and in-kind donations.
“To her, the women at Visitation House are Christ,” Mr. Williams said. “She grew more and more in love with them, with him. … Eve showed me Jesus.”
Mrs. Lindquist accepted the award on behalf of all the mothers and babies and showed pictures of four children born her first year there. She said if it hadn’t been for Visitation House, she didn’t think they’d be teenagers now.
Father Michael J. Roy, Visitation House chaplain and pastor of St. Roch Parish in Oxford, closed the evening by saying Visitation House has been part of the progress the pro-life movement is making. He prayed God would help those present build a culture of life.

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