Catherine Scott, Remembering a Pro-Life Volunter.

Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God, and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you

Catherine Scott, a long-time supporter of GCN and a very faithful vigil volunteer died on Sunday 30^th October 2022 on the Feast of Christ the King (in the Old Rite). This past Sunday would have been her Birthday.

I can’t remember a time when Catherine wasn’t involved in offering alternatives and real support to women entering abortion centres. She was fearless at the vigils and often received much abuse from passers-by in her daily presence at them. But she had a deep empathy for the women entering, no judgement of them and a desire to politely offer each woman the choice of life.

So many Mothers we have helped down the years were befriended by her and she would chide us if she thought they didn’t get the help they needed quickly enough, and would remind us if they needed something or needed a call.

Catherine was always ready to give witness for Christ’s sake and had a deep devotion to Our Lady. From the Chartres Pilgrimage to the G.K. Chesterton Walk, The Rosary Crusade, The Helpers of God’s Precious Infants Retreats, Catherine could be found supporting Mary’s Meals and numerous other Catholic events and good causes.

She had an incredible humility that allowed her to put any desire for human respect away when boldly reaching out to help those in need. One busy morning she popped into the office with a pregnant woman she had met by the fridges in Tesco, who needed help with accommodation to safely continue her pregnancy. Somehow this soul got talking to Catherine and she was determined to get her some real help.

She was full of love and mercy for others and never had a bad word to say about those she volunteered with and those she helped. She did have real anger towards those who lied about the vigils and those who profited from abortion while knowingly taking babies’ lives and putting women at risk.

Regularly accompanying us on staff retreats and formation days, Catherine was an honorary staff member of Good Counsel who had worked with us longer than many of our staff! As our sacristan Gabi said, “I remember Catherine radiant in prayer. I miss her being there for us all, such a beautiful, giving person. I feel so blessed for having met her.”

Thank you Catherine for all your hard work, for your tolerance of our foibles, for your kindness and your focus on what really mattered. Thank you for all the lives you have impacted, for making yourself an instrument in God’s hands to save children from abortion and to save Mothers from the sorrow of going through an abortion. God rest your noble soul, please pray for us, I know you will.

Clare

I remember being at Whitfield Street with Catherine one day. She was counselling women by the entrance to Marie Stopes abortion centre. One woman passing by stopped and asked her for a leaflet. The woman slowly tore the blue and pink leaflets up into tiny pieces and threw them up in the air. They fell to the ground, many of them landing on Catherine. It was really rather beautiful actually, and she stood there looking like she had been anointed. She just quietly bowed her head and prayed. – Len, Volunteer.

I think Marie Stopes is closed today…good thing the funeral happened on this day! Like they had a respite in abortions just for Catherine! – GCN Staff at Ealing Pro-Life Vigil on the day of Catherine’s funeral.

Walk, Pray, Work And March for Life

Nathanael has Walked for Pro-Life, in fact he walked 27 miles in one day, on the 15th Annual GK Chesterton Walking Pilgrimage. So far he has raised £2,664 to help the life saving work of Good Counsel, you can still donate here to help him reach is goal of £2,700.

The eleventh annual March for Life UK, will take place on Saturday 6th September. Please come to the March and do visit us on the Good Counsel Network stall in The Emmanuel Centre, Marsham Street, London SW1P 3DW, between 10am and 12.30pm, for free badges, learn about our life saving work, our intern programme, our daily Pro-Life Prayer Vigils & how Adoration will end abortion. There will be talks, workshops and activities in the morning at The Emmanuel Centre, to suit all ages.

The March for Life is always a nice peaceful Family friendly event, so please do come along. This year seven Catholic Bishops will be attending.

There are coaches travelling to London for the March from all over the country, details are here.

The March itself starts at 1.30pm outside The Emmanuel Centre.

Work for Pro-Life, a job is going for a Bookeeper, see here

Pray for Life, send us an email now, to join our Days of Prayer and Fasting for Life, our Adoration Rota, our Rosary Rota and to recieve some of our prayercards, we know of hundreds of women who have continued in difficult pregnancies because of the Graces they have recieved through prayer,

info@GoodCounselNetwork.com

Donate To Support Our Work

Bank Details

Name: The Guild of Our Lady of Good Counsel

Sort Code: 40-06-30

Account Number: 13994678

By Credit Card over the phone:

Call 0207-723-1740 Monday to Friday, 10.30-6pm

Paypal.me/SaveLivesGCN

27 Mile March for Life

Please sponsor Stuart, Lorraine and Gabi as they take part in this year’s 7^th Annual GK Chesterton Pilgrimage. Gabi and Stuart, along with others, plan to walk the full 27 miles from Notting Hill to Beaconsfield. Grandmother of three, Lorraine will join them when they stop to pray outside the abortion centre in Ealing, where she prays regularly, and will walk the remaining 22 miles with them.

You can sponsor Stuart here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/gkcwalk17

And you can sponsor Lorraine here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/lorraine-coyne

To sponsor Gabi you will need to send a cheque payable to; The Guild Of Our Lady of Good Counsel, to, PO Box 46679, London, NW9 8ZT. All money raised will go to the Life Saving work of The Good Counsel Network (You can also send cheques for Lorraine and Stuart to the same address).

If you would like them to pray for anyone along the way, whether you sponsor them or not, please send an email to catholicgkcsociety@yahoo.co.uk

Details of the pilgrimage, which you are welcome to attend, and for copies of the GK Chesterton prayer in a number of languages, see www.catholicgkchestertonsociety.co.uk

£800 raised for Good Counsel, on GK Chesterton Pilgrimage

After last year’s Chesterton Pilgrimage, I said, 'next year we'll walk'. The plan was simple, walk from St George's (c of E) Kensington, where GK Chesterton was Baptised in 1874, to Beaconsfield where this great man is buried. I planned to do this on 14th June the Anniversary of his death, this date had to be abandoned. And so we re-booked for 28th July, the nearest Saturday to the 90th Anniversary of GKC's Conversion to The Catholic Church. No doubt this was Chesterton's plan all along!

A few days before the Pilgrimage, I noticed that I had got the distances wrong! It was too late to change the start time, as 9am had gone out on posters, newsletters and blogs. So having allowed myself four and a half hours to walk nine miles from Kensington to Mass in Uxbridge, stopping for breakfast on the way, I now found that I had fourteen miles to do! So I started at 9am sharp, I read the first paragraph of GKC’s Autobiography out loud and said the GK Chesterton Prayer and 'we' were off.

I stopped to buy knee supports in Shepherd's Bush, as my knees have not been right since my Stroll on Rome 12 year's ago, Belloc's fault. Then I got a phone call from The Good Counsel office, "Stella, is outside Saint George's!" Stella was amazed to find that a Catholic event had started on time, as she was there by 9.10am. I called her with my location, she caught up and off we went. We walked in a straight line along the Uxbridge Road until we got Ealing where we turned into Mattock Lane to say the GKC Prayer outside that abortuary, and then on to Hanwell, where we joined the canal to Uxbridge. Fr Schofield kindly delayed the 1.30pm Mass, until 2pm and we arrived just after Mass had started! (You can read Father's excellent Sermon here)

My long suffering Wife had packed me a wonderful lunch. But as I had not announced a plan for lunch, we now headed back into Uxbribge to find a shop. I say 'we', for after Mass our Pilgrimage had doubled in size for the second time that day, as William and Lucy were joining us for the walk on to Beaconsfield. There were a number of others at the Mass (Old Rite) offered in thanksgiving for Chesterton's Conversion.

After we had eaten, we left Uxbridge following country foot paths, as many of these were overgrown, it was at times very slow going. William pointed out that, "All walk leaders are liars!" and then we lost the footpath! (Photo shows us re finding it). Each time we crossed a bridge we made William the walk leader, as he has a ritual for walking across bridges, which varied depending on what the bridge crossed. But I would remember that "All walk leaders are liars!" If you attend next year's Pilgrimage then you will learn these rituals as well as some of the songs from William's drinking songs book. We did say a Rosary at some point in the day.

And so finally we turned into Candlemas Lane in Beaconsfield, I put away my map, only to realise at the end of it, that we should have turned into the small lane on the left as entered Candlemas Lane. And so back we went! The gate to the cemetery was still open. I then remembered that Lucy had, a number of hours before, when I said my feet & knees were hurting, said something about getting to his graveside before me, so off I ran and won the race. 9.30pm! Next year we will start earlier and take a different route in the afternoon, all walkers cheer! But remember that, "All walk leaders are liars".

(On a 'silly' footnote, I've written this post over a number of days, but 'am finishing it at 4am while filling a hot water bottle for my Wife, who has toothache!)

So far I've raised £800 of my £1000 target from this walk, for Good Counsel.