WASHINGTON, D.C. (Catholic Standard) - Although the organization recently changed names, expanded services and opened two new residences to assist women in crisis pregnancies, the main goal of the Gabriel Network remains the same as it was 10 years ago when it began under the name Gabriel Project. "We're really about building relationships and making friends," the network's director Paul Mulligan said.
In the past10 years, the grassroots, ecumenical organization has assisted thousands of women and their babies, estimated Mulligan. In the past year alone, 2,000 volunteers from 65 churches in Maryland and Washington assisted more than 2,000 women who may have turned to abortion without the extra help provided by the Gabriel Network.
The network provides tangible assistance such as baby supplies, diapers, infant formula, transportation, and temporary housing to women in crisis pregnancies. In addition, the moms receive other intangible aspects such as friendship, positive family role models, and love. "We're empowering the mother to make herself a gift to her baby - to her child," Mulligan added.
WITNESSING LOVE
Assistant director Anthony DiIulio and his wife Ann have served as house directors in a Gabriel House for over two years. For many of the women served at one of the four residential homes run by the Gabriel Network in Maryland, it is their first opportunity to live with stability, learn life skills and witness family love, Anthony DiIulio said. The house guests are "beautiful people who have a real hard life."
In order to be accepted as one of three guests at the Silver Spring maternity home with the DiIulio family, the woman must be 18 years old, willing to live with other people and agree to house rules including a curfew and daily prayer reflection with the house director.
Ann DiIulio said she was drawn to the program's ecumenical approach and said the home's current guests include two Christians and one Muslim woman. She noted that while modeling family life to women, her two young sons are exposed to different cultures, religions and ethnicities as well. Already Michael DiIulio, 3, is learning about helping others - "that's just what we do," Ann DiIulio added.
The house director said the most important lesson imparted is to teach the guests "to respect themselves, to respect their dignity."
FOUR HOMES
In addition to the home in Silver Spring, the Gabriel Network operates similar homes in Gaithersburg, Annapolis and Ellicott City, Md.
Kristine Craig is the house director for the home in Gaithersburg which opened one year ago and has housed four women. Craig said she has seen the women change over the months as they come to see the value of prayer and the Holy Spirit in their lives. "We show the women they have other people around them who love them," Craig added.
For Kristine Craig and her husband, joining the Gabriel Network was a chance to help mothers. The Craigs have been married for 15 years and adopted four children through the foster system when they wanted to try to do something to try and help mothers as well.
In addition to helping with their pregnancy, women in the Gabriel Network can also receive information about the adoption process. Last year the organization sponsored a pro-life convention and is planning another one for the fall.
A 10th anniversary gala has been scheduled for April 26, according to Mulligan. The black-tie fundraiser will also honor individuals and organizations which have helped the Gabriel Network get started in the area. The honorees include Baltimore Cardinal William Keeler, who along with Washington Cardinal James Hickey helped involve the Catholic parishes in the project in 1996. Today funds from the Washington Archdiocese's annual Cardinal's Appeal helps support the Gabriel Network.
'FAITH IN ACTION'
Members of the archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women have also volunteered with the Gabriel Network since it began10 years ago. "These women (volunteers) are like angels in our culture," said Carol Cook, a spokesperson for the Council of Catholic Women. She described the volunteers' involvement and dedication as "heartwarming" and "inspiring." They are "absolutely selfless in the way the women give of themselves." Cook added. She noted one member purchasing infant formula with her own money for the pregnant mother. These women give their all to make a difference in the others' lives, Cook explained. "It is faith in action."
Mulligan agreed. For the director of the Gabriel Network, the running the program is one way to live the Gospel. He said he felt called to pro-life advocacy while a teen-ager and eventually started a pro-life center in Guam after serving in the U.S. Navy there. A graduate of the master's program at John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, Mulligan said the Gabriel Network would like to begin maternity homes in the District and Baltimore as well as increase financial support and volunteer involvement of local churches.
The director said he finds it easy to receive donations of high chairs and cribs whenever the needs arise, but it is much harder to build relationships, although anyone can be a friend. "When (women) come here they get unconditional love," he said.
"We're doing much more that helping mom and baby," Mulligan said. "When you help that mother, you are really touching the future generations to come."
To contact the hotline of the Gabriel Network call 1-800-ANGELOK (1-800-264-3535) or the web site www.gabrielnetwork.org.
This story was made available to Catholic Online by permission of the Catholic Standard (www.cathstan.org), official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Washington, DC.
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