Good Counsel Homes, Crisis Pregnancy Centers, Chris & Joan Bell, Hoboken, NJ

Good Council Homes ^ | 07.21.04

[Coleus]

Good Counsel Homes
Chris and Joan Bell

EWTN GALLERY
GOOD COUNSEL HOMES WITH FATHER BENEDICT GROESCHEL (30:00)

Fr. Benedict Groeschel hosts this half hour special about Good Counsel Homes. Good Counsel provides homeless pregnant mothers a place to stay during their pregnancies, as well as training in skills to help them get jobs and assists them in finding affordable apartments after their babies are born. This special features interviews with Executive Director of Good Counsel Homes, Mr.Chris Bell, as well as mothers who have benefited from Good Counsel's assistance.

Thursday	July 29, 2004	4:30 AM
Thursday	July 29, 2004	6:00 PM

Hear their Story:

Chris & Joan Bell along with Amy Kerr 8/7/2003 (#320) The Good Councel Homes For Unwed Mothers w/ Chris & Joan Bell along with Fr. Groeschel 7/31/2003  Listen on REAL ONE player.  Advance to 15:00 minutes to hear the interview on LIFE ON THE ROCK

While working with homeless runaways in New York's Times Square, Christopher Bell became troubled. He saw many single pregnant women on the streets who were pregnant and with seemingly nowhere to turn.

One day Chris made a remark to his spiritual director, Father Benedict Groeschel, "Somebody should do something to help these pregnant women!"

Father Benedict looked Chris directly in the eyes and said, "You are right Chris! And you are that somebody!" With that encouragement, Good Counsel was born.

Chris and Father Benedict found an abandoned convent in Hoboken, New Jersey and in March 1985, the first home for mothers and children opened its doors. Since 1985, more than 3,500 women and children have received residential help at Good Counsel.

In addition to the basics of food, clothing and shelter, single mothers benefit from many "life skill" programs including parenting classes, nutrition, career guidance, chastity teaching, spirituality and budgeting. Daycare is available in each home so that a mother may work or return to school to complete her education.

Today Good Counsel operates five homes in New York: the Bronx, Staten Island, Spring Valley, Poughkeepsie and Harrison. We hope to be able to expand into other areas of the country as well.

If you are in need of crisis pregnancy counseling, please call out toll-free national hotline 24 hours a day, seven days a week at (800) 723-8331.

Catholic New York - Teen Chooses Life - testimonial

Joan Andrews Bell, Meet the Abortion Providers conference

AFFIDAVIT OF JOAN ANDREWS BELL

Site Review for Good Counsel Homes        Human Life International’s 18th World Conference

Domestic-Church.Com: Vindication: Joan Andrews Released

Joan Andrews Bell: Prisoner of Conscience

THE INTERIM NEWSPAPER ONLINE : Level 2 template

Seattle Catholic - A Champion of Life Everlasting      Seattle Catholic - Of Slaves and Babies

Domestic-Church.Com: Epiphany 1998: Letters to the Editor

Then in 1991, at age 43, she married Christopher Bell, 33, a coordinator for the Respect Life Office in the Archdiocese of New York. The pair met while he was bringing her Communion in a Delaware state prison.

She immediately became pregnant and had a daughter, Mary Louise, now 5. The girl was delivered by Dr. Bernard Nathanson, a founder of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, who became a pro-lifer in the 1970s.

In December 1993, the Bells adopted a handicapped Mexican boy, Emiliano, now 9, who has arthrograposis, also known as "frozen joint disease." After four operations and physical therapy, the boy now is able to walk.

California gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon (R) has had a long-standing association with Good Counsel, a New Jersey-based organization with "close ties to some of the most extreme members of the antiabortion movement," the San Jose Mercury News reports.

According to the Mercury News, in the late 1980s Simon helped Good Counsel Executive Director Christopher Bell incorporate the organization, which runs five homes in New York for unwed mothers, and Simon has served on both its board of directors and advisory board in the past.

The paper calls Bell --"whom Simon has known for about twenty years" -- an "outspoken abortion opponent" who has supported activists "known to have violated some of the laws Simon pledges to uphold" (Kurtzman, San Jose Mercury News, 6/29).

Simon opposes abortion rights but has said that he would uphold the state's "legal and constitutional protections of reproductive freedom" (Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health Report, 6/7).

Good Counsel's Web site includes links to organizations that "espouse radical antiabortion views."

Statement opposing brain death criteria

Abortion, Euthanasia, Pro-Life, What's New?

Pictures of Clinton Street, Hoboken, home which needs to be repaired

---

Chris and Joan Bell have 7 Children, 6 are adopted and are Handicapped.

Volunteers are needed for the Clean up and Repair day for this crisis pregnancy center which will open whenever the work is done. There will be many repair days in the future and if you know of someone in the NY/NJ metro area who wants to volunteer in some way  have them call the home.   This Saturday, July 24th, 2004,  9am-1pm, optional mass at 8am in the chapel, Cleaning, spackling, priming/painting. Good Counsel Homes for Unwed Mothers, 411 Clinton Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, ( 201) 795-0637 Chris Bell is the director http://www.goodcounselhomes.org/ Pictures of Clinton Street, Hoboken, home which needs to be repaired before it can be opened, mothers are turned away daily.  NJ leads the USA in Teenage abortions.

[Casloy]

What a counterpoint to abortion clinics. One sends out children to families who will love them. The other sends out bags of torn up flesh to the dump.

[Coleus]

Clean up day on Saturday, July 24th

[Coleus]

MAP

[cpforlife.org]

PING about 2 of the greatest Pro-Lifers in the Country!

Please let me know if you want on or off my Pro-Life Ping List.

[cyborg]

I would like to see a christian version of Planned Parenthood. Here's my insider view of PP where I went today.

http://mentalmumblings.blogspot.com/

[cyborg]

Such homes need to be encouraged. There are no hones for unwed fathers for good reason. Men don't have to deal with the crisis of an accidental pregnancy. I believe in preventation, and things like chastity support groups can only be a good thing for young people.

[1stFreedom]

Joan Bell was rescuing before rescuing was cool -- one of the Grandmothers of the clinic blockade movement.

[cpforlife.org]

Joan Bell, formerly Joan Andrews before Marrying Chris Bell, is the forerunner of operation rescue. She saved many lives by peaceful protest at abortion mills. She was sent to prison for defending life and a book was written compiling her letters from prison. Though relativly unknown, Joan has brought many people into the Movement.

"You reject them, you reject me: The prison letters of Joan Andrews" is out of print but used copies can still be ordered from http://www.amazon.com. Just type "You reject them, you reject me" in the search bar.

Statement by Joan Andrews in 1986, to trial judge who sentenced her to five years of solitary confinement in a maximum security prison, for having been found guilty of burglary in an attempt to unplug an abortion clinic's suction machine:

"The rougher it gets for us, the more we can rejoice that we are succeeding. No longer are we being treated as are the privileged born, but [rather as are] the discriminated-against preborn. We must become aligned with them completely and totally, or else the double standard separating the preborn from the rest of humanity will never be eliminated. I do not want to be treated any differently from my brother or my sister. If you reject them, you reject me. We do not expect justice in the courts. Furthermore, we do not seek it for ourselves when it is being denied our preborn brothers and sisters. Thus, I plead a case for complete and total vulnerability in court by refusing self-defense and all legal argumentation for self-protection."

[Salvation]

Prayers for all these people who are cared for in these homes.

[TOUGH STOUGH]

They are a wonderful couple. Good counsel is quite an organization aand I applaud them for that and their adoption of six children.

Chris Bell ran for congress, did he not? I supported him in that campaign.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[TOUGH STOUGH]

While there is so much to admire about Joan Bell, I do not now nor will I ever agree with operation rescue, which in my opinion, set back the pro-life movement in this country at least 15 years.

I also do not agree with her statements, which are far, far too extreme for me.

While I believe that abortion is a deadly assault on the most innocent and helpless in our society, and is the most egregious wrong and by far the greatest blight on America, ever, we don't have to place ourselves in as vulnerable position as children in the womb to achieve solidarity with them. I find her statements to be ridiculous. If I am in a situation where I have to defend myself in court or anywhere else, I will do so.

We can best defend the unborn by strengthening our situations, not weakening them. And we can win the war on abortion without making martyrs of ourselves.

[redgolum]

In my old hometown of Lincoln NE, there were a few crisis pregnancy shelters with a pro life Christian view. The people that run these places need our support and prayers.

[Coleus]

While there is so much to admire about Joan Bell, I do not now nor will I ever agree with operation rescue, which in my opinion, set back the pro-life movement in this country at least 15 years.>>

I prefer praying and praying the rosary.  It worked here:

Persevering Students Help Close Abortion Clinic

Salvation can probably post some other threads about abortion mills closing.

[NYer]

What a counterpoint to abortion clinics. One sends out children to families who will love them. The other sends out bags of torn up flesh to the dump.

Bears repeating!

Catholic Ping - let me know if you want on/off this list

[Smartass]

I AGREE...
In my opinion, "Planned Murderhood" should be jailed and put out of business.
Partial birth abortion goes way beyond rational decent comprehension.
Because, murder by any other name, is still murder.

[Casloy]

I'm still unclear on what the PING means and what list I am on. Please explain both.