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The Arch of Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and
International Shrine
of the Holy Innocents
BY LAURENCE D.
BEHR, ESQ.
Our
Purpose
In January 2001, the first
month of the new millennium, The Association for The Arch of
Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and International Shrine of
the Holy Innocents, a nonprofit corporation, was formed in
Buffalo, New York. The founding directors include the author (an
attorney, and president of Western New York Lawyers for Life), other
Catholic pro-life lawyers including two past presidents of the local
Bar Association, other local Catholic lay leaders, the pastor of a
Jesuit church in downtown Buffalo, and a deacon of the Diocese of
Buffalo.
Our aim is simple, yet awesome: to help “build the
Culture of Life,” by erecting a globally significant Marian and
pro-life shrine, on the eastern shore of Lake Erie adjacent to
downtown Buffalo. The shrine will feature primarily a monumental,
ascendable, triumphal arch of golden hue, The Arch of Triumph of
the Immaculate Heart of Mary, measuring 700 feet to the tip of
the golden Cross that will surmount its peak—seven being the mystical
number of perfection, as Mary represents the perfection of humanity.
At 700 feet it will be the world’s loftiest monument, a
distinction now claimed for the 630-foot Gateway Arch in St. Louis,
Missouri. While such was not our aim, erecting a monument honoring Our
Lord and His Blessed Mother, taller than the tallest monument of the
world’s greatest nation, implicitly will declare the truth, that the
government of God trumps the governments of this world. We do not
apologize for the frankly triumphalist character of our Project. For
too long, and with too much success, have the secularizing forces of
civil society conspired to eradicate all sense of triumph from among
the People of God. It is good now for the world to witness again the
depth of our faith in God, and be moved by the strength of our
commitment, and our firmness in believing that He will triumph, in
time and in eternity.
The world’s great religions and powerful countries,
alike, have always erected great shrines (nations may call them
monuments or memorials), because such possess unique power to convey
lofty messages that inspire, motivate and unify a people. Pope John
Paul II has spoken of Marian shrines as establishing “the geography of
faith and Marian devotion.” In our time of great waning of faith, as
evidenced by society’s widespread acceptance of abortion and
pornography, and increasingly, the practice of homosexuality, the
moment has come for a new and powerful, architectural affirmation of
faith in God and His governance.
Great churches and conventional shrines, the world
easily ignores in its materialistic complacency, or “practical
atheism,” as our Pope terms it. Inspired preaching and teaching by
radio and television, valuable as they are, can be dismissed with a
press of a button. As our Advisory Board member Fr. Frank A. Pavone,
founder of Priests for Life, has stated:
“One of the key characteristics of the Gospel
of Life is that it must be proclaimed publicly. The protection of
Life will not be achieved if the activities of the Church and the
pro-life movement are directed only to those who voluntarily seek
out the message. We need to stir the attention of the public to
these issues whether they want to hear about them or not.
“A sign as public and visible as the proposed Arch and Shrine will
certainly serve this purpose, as well as many other noble purposes.”
The great and evident promise
of this vast undertaking, for promoting the Culture of Life and the
New Springtime of the Church, so ardently hailed by our Pope, has won
for it the support of a distinguished National Advisory Board as well
as numerous endorsements by national and international Catholic
spiritual and pro-life leaders in addition to Fr. Pavone, including
Fr. Thomas Euteneuer, President of Human Life International; Mark
Miravalle, S.T.D., theology professor at Franciscan University of
Steubenville and a prominent Mariologist; Fr. Robert J. Fox, founder
of Fatima Family Apostolate and a leading Fatima authority; Judge
Daniel J. Lynch, National Guardian of the Missionary Image of Our Lady
of Guadalupe, one of our directors; and Fr. Matthew Habiger, O.S.B.,
past president of Human Life International and also a director of our
Association, who has written the author:
“Your project is . . . truly in keeping with
the great hopes of the new millennium. *** I believe that a massive
Arch of Triumph honoring Our Lady, and a Shrine of the Holy
Innocents, would do much to draw public attention to the evil of
abortion in our country. It would also demonstrate our great trust
in Mary’s help to overcome this great evil. It would inspire others
to become part of the pro-life movement.”
These experienced Catholic
leaders firmly believe, as do we, in the immense value of great
shrines as instruments for the spiritual renewal of individuals, and
society. The special character of this shrine, including a beautiful
monument of vast proportions, will move it into that rare category of
culture-shaping architecture, shared by only a handful of edifices in
each quarter of the globe.
Our
Origins
The inspiration for this
Project began with a dream the author had in September 2000, after
reading an article entitled The Pastoral Importance of Shrines,
in the magazine of The Holy House of Loreto. Its author,
Brother John Samaha, S.M., a past co-president of the Mariological
Society of the United States, has become an avid supporter and has
written an article explaining our spiritual antecedents. It is certain
that God does use our dreams to communicate with us, to warn or
admonish, to inspire and motivate us, and for other purposes. One need
not read far in Scripture to find proof of this—Joseph of Egypt and
St. Joseph are famous biblical dreamers, as are both St. Paul and
Pilate’s wife—and in modern times famous examples abound as well,
possibly the best known being the visionary dreams of St. John Bosco.
At all events, I found this dream most uncanny and
compelling. It featured a stone church in a beautiful green setting,
with a golden statue of St. Mary set in a niche in its front. As I
approached to inspect it, I met a woman who said to me, “This is the
shrine of the Golden Arch of St. Mary.” I saw then a golden statuary
grouping of the Holy Family, and awoke, asking myself, why an arch for
St. Mary? Recalling that Mary enjoys the titles, invoked in the great
Litany of Loreto, Gate of Heaven, and House of Gold, and that an arch
is a gate, I concluded that a golden arch would be quite fitting for
paying a great tribute to Mary. That Mary has also the title, Ark of
the Covenant; the passage in Psalm 45 that the Church refers to Mary,
the Bride of the Messianic King, “The queen stands at your right hand,
arrayed in gold of Ophir”; and indeed, , Mary’s depiction in
Revelation 12:1 as “a woman clothed with the sun,” further confirm
that a triumphal arch the color of gold, would be proper for honoring
Mary.
As I developed this concept and investigated its
feasibility, it became apparent to me that such an arch necessarily
would be a triumphal arch, and that it should be known as the Arch of
Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Our Association was formed
and on June 23, 2001, the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, we
announced our intentions publicly at a press conference in Buffalo’s
City Hall. It is noteworthy that the front of our City Hall bears a
personification of Buffalo, which is nicknamed “The Queen City,” that
could also personify the “New Eve”: a powerful Queen seated on a
throne, her foot crushing the head of a serpent, as Mary’s does on the
reverse of the Miraculous Medal, consistent with the prophecy of
Genesis 3:15 that the seed of “the woman,” Eve, would crush the head
of the serpent, Satan.
The
Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
This grand triumphal arch
thus will hail and commemorate the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of
Mary, prophesied by Mary at Fatima, Portugal on July 13, 1917, as
following upon Russia’s worldwide propagation of atheistic communism
(predicted by Mary prior to the Bolshevik Revolution of October 1917),
persecutions of the Church, and numerous wars of the 20th Century. At
that time, Mary told the three seers, Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco:
But in the end, my Immaculate Heart will
triumph, the Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, Russia will
be converted, and a certain period of peace will be granted to the
world.
Mary also revealed at Fatima,
that Jesus desires to make her more known and loved, and indeed, that
“God wishes to establish in the world, devotion to my Immaculate
Heart.” This is our great goal, then, to help fulfill the desire of
Our Lord Jesus Christ, that His Blessed Mother be known and loved
throughout the world.
The wonder of God’s bringing of Our Lady to the fore in
recent times—Pope Paul VI said that the Marian Era began with Her
apparitions to St. Catherine Laboure in 1830—cannot be overpraised. In
the deep wisdom of God’s plan of salvation, as Adam and Eve
collaborated in the Fall of Man, so a woman’s collaboration with His
Son shall restore the world to grace; our first parents’ united
disobedience, remedied by the united obedience of Jesus and Mary.
Church Fathers and Doctors, and its great saints to the present day,
have pondered and have written of this marvel. St. Louis Grignon de
Montfort himself predicted, over 100 years before the Marian Era:
"The power of Mary over all devils will be
particularly outstanding in the last period of time. She will extend
the Kingdom of Christ over the idolaters and Moslems, and there will
come a glorious era in which Mary will the ruler and Queen of human
hearts."
Mary’s virginal, stainless
Heart, especially created for this unique role, triumphed first at
Nazareth. There, vanquishing fear and doubt and with total faith, Mary
immediately accepted the Angel Gabriel’s perplexing message—“Be it
done unto me according to thy will.” Replacing Eve’s disobedience with
her complete submission to the will of God, Mary thus allowed Christ
to enter the world as its Savior. Her Immaculate Heart triumphed next
at Calvary where, again with perfect faith and overcoming the
strongest natural impulses (like Abraham, the “man of faith” who to
please God raised his knife against Isaac his only son), Mary offered
her own Divine Son to God, doing so in perfect union with His own
will, and self-offering.
The coming Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary may well either
coincide with, or perhaps in some manner presage, the Triumph of the
Sacred Heart of Jesus her Son, and of His Holy Cross, beneath which
Mary stood sorrowing as only a mother can. Mary joined in Christ’s own
self-offering as none else could, for she understood Him and His
mission as none else did. Thus having been united with Him in His
final agony (as foretold by the prophet Simeon at the Presentation,
who predicted, “A sword shall pierce through thy heart also, that the
thoughts of many hearts may be revealed” Lk 3:35), Mary will likewise
share especially in the Triumph of His Cross—for undeniably, it is her
Triumph as well.
The International
Shrine of the Holy Innocents
And Holy Family Monument
Due, no doubt, to my
involvement as president of Western New York Lawyers for Life, and in
defending pro-life demonstrators for the previous decade, it was my
immediate inspiration that there should be a shrine of the Holy
Innocents beneath the Arch of Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary,
to proclaim to the whole world the sanctity of human life. The
pro-life movement, and indeed the entire Church, has long seen a
correlation between the innocent babes slain by Herod in his effort to
kill Christ, and worldwide abortion, which threatens the death of
innocence itself.
The International Shrine of the Holy Innocents will
feature a large, central mural of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Our Lady’s
appearance in that personage to Blessed Juan Diego in Mexico City on
December 12, 1531, precipitated millions of Indian conversions to
Christianity, ending the Aztec practice of human sacrifice. Historians
reckon that the Aztecs sacrificed as many as 50,000 individuals
yearly, including one in five of their own children. Due to this
historic ending of the Aztec “Culture of Death” through Her
intervention, Our Lady of Guadalupe is the acknowledged Patroness of
the International Pro-Life Movement. Thus Pope John Paul II, preaching
before her image in January 1999, proclaimed:
“May the Continent of Hope also be the
Continent of Life! This is our cry: Life with dignity for all! The
time has come to banish once and for all from the Continent every
attack against life. Holy Virgin of Guadalupe, Queen of Peace, save
the nations and people of this Continent!"
The Holy Innocents Shrine
will center on a tall, pure white marble column supporting Mary, who
holds aloft the Infant Jesus as the coming Prince of Peace. Mary ever
presents her Son to the world, imploring that it heed her direction to
the wine servers of the Wedding at Cana: “Do whatsoever He shall tell
you.”
The site will include also a
golden-hued monumental statuary grouping of the Holy Family engaged
upon the Flight into Egypt, emphasizing St. Joseph’s role as Guardian
of the Redeemer, and Protector of the Holy Family. Just as King
Herod’s slaughter of the Holy Innocents threatened the life of the
Infant Jesus, so today’s world-wide abortion culture threatens His
ability to live in the hearts of His people, indeed, threatens
innocence itself. We must look ever more to Joseph for his protection
and intercession for the unborn, and to the Holy Family as a model of
life for all families.
The Location:
Chosen by Our Lady?
The east Lake Erie shore in
Buffalo, nicknamed “The Queen City” for her dominance of America’s
flour trade in the 1800’s, is an ideal location for a great shrine
honoring Triumph of Mary’s Immaculate Heart, in several regards.
Buffalo is the crossroads of the largest population centers in America
and Canada, which supports the international character of the shrine.
According to a recent survey of religion in America, conducted every
10 years by the Marist Institute, Buffalo has the highest
concentration of Catholics in America with nearly 60% claiming the
Catholic faith. It was the home of Fr. Nelson Baker, who in the 1930’s
built the National Shrine and Basilica of Our Lady of Victory (a title
clearly linked with Ouir Lady’s Triumph) in nearby Lackawanna NY,
following a lifetime of dedication to orphans and the poor.
Most important, perhaps, is
the clear possibility that Our Lady herself chose Buffalo for this
honor, just as she chose it as the place for her triumphal entry into
America, as Our Lady of Fatima. John Haffert, co-founder of the Blue
Army of Our Lady of Fatima, explained in his autobiographical book,
To Shake the World, written shortly before his recent
death, that in 1947 Cardinal Spellman would not allow him to bring the
Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima into the U.S. through New
York City. Instead, it was welcomed by the Diocese of Buffalo, and
Haffert had to route it into Buffalo through Ontario, Canada. “She”
entered on December 8, America’s patronal feastday of the Immaculate
Conception, thus Haffert states that the papers of the day reported it
as “the greatest event of the year,” and that it caused “the largest
traffic congestion ever recorded.”
The Pilgrim Virgin Statue Web
site.
www.pilgrimvirginstatue.com, states that 200,000 people lined the
streets of Buffalo. The statue was honored with great ceremony and
enthroned on a specially built altar at St. Joseph Cathedral, where
Bishop John O’Hara placed a golden crown upon Mary’s head. Clearly,
this was a triumphal entry into America, the world’s greatest nation.
At Fatima, the simple, faithful folk saw a need to erect a triumphal
arch for Our Lady above the small holm oak tree where she appeared.
What ought we not do, with our immeasurably greater resources, to
proclaim her Triumph to the whole world, more now than ever in need of
devotion to her Immaculate Heart?
“A signal to the
nations” (Is. 11:10)
It has been reported that
approximately 40% of visitors to conventional Catholic shrines are
non-Catholic. However, the sheer appeal of The Arch of Triumph,
not only for its enormous spiritual significance and its aesthetic
merits, but as a marvelous tourist attraction suitable for the entire
family, will draw millions of visitors annually, of all faiths, and of
no church affiliation at all, making possible an extraordinary
societal impact for its profound spiritual teaching.
Moreover, The Arch of Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
will rank among the man-made Wonders of the World. It is destined
quickly to become an international icon, boldly though silently
proclaiming the dignity and sanctity of human life, born and unborn,
while extolling also the near-forgotten virtues of faithfulness,
obedience to God, purity and holiness, and spreading devotion to
Mary’s Immaculate Heart as the sure way to Jesus her Son.
This awe-inspiring Marian shrine, therefore, will sound a global
signal call to repentance and conversion, to a renewal of
faith, and to ever-deepening respect for unborn human lives, and a
concomitant rejection of impurity, immorality and abortion. Mary’s
golden Arch of Triumph, truly stunning in its beauty, majesty and
splendor, will quietly call hearts to again admire and long for
fellowship with our awesome Maker; it will “cultivate … a sense
of God’s beauty revealed in Mary,” a requisite for Marian
shrines stated in a Vatican instruction letter for the 1988 Marian
Year.
It is the spiritual sons and daughters of Jesus and Mary who, uniting,
will make possible this astounding tribute to Our Lady and Our Queen;
this unprecedented and bold initiative against the Culture of Death’s
encroachments upon the lawful domain of the Culture of Life, and
Civilization of Love—which is this world, created by God
and found by Him to be good.
How You Can Help
The Arch of Triumph of
the Immaculate Heart of Mary and International Shrine of the Holy
Innocents will likely cost in the range of 50 to 75 million
dollars US. However, it is certain that in the United States and
Canada alone, there are at least a million faithful people, and likely
many times that, who love Our Lady and who long for a renewal of
respect for the sanctity of human life, and for society’s return to
sound morality based on God’s law, as it must be. In fact, the
faithful from around the world are responding with great enthusiasm,
and we have ardent supporters in Canada and numerous overseas
countries. For us, the millions of Children of Mary, to make this
great tribute to our Queen, will be easily accomplished once the
common will has been formed to do so.
We are enlisting “Local
Liaisons for Our Lady” across the continent and the world. It requires
only a willingness to help spread the word and promote support in your
local community, to be one of our Liaisons. It is our cherished hope
and dream for The Arch of Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of
Mary, that it will rise from all the spiritual children of
Mary around the world as a united hymn of praise for our Maker, in
thanksgiving for the gift of His Son received through the faith and
obedience of His Blessed Mother, and for the great and sacred gift of
Life, itself.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* *
Donations for this sacred
undertaking are being received through the Web site,
www.marysarch.us, which accepts
all major credit cards and check accounts, and by mail at Arch of
Triumph of the IHM, P.O. Box 394, Buffalo, NY 14201 (make checks
payable to Arch of Triumph of the IHM). For more information call
1-866-205-6512.
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