by Laurence D. Behr, Esq.
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 not-for-profit New York corporation, was formed in Buffalo, New York. The founders include myself, and, as I am president of Western New York Lawyers for Life, a number of other pro-life attorney members of that group, including two past presidents of the Erie County Bar Association. Other founders include the Jesuit pastor of a church in downtown Buffalo, a deacon of the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo, and several Catholic lay leaders. Funds for this vast undertaking are being received through our Web site, which accepts major credit cards, and where information for making mail, telephone and stock donations is to be found as well (click here).
As described in detail in our Prospectus, the Association’s purpose is to build a truly world-class, globally significant shrine, proposed to be located on the western shore of Lake Erie adjacent to downtown Buffalo. The shrine will feature primarily a monumental, ascendable, golden triumphal arch, 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 that height, it will replace the Gateway Arch in St. Louis MO, which is 630 feet high, as the world’s tallest monument.
It was not our intention to surpass the height of the Gateway Arch, and we are confident that it will not lose its great allure or importance in the least, by our doing so. Nor were we aware of its status as the world’s tallest monument (no other taller structures, including the Eiffel Tower at 984 feet, are monuments). However, we do appreciate that 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 shrink from nor apologize for the frankly “triumphalist” character of our Project. For too long, and with too much success, have all the forces of civil society conspired to suppress and eradicate all sense of triumph from among the People of God. It is good now for the world to witness 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.
Great churches and shrines the world easily ignores in its materialistic complacency and “practical atheism,” as Pope John Paul II terms it. Inspired preaching and teaching by radio and television are dismissed with a click of a button. As our Advisory Board member Fr. Frank A. Pavone 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.” (To view Fr. Pavone’s entire message, and other statements by national Catholic leaders supporting our Project, click here).
Origins of Our Project
The inspiration for this Project began with a dream I had in September 2000, after reading an article entitled “The Pastoral Importance of Shrines,” in the August issue of The Holy House of Loreto, by Brother John Samaha, S.M. (Brother Samaha, a past co-president of the Mariological Society of the United States, avidly supports our Project). I have always felt obliged to disclose the dream origin of this Project, but have never asked anyone to believe in the dream as inspired from above, only to believe in the Project’s own merits. However, it is certain that God does use our dreams to communicate with us, to inspire and motivate us, and for other purposes. One need not read far in Scripture to find proof of this, and in modern times famous examples abound as well, possibly the best known now being the inspired dreams of St. John Bosco.
This dream was of a stone church in a beautiful green setting, having a golden statue of Our Lady set in a niche in its front. As I approached on a stone-paved path, I met a woman who said to me, “This is the Shrine of the Golden Arch of St. Mary.” I saw also a golden statuary grouping of the Holy Family, and then awoke, asking myself, why an arch for St. Mary? Thinking then that She enjoys the title, Gate of Heaven, because Christ entered the world through Her (and because we may go to Christ through Her, as taught by the story of the Wedding Feast at Cana), and thinking that an arch is a gate, I recognized that an arch would be a proper construction for a tribute to Mary. I then began investigating the possibility of constructing a great, monumental arch to honor Our Lady in fitting fashion. That Mary enjoys also the titles, House of Gold, and Ark of the Covenant (see Litany of The Blessed Virgin Mary); and, the passage in Psalm 45 that the Catholic Church believes refers to Mary, the Bride of the Messianic King, “The queen stands at your right hand, arrayed in gold of Ophir,” confirms for me that a golden color is proper for a triumphal arch honoring Mary.
After a time, it became apparent to me that such an arch, necessarily, would be a triumphal arch, and that it must be known as the Arch of Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. However, from the first day, it was my inspiration to place a shrine of the Holy Innocents beneath the arch, to proclaim to the whole world our unbending commitment to pursuing legal protection for the unborn. As president of Western New York Lawyers for Life for the past decade, and its principal founder, I could devote myself to a religious Project of such magnitude only if it would also draw the world’s attention to the sad plight of abortion’s innocent victims. The pro-life movement 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.
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 called The Queen City, which could also be an image of the New Eve: a Queen seated on a throne and crushing the head of a serpent under her foot (see photograph in Section II of our Prospectus). This is little known in Buffalo, and was brought to my attention only in recent months.
A national fundraising campaign was launched with a half-page ad in the August 5 National Catholic Register, and we are placing ads in other strategic publications at this time. On August 16, an interview with me on the subject was broadcast repeatedly worldwide on EWTN Global Catholic Radio (the interview can be listened to on our home page, www.ArchofTriumph.org).
Endorsements by National Leadership
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 beloved and prophetic Pontiff, Pope John Paul II, has won for it the support of a distinguished National Advisory Board and numerous additional endorsements by national Catholic, and other religious and pro-life leaders. Excerpts from many of their supporting letters, and the entire letters as well, may be viewed on our Web site, www.ArchofTriumph.org.
These experienced leaders firmly believe, as we do, in the great value of shrines as instruments for the spiritual renewal of individuals and society. The special character of this shrine, including as it does a beautiful monument of vast proportions, moves it into that rare category of culture-shaping architecture, shared by only a handful of edifices in each quarter of the globe.
The response from the Evangelical Christian community has also been heartening, notwithstanding the focus on the Mother of Christ. A frankly appreciative article appeared in the August issue of the local Evangelical newspaper, The Word (to read click here), and several prominent local pastors have expressed their support. Rev. Johnny Hunter, founder of LERN, Inc., and an Advisor to Human Life International, has agreed to be on our Interdenominational Advisory Board, for which we seek additional members.
Opposition
Perhaps just as indicative of this Project’s great promise as the unanimous support of the leadership of the Pro-life Movement, is the fierce and intemperate opposition we have received from “pro-choice” persons in the Buffalo area (to read my reply to our critics, click here). We expect this attack to be continued on the national level as recognition and support for the Project grow. Locally, a repeated refrain has been that there are more worthy uses for the money our Project will cost, such as the world’s starving multitudes, education for the poor, etc. anything but a religious monument. These critics echo Judas’ criticism of Mary Magdalene, as she anointed the feet of Our Lord with costly nard: “This ointment could have been sold and the money given to the poor.”
These same critics are mute, however, when hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on sports arenas; of course, because they care about the poor no more than Judas did. It is our belief that great shrines build and promote the Christian faith, without which this world would plunge again into the darkness of paganism. Paganism was notable not for mercy and charity, but for cruelty and barbarity such as we see increasing in these days. We believe, as do our many supporters among both the Church’s national leadership and its general population, that this shrine holds tremendous promise for building the faith, encouraging a renewed commitment to traditional Christian values, and awakening interest in the things of Heaven.
The Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
This grand triumphal arch will hail the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which Mary predicted 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 Lucia, Blessed Jacinta and Blessed 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. (For succinct details of Mary’s Fatima apparitions and messages, see The Story of Fatima.)
The mystery of God’s plan in bringing His Son’s Blessed Mother to the fore in recent times (Pope Paul VI said that the Marian Era began with Her apparitions to St. Catherine Laboure in 1830, click here to learn more), probably cannot be fully penetrated. A few reflections on it may, however, be safely stated.
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. 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. 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, like Abraham the “man of faith,” overcoming the strongest natural impulses, Mary offered her divine Son to God.
The coming Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary may therefore 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 His mission as none else did. United with Him in His final agony as no other was (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.
International Shrine of the Holy Innocents and Holy Family Monument
Directly below the Golden Arch of St. Mary, The International Shrine of the Holy Innocents (described more fully in the Prospectus), 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 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.
“A Signal to the Nations” (Is. 11:10)
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 great 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 effectiveness for its profound spiritual messages.
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 also uniquely extolling the near-forgotten virtues of purity and holiness.
This awe-inspiring and exciting Project, 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.
The Arch of Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and International Shrine of the Holy Innocents will likely cost in the range of 100 million dollars U.S. We firmly believe, however, that in the United States and Canada alone, there are certainly at least a million faithful people, who long for a renewal of respect for the sanctity of human life, and for society’s return to sound morality. We further believe that these faith-filled people will gladly each sacrifice $100, a smallish sum today, and some even much more, as God calls and enables them, to help realize these goals and to demonstrate their deep love and devotion for Jesus and Mary.
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 children of Mary as a united hymn of praise for our Maker, in thanksgiving for the gift of His Son, which we received only through the faith and obedience of His Blessed Mother, and for the great and sacred gift of Life, itself.