MEMORIAM FOR JOHN MARCUS

October 24, 1946 — February 11, 2007

On Sunday, February 11, 2007, Catholic prolifers  lost John Marcus, a great Catholic leader in the Right-to-Life Movement who served God faithfully in  the Washington, D.C. and Maryland community.  John died peacefully Sunday evening after suffering for several years from kidney and heart failure and from other life threatening illnesses.  John now joins his lovely wife, Wendy, in Heaven.  His wife, another outstanding Catholic, had recently died from cancer. He is survived by his lovely daughter, Ginger.  John was from Prince Georges County, Maryland.

When the U.S. Supreme Court legalized the killing of the unborn in 1973, John started attending the March for Life for the unborn held each January 22nd.  John attended these marches from 1974 through 2007 including the last couple of years when he was gravely ill.  

In 1985 John became involved with what is known as "sidewalk counseling" outside the premises of abortuaries in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan area.  He counseled outside of many of the 30 or more abortion clinics throughout Washington, D.C. and Maryland.  His main focus was the Hillcrest Abortuary in Southeast, Washington, D.C. shown in the photograph above.  He began his work there in 1985 and faithfully showed up every Saturday morning at this Abortion Mill up until 2004 when he became gravely ill and was hospitalized.  This Abortion Mill was considered to be the largest abortion mill in the Metropolitan Washington, D.C. area and the mill was thought to have put to death 5,000 or more babies each year.  Shortly after his departure from his sidewalk counseling work in 2004, both Hillcrest Abortuaries in Southeast and Northwest Washington, D.C. mysteriously closed permanently.  God heard and answered the prayers of John and his prolife colleagues and shut down both these killing centers where thousands of unborn Washingtonians and Marylanders had lost their lives.

 John would routinely arrive at 8 a.m. every Saturday morning at the Hillcrest killing center to pray the rosary and to try to intercept the pregnant women who were going in for scheduled abortions.  Miraculously John got the attention of many women with his quick loving smile and his kinds words.  John would often say to the women, "What can we do to help?" or "You have a baby, don't let them take that baby from you."  Thousands of  women responded to his love and decided not to have their abortions.  John efforts outside this deadly Killing Center saved the lives of thousands of unborn babies. John would faithfully recite 15 decades of the rosary along with many other prayers while he was doing his counseling work on the sidewalk.  He knew that with God and the Virgin Mary's intervention many babies could be saved.

In his counseling efforts John would routinely walk onto the private property of the abortion center to try to reach the women with prolife literature and with his plea, "please do not hurt your baby."  The abortion mill employees would see John on the private property and call the police.  The police came often and threatened month after month and year after year to arrest John if he kept going on the property, but John never gave into their ungodly laws and thought it was more prudent to obey God and save a life, rather than yielding to the hostile police.  Miraculously, the police never arrested John for his Godly trespass.

On many occasions, Mr. Marcus would be confronted by the hostile boyfriends of the women seeking abortions.  He was both physically and verbally attacked by these boyfriends.  Several times he was thrown to the ground by boyfriends and by the opposition pro-abortion death-scorts who routinely harassed and intimidated Christians who were trying to save lives.  Fellow Catholics saw John cursed,  kicked, punched and  spat upon throughout this twenty years of counseling efforts. Although John was small in stature, he would never back down from any of the men who threatened him saying to his friends, "I just don't care, a baby's life is at stake." On one occasion he was threatened at gunpoint by a small gang of hoodlums who were trying to intimidate his prolife efforts.

Because the sin of abortion is a mortal sin, the sin of murder,  the women who turned from this sin because of John's efforts were turned away from the fires of Hell. Only God knows how many souls John saved by his saintly efforts.  On many occasions the women would come down and talk to John about their pregnancy.  John offered each one of the women a ride to the nearby Forestville Pregnancy Center where they would receive Godly counseling about giving life to their expected child. Because of his genuine love, many of the women trusted John and went with him in his car to the Pregnancy Center for counseling. 

John  kept close contact with the women that changed their minds about having an abortion.  He would call them up and visit them at their homes. He gave them on many occasions financial and material support such as baby clothes, a crib, pampers, etc. He went to the hospital with some of the women when they were giving birth and gave them his moral support.  He visited them at their homes after they had their babies to see if he could help them.  Many times when bringing the women to the Forestville Pregnancy Aide Center he would co-counsel the women along with the pregnancy aide counselor.  At the Pregnancy Center they would show the women that their was medical, financial and material help available that could be given to help them have their babies.

John always prayed the rosary when he was at the abortuary, many times praying while he was on his knees on the hard sidewalk.  He had a special devotion to Saint Therese of Lixsieux and would often petition her for prayer requests to save the lives of unborn children.  Saint Therese before dying said that "until the end of the world I will spend my Heaven doing good upon earth."  The fellow sidewalk counselors that worked closely with John knew that when he died  he would also make the same pledge as Saint Therese, that he would also spend his Heaven interceding to bring an end to the abortion holocaust and that he would continue to pray from Heaven that women would turn away from having abortions.

We ask for the intercession of Saint Therese,  that the lives of many unborn children would be saved today and in the weeks and months that follow.  We also ask our friend, John Marcus to intercede for the lives of the unborn and to join Saint Therese  in Heaven in doing good for those on the earth with the following prayer:

        
           Saint Therese, privileged Little Flower of Jesus and Mary, I approach you with childlike confidence and deep humility.  I lay before you my desires, and beg that through your intercession they may be realized.  Did you not promise to spend your heaven doing good upon earth?  Grant me according to this promise the favors I am asking from you: (Today and for the rest of this year, please turn women away from killing their unborn children, please guide them to have their babies.)  We ask our good friend John Marcus to also intercede for this prayer request through Jesus and Mary. Please shower us with roses from Heaven!  Amen!

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