This is Phyllis Avila.  It is very fitting that the above portrait graces the wall of the former “procedure room” at 827 Webster Street in the office that is now known as the ArchAngel Raphael room.

This same picture is in Anne Koehl’s office next door in the Women’s Care Center .  (Here is a picture of the two buildings, Abortion and the Annunciation.  This post concludes with a snapshot of Phyllis’ portrait in the Raphael room.)

Phyllis Avila was the leader of Fort Wayne’s once preeminent pro-life group, Nurses Concerned for Life.  Many of the “greats” in pro-life history in the Fort were active with “the Nurses” one way or another in the late 70’s and into the 90’s -  including the other Phyllis, that fine lady of the Fort, Phyllis Morken.  (The same can be said of the younger pro-life activist, Anne Koehl.)

The Institute will present more on the interesting history of the Nurses at a later date.  We presented some on this topic during our initial launch.  Click here for that background-revealing post:  Religious Ceremonies to Take Place on Former Abortion Clinic Site

As stated, Phyllis is a heroine of pro-life activism in the Fort.   Her husband Frank, who yet fights the good fight (he marched in DC and the Fort both two weeks ago!) credits Phyllis’ sad and untimely death to the nuisance suit filed against Nurses Concerned by no other than Susan Hill and the Womens Health Center — located at 827 Webster Street.

Dear Phyllis and her six co-Defendants, all nurses, had the audacity to stand outside 827 Webster Street offering alternatives to abortion soon after that building was pressed into the services of the Culture of Death.

The Nurses presented a life affirming alternative to the “services” that made Susan Hill one rich feminist.  So this cold hearted and pro-abortion feminist did what any cold and hard businesswoman would do … she sued her female competition — hoping it would drive them out of existence. 

It was a nuisance suit that was quite devoid of legal foundation.  Hill is well known for filing such actions.   The federal court in Fort Wayne has a history of giving them far too much credence. 

The Nurses were thus among the very first pro-life activists to be so sued.  They were on the front lines of the emerging sidewalk counseling efforts, on the front lines of the emerging crisis pregnancy center efforts and among the first to suffer from frivolous and federal  pro-abortion litigation tactics.

The pressure put upon this mother of many and wife of one by the Culture of Death put Phyllis in the grave at midlife.  The Avila children, Frank, Fort Wayne and the pro-life movement lost so very much when Hill’s lawyers and their frivolous legal harassment took Phyllis from us. 

May God visit justice upon them, one and all.     God have mercy on us all!

Phyllis’ funeral was an ecumenical event that took place at the Cathedral in Fort Wayne.  The place was packed with friends, family and pro-lifers.  A young anti-Catholic man attended, putting aside his great dislike for the Catholic Church out of respect for the work that Phyllis and the Nurses had been doing. 

That young anti-Catholic watched a senior Protestant Evangelical pastor go forward and receive Eucharist at Phyllis’s funeral.  The young anti-Catholic was shocked and dumbfounded. 

He later asked this dean of Evangelicalism how and why he could so risk his own soul by receiving Catholic communion, and was told (1) out of respect for Phyllis, (2) out of respect for the Catholic Church, and (3) that he, the young anti-Catholic, had much to learn about ecumenism and respect for his Christian brethren in the Catholic Church.

That dean of the Evangelical Church in Allen County will remain unnamed.

That anti-Catholic young man was the Executive Director of the ArchAngel Institute, aka “me”, Bryan J. Brown.

I like to think that I have learned much about ecumenism and the Catholic faith since I last said goodbye to Phyllis.

It is an honor to display her portrait in the Raphael Room, scanned on a scanner that her husband, Frank, donated and personally delivered to the Institute.

Thank you Frank and Phyllis.  (For being excellent role models.)  The good people of Allen County love you.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 9th, 2008 at 4:35 pm and is filed under Battles past, Lent 2008, Open House 2008, Raphael, This old clinic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.