People involved in Operation Rescue, and other prolife direct actions will remember Jim McWilliams. We received word today that he has died. We don't know how old Jim was, but he was not young.
The following is from Richard Cowden-Guido:
With deep sorrow I pass the news, learned this morning from Chris Bell,
that James Owen Patrick McWilliams has passed the vale.
A pampered child, James descended into alcoholism in his twenties, &
according to his own report, rose from it &, literally, a gutter, due to
the intercession of our Lady of Guadalupe.
Perhaps thus due to his grasp of the soul's fragility, he was a devoted
friend of the unborn for many decades. An early participant in rescues
where the children are killed, he was involved in some of the better
known efforts, as well as many less famous. He rescued in Atlanta in '88
and was one of only five who refused release after 40 days in jail there,
in his case because he would not guarantee he would return for trial. It
was in those months that Jim & I became close friends, through the three
daily rosaries we said with the many prisoners in Fulton County jails.
I believe he was also arrested in the brutal & valiant West Hartford
effort in '89, and know he was at Dobbs Ferry in '90, after which, along
with some 40 others, he refused to give his name on the grounds that the
state had no right to request it, or arrest him. He accordingly stayed in
Valhalla jail for more than four months, until finally the state
capitulated and released him & the others according to the terms he &
they established. That rescue remains the collective model outlined by
Joan Andrews's original '86-'88 witness in Florida, should by God's grace
& our response, rescue come to make its witness again. Should that
happen, it will do so sans one of its finest warriors.
At the moment I do not know how Jim died, nor the funeral arrangements.
McWilliams was unique, and colorful, as all who knew him can attest. He
was troubled, as who is not, by many temptations throughout his life, and
not least in his later years; accordingly Masses, and prayers for his
eternal soul to our Lady of Guadalupe, would be an act of charity to be
commended for his sake, and for ours.
Ex omnibus iniquitatibus ejus - RCG, 126
May Jim be resting in the arms of Our Lady of Guadalupe who says "No more struggles and no more pain."Look at who you were persecuted for. May the babies be welcoming Jim, too.
Posted by: Eileen Peterson | January 28, 2009 at 07:27 PM