Monsignor Philip Reilly, founder of the Helpers of God’s Precious Infants, died at age 90 on November 30, 2024 after spending more than 50 years on the sidewalks in front of abortion clinics — mainly in his native Brooklyn, New York — bringing a message of life and hope to abortion-bound women and men.
Msgr. Reilly developed a particular approach to his outreach to those seeking abortion. He gathered a prayer group as support at the clinic, and remote pray-ers at home, in convents and in nursing homes, praying for the lives of the mothers and babies at risk at the abortion clinics. He truly loved those he encountered on the sidewalk. With a winning smile and a kind word, he invited those he called “Mom” and “Dad” to talk to him about why they thought abortion was their solution. With amazing frequency, after a conversation with Msgr. Reilly, a baby’s life was saved.
Msgr. Reilly founded a movement he called the Helpers of God’s Precious Infants. He handed rosaries to the men and women he met in front of the clinic, and they thanked him. He assembled a prayer book with Scripture passages, hymns and the mysteries of the Rosary.
In 1997, my late husband Joe and I, along with a group of pro-life activists from Chicago, traveled to Brooklyn to learn from Msgr. Reilly. He stressed the importance of prayer and fasting in this life-saving work and the need to bring a sense of calm with you to the clinic. It was clear that he truly cared about whoever he was with, whether it was the sisters at the Precious Blood Monastery where he lived and whom he served as chaplain, pro-life activists he was training, or the troubled mom heading for an abortion.
We were blessed to know and work with Msgr. Philip Reilly. May he rest in peace and enjoy the eternal reward he so richly deserves.
[Editor’s Note: Monsignor Philip Reilly is pictured above in 1997, along with Sister Dorothy Rothar, Pro-Life Action League president Ann Scheidler (the author of this post), and Pro-Life Action League founder Joe Scheidler (1927-2021).]
