Hope and Healing Ministries, a ministry of the Diocese of Davenport, indirectly began in April of 2004 when founder, Maria J. Shores attended a Rachel’s Vineyard weekend retreat for post-abortive women and men. 

Maria said she was healed in ways that she didn’t even know she needed.  After attending the retreat, Maria began organizing and developing a team to facilitate retreats for the local area.  With the help of Johnson County Right to Life and St. Wenceslaus Parish in Iowa City, Maria was able to purchase all supplies needed and offer scholarships for the first Rachel’s Vineyard retreat in Iowa on August 5-7, 2004. 

As participants went home and shared their experience of healing from the Divine Physician, word spread and the demand for the retreats increased.  As more retreats were offered over the course of the next few years, it became apparent that the retreats could no longer operate on a volunteer basis.  A full time staff was needed to keep up with the growing demands of the ministry. 

The Rachel’s Vineyard team served one hundred individuals from 2004-2006.  Seventy-five individuals or three out of four participants reported being sexually abused during their childhood.  A connection can be made between abortion and sexual abuse. 

Early in 2006, Fr. Robert Gruss, chancellor of the Diocese of Davenport, called Maria to see if there was any way to format the Rachel’s Vineyard Retreat in order to help those wounded from sexual abuse.  This phone call led to a partnership with the diocese. 

In May of 2006, the St. Vincent Home Corporation Board awarded Hope and Healing Ministries a grant of $250,000 to implement a program for the Diocese of Davenport that would not only provide ministry to those affected by abortion, but also a ministry that would reach out and bring healing to victims of sexual abuse in the Diocese.  Hope and Healing Ministries was established to provide the following: Project Rachel toll free hotline, a service to refer women and men wounded by abortion to counseling by trained professionals; Rachel’s Vineyard; and sexual abuse retreats. 

After intense research, the Hope and Healing Ministries board made the decision to provide Committed to Freedom, a retreat for sexual abuse survivors developed by Sallie Culbreth, a survivor.  For use in the Diocese of Davenport, this non-denominational retreat has been adapted for a Catholic environment to fit the needs of the Diocese.

Hope and Healing Ministries is committed to offering hope, healing, reconciliation, and the love of God to the many wounded by abuse.  We  believe that by the grace of God healing will transpire within the body of Christ through Hope and Healing Ministries.  As the work of this ministry evolves, please pray for it, the staff and volunteers, and join them in working together to bring peace to our families.