Feast of the Immaculate Conception

Today, as the Church celebrates the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, MaterCare International gives thanks for the protection of Our Lady over mothers, families, and all who serve them.

This day also holds deep personal meaning for our founder, Dr. Robert Walley. Baptized on this day, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Dr. Walley’s life and mission rested under Mary’s maternal care from the very beginning.

A courageous obstetrician, husband, father of seven, and tireless defender of the dignity of mothers and unborn children, he devoted his career to what he called “the work Christ Himself would do for mothers in need.” When pressured to perform abortions in the United Kingdom, he refused, believing that a physician’s duty is to protect both mother and child. That choice cost him his career in the British system, but it lit the path forward to a global mission.

“I am what I do. If I do not, I am not what I am.”

These words, often repeated by Dr. Walley, were not a motto, they were his way of life. He didn't like words without action. Inspired by the Mother of God’s fiat, “Let it be done to me according to your word”, he believed that authentic faith must act, serve, and sacrifice for love.

Like Mary, he said yes, not perfectly nor without cost, but with trust.

Leaving England for Newfoundland, founding MaterCare International, advocating for the poorest mothers in Africa, building life-saving maternity projects in Kenya and Ghana, responding to earthquakes and war zones, his entire mission rested on one conviction: Mary shows us how to serve mothers and leads us in saying, "Do whatever He tells you."

Wherever MaterCare serves, we follow her lead:

• protecting life, not discarding it

• serving mothers, not abandoning them

• honoring their dignity, not reducing them to ideology or statistics

  
  

Dr. Walley believed that Mary’s motherhood reveals the true meaning of medicine and the vocation of motherhood: to give, to guard, and to bring hope.

O Mary, conceived without sin, Mother of the One who is Life, Watch over all mothers, especially those who give birth in danger, fear, or poverty. Grant strength to all who care for them, that our work may reflect your love. Through your intercession, may MaterCare continue this mission faithfully, serving every mother with dignity, compassion, and courage. Amen.

This Advent, in the 30th year of MaterCare's service, may we honor Dr. Walley’s life not only in memory, but in mission. In every prayer, every act of generosity, and every effort to protect mothers, we echo the same “yes” that Mary and Dr. Walley lived: a yes that builds a culture of life.

Immaculate Mary, Mother of Mothers, pray for us.