Parishioners of Corpus Christi in Waukesha, Corrine and Ben Flores (third and fourth from left, respectively) want to open a Mater Filius home for pregnant women and their children in need in Milwaukee. They are shown here with Mater Filius founders Jose Manuel (second from left) and Miriam (right) Tejeda, and Manuel Tejeda. (Submitted photo)
The name Corrine comes from the Greek word for “maiden.”
It is reflective of the words of Mary, the mother of Jesus, in the first chapter of the Gospel of St. Luke: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”
Corrine Flores and her husband, Ben, members of Corpus Christi, Waukesha, are taking the calling God gave through the Blessed Mother to build a new ministry in southeastern Wisconsin, Mater Filius.
They hope to open a comprehensive Catholic pregnancy support center in the Milwaukee area in line with a North American ministry by the same name. Their goal: to lead and guide young pregnant women through their transition into motherhood, showing them God’s love and Mary’s loving grace, Corrine Flores said.
Mater Filius, Latin words for mother and child, aims to provide housing, transportation, education, life skills and job assistance, health care, child enrichment and follow-up support once women and their children matriculate through the program.
“An area of need here in Milwaukee, and I think this is true in other places, is ‘What about moms? And helping women not just to keep their child and bring their child into the world, but also to raise their child,’” said Fr. Charles Luke, chaplain for Mater Filius and associate pastor of St. Robert, Shorewood, and Holy Family, Whitefish Bay.
“The idea behind Mater Filius is to provide a place, to provide a house where women can come, either women who are already mothers or women who are expecting, that they can have a safe space, a welcoming space, a place that’s going to support them and really help them to thrive.”
For Corrine Flores, it’s personal. She walked in the shoes of those pregnant women 22 years ago.
“I was 20 years old, pregnant and unwed, scared, anxious. I chose pro-life because I just felt in my heart it was the call from God, and I knew I wanted my baby. This mission is very important to me because I want to help the other 20-year-old Corinnes out there,” she said.
“I know what it feels like. I’ve been there. I know how scary it is. I know the stress that goes with laying in bed at night, just wondering what you’re going to do next.”
Flores said she leaned on the Blessed Mother to find those answers in her own life.
“I really think it was Our Lady,” she said. “I really think it was mama Mary helping me through the whole thing because I didn’t have anyone to show me anything. I just kept feeling prompted from the Holy Spirit.”
Flores fully entered the Catholic Church in 2008. A decade and a half later, God used the Blessed Mother to bring this ministry idea to her and Ben, all through a meeting at St. Stanislaus on Milwaukee’s South Side where she heard about Mater Filius, started in 2021 by a woman in Mexico City who said Mary used a near-death experience to call her to this ministry.
“I just listened and listened. I drove home thinking, ‘I think I’m supposed to be something with this ministry,” Flores said.
Initially, she thought it was a role similar to a doula, but she said God had a much bigger role planned for her and Ben that came nine months later through a question posed at an organizational discussion where they prayed the Rosary.
“‘Would you two want to be the executive directors?’ I kept looking at Ben and we just kept asking questions. At that moment in my heart, I knew that’s what the Spirit wanted,” Flores said.
“We’ve never done anything like this before. We’ve never had any type of position like this before. We have a young family where the other three executive directors in America are older. They don’t have young children. I was applying for graduate school. We were just like, “‘OK, Holy Spirit, you’re asking a lot right now. Can we do this? Can we be successful and help these women?’ And it just always felt like we were getting ‘Yes’ as our answer.”
Corrine and Ben’s dream from the Blessed Mother still needs some “yes” answers to make Mater Filius a reality and serve 10 or more mothers at a time in southeastern Wisconsin.
The couple has not yet secured a location for the ministry. They need to fundraise to provide salaries for staff and an early childhood teacher, along with the necessary supplies and food. They are asking for help in everything from mental health resources to gardeners. They need volunteers to help teach life skills, provide doulas, board members and so much more.
They ask for prayer support as well — particularly through what they call Sweet Love of Mary, a prayer calling for the sanctity of life to be upheld across the board.
“Sweet Love of Mary is all about not just pro-life for babies but pro-life for everybody too. That’s kind of what the whole mission is, is pro-life for everybody.”
Find out more about Mater Filius at materfiliusmil.org.
