I will be in Baltimore Saturday speaking at the Maryland State Knights of Columbus Banquet, to about 300 Grand Knights and Deputy Grand Knights. I consider it an honor to address this to important group of Catholic men, who represent the most faithful and orthodox lay members of the Catholic Church.
The Knights of Columbus
To become a knight, a man must be a practicing Catholic who believes in the truths of the Church and puts them into practice on a daily basis. As a knight, he takes an active role in the work of the Church by not only setting a good example in his community, but by doing charitable works and dedicating himself to spreading his faith to others.
But in times of great moral crisis, such as our society is in today—with rampant abortion, the proliferation of pornography and the infiltration of immorality into nearly every facet of our culture, with a fifty-percent divorce rate among Catholics as well as Protestants, with contraception corrupting our youth, Godless programs and classes in our schools, sex education replacing morality and decent behavior among teens, a myriad of anti-Catholic movies, books and plays perverting peoples minds against the Church and confusing large segments of society—with all this and more, the Knight is called to perform a special, sacrificial role. He must put on the armor of God and go out and fight.
The Knights Must Do More
In my talk to these select Catholics Saturday I will stress that we have been challenged to build a culture of life in an abyss or secularism that offers a culture of death. While the Knights of Columbus have from the beginning taken a special interest in restoring respect for the unborn—since the Supreme Court’s tragic miscarriage of justice in Roe v. Wade—it is clear that their actions have not been particularly effective. With 1.7 million Knights in this country, in more than 12, 000 Councils, it is surprising that abortion is still “the law of the land.” But it is.
My talk will be an effort to challenge these Knights not only to know the abortion issue inside out, so as to convince others of its destructive nature, but to learn and use the most effective means to fight abortion successfully on the streets, in the legislatures and before the courts. I will have lots of examples of our victories over the past 33 years.
I will strongly urge each of them to decide now to join activists in front of the abortion facilities, to take up necessary though difficult street work like prayer vigils, sidewalk counseling at the mills, giving pro-life talks, supplying local libraries with pro-life books and videos, and applying their particular talents in the cause of life. These Catholic men must be leaders in their communities if our society is every to turn from its rotten ways.
Real Knights Fight Real Dragons
Real knights didn’t just sit around the castle and debate and hold jousting matches. Real Knights left the round table to go on missions and fight dragons. And we have a monster roaming our country. Those who are hesitant to take on this fight have to remember the words Our Lord used time and time again to his Apostles: “Be not afraid.” This was the constant refrain of the late, great Pope John Paul II.
Those are some of the things I plan to trot out on Saturday night in Baltimore. Then I’ll make a mad dash for the door and leave town, letting the locals who invited me to handle complaints and get on with the Opus Dei: the work of God. Say a prayer.
Visit Action News on Monday to learn whether the talk was well received, or whether I was ridden out of Baltimore on a rail.
