The League Directors were in Green Bay, Wisconsin Friday and Saturday to attend the annual fundraising banquet and auction of the A&A Alexandrina Crisis Pregnancy Center. It was a truly gala event with some 500 attending. Drew Mariani MC’d the event and I gave the main address.
Inspiring Green Bay Activists
In the afternoon Ann and I visited the center and again on Saturday morning when we discussed various effective activities we share with them, and on Friday evening while visiting the headquarters and the studios of Relevant Radio, we were invited to join Drew Mariani on his afternoon show, with a call-in. The main topic soon became the connection between contraception and abortion, and the conference we’re holding in September on that issue.
Also while in Green Bay, we spent time with Laura and Mike Ebert. Both are very active in pro-life work in the Menominee, Michigan area. They design and display exceptional pro-life billboards. Mrs. Ebert is the former infamous Laura Canning , who was the Director’s assistant when we both worked for the Illinois Right to Life Committee in the 1970’s.
Laura was famous for her ability to discern, long before others, the total dishonesty and hypocrisy of the secular press, and announced that they would become totally confused over the pro-life movement— which they never were able to understand— and would be caught off guard when the tables began to be turned in favor of a national anti-abortion movement.
Saturday’s meeting at the CPC with Director Lee Mayer, Barbara Bartolazzi, their own staff doctor, Amy, and about a dozen trained counselors at the center, was not only instructive but inspiring to Ann and me. The staff and volunteers are totally dedicated.
And they have a fine tuned operation. The abortionists in Green Bay are currently facing a 40-day round-the-clock `prayer vigil expected to draw hundreds of pro-lifers outside the local abortion mill in the City’s Medical Arts Building.
Thank You, Fr. Close
Rev. James Close of Mercy Home fame, Chicago’s own Fr. Flannigan, gets top billing on page one in Friday’s Chicago Tribune. Fr. Close is retiring after 33 years heading up Mercy Home, the 119-year-old orphanage known internationally for turning out fine young men, and now women, who come mainly from off the streets.
Our remembrance of Fr. Close is a warm one. When we were just getting started with the League, Fr. Close did all of our printing and mailing for three years, with us paying only postage, and he advised the League in fundraising, free of charge. In 1991 the League honored Fr. Close with the Special Service Award.
Twenty- two thousand young people have passed thorough Mercy Home, 9,000 while Fr. Close was in charge. He is our kind of priest. We had many happy visits to Mercy Home. It was right across the street from the Fanny May Chocolates outlet, so we also had some pleasant visits there, too. Fr. Close was honored at a special Mass on Sunday.
Big Mistake, Chicago Board of Ed
In the “throw a little gasoline on the fire to put it out” category is the Chicago Board of Education’s latest major step “forward” in children’s health, according to a David Mendell story in the Chicago Tribune. Their plan is to require that all students in sixth grade and beyond take a sex ed course covering birth control.
Not only does this kind of brilliance stoke the fires of stupidity, but will lead to an increase in promiscuity, STDs, unplanned pregnancies and abortions, but it turns our kids even more into sex objects and gigolos. But there’s no use trying to convince the Chicago Board of Education or even the Tribune writer that this is a dumb idea. They consider this plan to be “a huge victory.” Just ask Jonathan Stacks of the Illinois Campaign for Responsible Sex Education.
Oh, sure, they’ll maybe pay some lip service to abstinence, but the real message to the kids is “you’re too weak and stupid to act like responsible, moral, self-respecting human being, so here is how you can be what you really are, mindless rutting hogs.” That’s a victory? We must invite them to our conference in September. Think they’ll come?
