Kalamazoo pro-lifers receive pro-life handbooks at the May 4 banquet
The Knights of Columbus have a long tradition of championing the rights of the unborn. Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s infamous Roe v. Wade ruling in 1973, the fraternal organization has published articles, produced literature, contributed financially to pro-life efforts and encouraged its members to be ambassadors for life.
On January 9, League National Director Joe Scheidler was invited to give the address at the reception and banquet of the Rosensteel Council of the Knights of Columbus in Silver Spring, Maryland. Joe used the event as an opportunity to speak on the urgent need for more activism from the Knights, particularly with the Obama administration aggressively pursuing a pro-abortion agenda. Joe’s remarks were well received by the Silver Spring Knights, many of whom pledged to spend time in front of abortion clinics.
Joe Encourages Pro-Life Collegians
The day before the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., Joe conducted a workshop at the Cardinal O’Connor Conference at Georgetown University. The Conference on January 21 brought together college students from all over the U. S. to learn more about how to spread the pro-life message on their own campuses. Brigid Bower from the Chicago area coordinated the conference.
Prior to their presentations, the conference speakers gathered in Philodemic Hall, the meeting space of one of the oldest college debate clubs in the country, decorated with portraits of Georgetown debaters over the years who went on to become senators, judges and entrepreneurs. Philodemic Hall is housed in Healy Hall, the beautiful 1879 Victorian building that is the centerpiece of the Georgetown campus—a fitting setting for the members of Georgetown’s pro-life club and the national pro-life leaders to engage in lively discussion of the pressing challenges facing both students and the larger society today.
Planned Parenthood on the Run
On April 26, Joe and I flew into Omaha, Nebraska, together, but while I headed east to give a sidewalk counseling seminar in Sioux City, Iowa, Joe headed west to Lincoln, Nebraska at the invitation of Sr. Veronica Volkmer. On Monday evening, Joe spoke to an intimate group of pro-life leaders and activists. The following day he addressed students from several area Catholic high schools at St. Pius X High School.
Following the school talk, Joe joined some students and adults to pray at the Lincoln Planned Parenthood abortuary. He visited the crisis pregnancy center next door, a well-appointed resource that had even provided a raised platform where sidewalk counselors can better speak to the women going in to the abortion clinic. Pro-lifers had recently learned that Planned Parenthood is soon moving to larger quarters, possibly to escape the effective pro-life presence there.
“We Few, We Happy Few”
On Tuesday, May 4, Joe gave the banquet address at the annual fundraising dinner for Kalamazoo Right to Life, a division of Michigan Right to Life. He began his talk with a quote from Shakespeare’s Hamlet: “The time is out of joint. O cursed spite that ever I was born to set it right.””
Applying the quote to the pro-life struggle, Scheidler turned the idea around, saying “O blessed spite” that we pro-lifers are called to set the culture right—a task the League assisted by providing a copy of Sharing the Pro-Life Message for every attendee at the banquet. The audience of four hundred gave him a standing ovation when he concluded his talk with a quote from Shakespeare’s Henry V: “We few, we happy few.”
