Pete Vere
Senior Writer

Nineteen years ago, Richard and Evelyne St. Denis felt God calling them to become more active in Canada’s right-to-life movement. Richard, who had been the Sudbury (Ontario) Francophone representative to Development and Peace for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie, says, “Through Development and Peace, I became conscious of dying babies in the Third World and this got me thinking of babies dying right here in the First World. There they were dying because of poverty and famine, but here we were killing them in the womb.”

Richard had entered this thought into his diary. For six years, he mulled it over while working to end Third World poverty. “Finally, the calling became too strong and I left Development and Peace to become more active in the pro-life movement,” he states.

In the days leading up to this big decision, Richard discussed this pro-life calling with his wife, Evelyne. The more she prayed about it, the more enthusiastic she felt.“I encouraged Richard to go in a pro-life direction, not only because I was against abortion, but because this was something we could do as a couple and as a family,” Evelyne says. Family is very important to the couple – they have eight children and are currently expecting their third grandchild – and they recently celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary by hosting a pro-life fundraiser.

Richard’s anti-poverty activism had involved him in making presentations to French-speaking Catholic parishes throughout the area. At his first Sudbury Right to Life meeting, he noticed an absence of Francophone involvement within the local right-to-life movement. “There was only one other French-speaking person doing pro-life work in Sudbury – a community where Francophones represented 30 per cent of the population,” Richard says.

He and Evelyne formulated a plan. They would spend their first year with Sudbury Right-to-Life becoming more informed about pro-life issues, then, drawing upon Richard’s organizational experience, they would start a French-speaking pro-life organization. A year later, Respect de la Vie was founded. Fifty-two people showed up for the inaugural meeting, which had been advertised through church bulletins and word-of-mouth. “From that initial group, about a dozen active volunteers stepped forward,” says Richard.

The couple were adamant that all pro-life activities carried out by Respect de la Vie begin with group prayer. “It’s the only way to get results,” Richard explains. Their meetings would open with the recitation of the Rosary, a popular devotion among French-Canadian Catholics. The group dedicated their mission to Our Lady of Guadalupe - the Catholic church’s patroness of children in the womb. “Our Lady of Guadalupe is a powerful image,” says Richard. “Mary is visibly pregnant with Jesus and it is under this image that many babies have been saved.” Respect de la Vie organized several pro-life public processions in honour of Our Lady of Guadalupe and the unborn baby Jesus.

Respect de la Vie would gain
a dozen new members over the next four years.

Between the birth of their fifth and sixth child, Richard and Evelyne felt God’s call to pass Respect de la Vie to new leadership. Their oldest were reaching their teens and the couple felt a need to spend more time at home, in prayer and with their children. The family moved to a farm about an hour outside of Sudbury.

That spring, Richard took Evelyne to Guadalupe for the couple’s wedding anniversary. Seeing the miraculous image was the highlight of their pilgrimage. “We had been trying to get in for four days,” Richard recalls, “but only made it on the day of our wedding anniversary. I cannot explain how I felt – it was like a high.”

Ten years ago, the couple became active with Show the Truth. Their fourth child, Justin, had been questioning the family’s involvement in the pro-life movement. “He grew up in the pro-life movement, but never understood our dedication to this cause until he came across a picture of an aborted child,” says Richard. This encounter convinced Richard and Evelyne that images can often work where young ears have been deafened to the pro-life message.

“Show the Truth forced me to confront the reality of abortion,” says Evelyne. “It’s hard to forget a poster of an aborted child. But this must be accompanied by prayer. We don’t stand alone and hold up posters. During the hour-and-a-half of silence, we pray for the people who will see these posters. We pray that these people will have a change of heart.”

(On a personal note, this writer’s wife was converted to pro-life before we met when she saw one of  Evelyne’s graphic posters. She immediately renounced her pro-abortion views and two months later was herself showing the poster to a friend contemplating an abortion. Her friend decided to keep the baby.)

Janelle, the St. Denis’ fifth child, is one of the family’s most enthusiastic supporters of Show the Truth. “Janelle was eight years old when we did our first summer mission with Show the Truth in southern Ontario,” Richard explains. “Janelle ended up in the Windsor newspaper. The next month, she was interviewed by CBC radio. Since that summer, she would not let our family miss a Show the Truth mission.”

Richard and Evelyne’s pro-life activity came full circle this past May. Richard was elected president of Sudbury Right to Life. “We’re a sister organization to CLC Sudbury. We focus on education, whereas they focus on political action.”

The couple are happy to see more French-speaking pro-lifers get active. “Around the table, there are now as many Francophones as Anglophones,” Richard says. “Language should never be a barrier to defending the unborn.”

Evelyne says, “We must continue to do what we have to do to inform people about the truth of abortion,” she said, adding: “The majority of people are not pro-abortion. They’re indifferent because they don’t know any better. If they knew the truth about abortion, they would become pro-life.”