On a clear day, you can see it 18 kilometres away. “You will probably be able to see it from farther once the new lighting is in place,” Dr. Joseph Lozinsky told The Interim.

The pro-life doctor is a trustee of the Knights of Columbus’s Saints Peter and Paul Ukrainian Catholic Council 11775 and the secretary of Millennium Cross Foundation, Inc.

In 1999, council 11775 was looking for a project to celebrate the new millennium in the town of Aberdeen, Sask. The town is located approximately 40 km northeast of Saskatoon. One of the council’s newer members, Joe Bayda, proposed that the council erect a giant cross in memory of the unborn victims of abortion. The Saskatchewan farmer offered to donate eight acres of farmland if the council would get behind the proposed project.

“It was the Holy Spirit who inspired this project,” Bayda shared. “I could not have come up with it by myself. I was looking outside my kitchen window on the farm. I was looking at this hill and had a dream that I should build a cross on that hill.”
After further prayer and reflection, Bayda felt the giant cross should be dedicated to the unborn victims of abortion. His brother Knights agreed. “We chose the unborn victims of abortion, because we think all life is precious and life begins at conception,” Bayda explained. “Would you kill your child at five years old? At one year old? Would you have killed the child when only a couple weeks’ old?”

So Bayda and the Knights felt it was important to erect a memorial to the most vulnerable, least defended human beings in our society. Bayda added: “We all have that responsibility. If we don’t take a stand, who will?”

Lozinsky said the project was constructed in various stages. “In 1999, we erected a 33-foot cross out of hydro poles. In 2000, there were pilgrimages to the site where the people have a living Rosary each year.”

A living Rosary is a Catholic devotion in which each person takes a turn reciting the Our Father or Hail Mary. Lozinsky said the living Rosary usually takes place on the last Sunday of September.

Last year, the Rosary took place on Aug. 27 because the 33-foot cross was replaced by a 100-foot steel cross. The bishop came for the official opening and blessing.

The new cross – 100 feet high and 42 feet across – weighs 51,000 pounds, believed by Lozinsky to be the largest in Canada. It is sustained by council 11775, other local councils and private donations.

When asked whether the council made the right decision in erecting this cross to the unborn victims of abortion, Lozinsky answered: “Pro-life is one of the activities we support as Catholic Knights. We are not pro-death. We are in support of life.”