I am a Knight of Columbus and can sincerely say that one of our greatest blessings at present is our Supreme Knight, Brother Carl A. Anderson. Mr. Anderson, who lives in the U.S., is an eloquent and fearless supporter of pro-life and true marriage. In the October issue of the Columbia Monthly Magazine, he wrote a beautiful article entitled, “Serving the Cause of Life and Marriage.” I would like to present the entire article, but it would be too long for The Interim. So, I have decided to simply quote some of the more striking paragraphs.
“Today, we live in a secular world, in which the institution of marriage, and even human life itself, are under daily assault and we Knights will not rest until the legal assault on traditional marriage has been defeated and the culture of death has been replaced by the culture of life.”
“At this moment in history, we Knights have no higher calling than this. We must fight for laws that unconditionally respect human life from the moment of conception to natural death. We must also continue to reach out to women who need both material support and personal help to bring their pregnancies to term. And we must continue to bring healing to women who have had abortions and now wrestle with the consequences of those tragic decisions.”
“We must take these beliefs to Catholic classrooms and parishes through the distribution of our pro-life literature and ‘Respect Life’ materials produced by the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities of the Catholic bishops. We must demonstrate our belief in the sanctity of life through greater participation in our International Day of the Unborn Child on March 25 – the Day of the Annunciation.”
“Surely, public officials should be careful in the matter of religious belief and the exercise of public duties. But the Catholic church does not put forward its teaching on abortion as a matter of belief. It teaches that protection of the innocent from intentional killing is a matter of justice. That it is arrived at by reason, not faith, and it is indispensable to secure the common good. And it relies on science for evidence that the life of a human being begins at the moment of conception. Catholics in public office who say they are ‘personally opposed to abortion’ have been remarkably silent about the basis of their view. It is time they tell us. Why is it that elected officials who speak out so often on the morality of many issues remain silent about the morality of abortion? Where is their moral leadership on this issue? It is time they tell women why they think that abortion is the wrong moral choice.”
“Catholics in public office who defend legal abortion will increasingly find themselves at the margins of the Catholic community. Today, they are no longer at the centre. As Catholics and Knights, our responsibility is to restore justice to unborn children and to build a culture of life.”
“We Knights must step up to the plate and make the defence of marriage a major public issue. Our lawmakers must know that this is not just another public policy matter. It is fundamental to our civilization. They must know that marriage, with its unique ability to provide for the growth, maturation and socialization of children, is a unique institution that must be protected by law.”
There are many other paragraphs that I would like to repeat, but space does not allow. Thank you, Supreme Knight, for your powerful example.
