Author: Jim Venglarik
October is Respect Life Month!
October is Respect Life Month within the US Catholic Church. It is now time to prepare for your Council event(s) for the month. We're invited to reflect more deeply on the dignity of every human life. As leaders within the Catholic Church, we are called to encourage prayer and action within our parishes for positive change in the world. We are not only focused on the unborn this month, which is a critical and significant part of respecting life, but on all human life through various life stages and challenges from conception to natural death. The Knights of Columbus NC Life Program offers help for you and your councils to enrich your life agenda throughout the year. For October, we encourage and challenge you to conduct at least one Life event for your parish. It may be a prayerful, spiritual event, such as a special rosary before or after Mass on a Sunday in October, it may be a meager meal for parishioners to donate to help the persecuted Christians in the Middle East. You decide. But please, please, do something for Life in this special month! Would it not be great for KofC NC to have 100% participation with every council having at least one Respect Life event? There are many challenges to the respect for life throughout the US and the world today. You and your Council can make a difference!
For October, we are highlighting 3 different events for your consideration. Consider these and others you have in mind. Reflect on what will allow your council and your parish to most affect Life enrichment.
Conduct an event to raise funds for Supreme Program “Aid and Support After Pregnancy” (ASAP). This critical program, again for 2024-25, focuses efforts on providing donations of money and goods to assist new mothers and their babies once born. It is so very critical to extend support beyond pregnancy and encourage desperate mothers to bear their children knowing they have resources to help after birth, whether they choose to keep their babies or give them up for adoption by a loving family. As you have hopefully seen, your NC State Council has begun a campaign to raise funds from our parishes to support the new Room at the Inn Promise Center in Kernersville, NC. Please consider your part in this ASAP program…see THK for August for more information. Other thoughts: Collect donations through a baby bottle campaign for a local pregnancy center. Collect baby and child clothes, diapers, bedding, etc. for a local center in need. Remember that ASAP provides matching funds for the value of donated items to a pro-Life center. Hold a Spaghetti Dinner or Halloween party with proceeds for a pregnancy center. Contact NC Life Chairman Mark Furphy at furph22@gmail.com or Jim Venglarik at life@kofcnc.org for more information.
Arrange a Life Chain within your parish and community. October 6th is Respect Life Sunday and it is also Life Chain Sunday, the first Sunday in October. At the Life Chain, pray for people in crisis situations deciding on "Life", whether parents, health providers or legislators, that they make life-affirming decisions. A Life Chain is a peaceful and prayerful public witness of pro-Life individuals standing for 90 minutes praying for our nation, for support of all human life, and an end to abortion. Contact the National Life Chain at https://www.lifechain.org/ or NC Life Chairman Tim Will at twill1948@gmail.com for more information. if October 6th does not work for you, pick another Sunday in October or by year-end.
In September, your NC State Council will be sending out information for you to form your consciences for Faithful Citizenship…and VOTE in November…and influence others to VOTE! Our country and our society are under secular pressure and our Catholic protection of Life from conception to natural death is under attack. As an example, with the new abortion pills involved in more than 60% of US abortions, there were approximately 100,000 US abortions in January, 2024, on track to hit about 1.2 Million for the year 2024, a steady rise from about 865,000 at the low point in 2017. It is absolutely critical to “vote for Life” in our Federal and State elections. Please use the information sent in September to Grand Knights and Life Directors to educate your parishes to vote with an informed Catholic conscience. We must be unwavering Men of God, Men of Life!
God Bless you and thank you for your support for Life!
Vivat Jesus,
Jim Venglarik
KofC NC Life Director
Life@kofcnc.org