Worthy Knights all…..

 

At the end of 2008 at a meeting not unlike this one… I’m sure many of you were present… Tom McGahey gave his initial presentation regarding Room at the Inn.

 

He left that meeting excited after a standing ovation and near unanimous vote that the North Carolina Knights of Columbus would pledge over $1M to build the first college-based, residential maternal care center in the nation. 

 

Here, over a year later, I’m here to let you know where we are at and what’s left to do.

 

For those of you that are not aware of what Room at the Inn does or what they stand for, let me give you a 30 second summary.

 

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They are a Catholic Ministry that supports women with unplanned pregnancies here in North Carolina.

 

They just celebrated their 15th anniversary and in that time the have housed over 400 women and have supported 3000 others with counseling, pre and post natal care, daycare, training and material support. 

 

They make a substantial 2 year commitment to a woman with the goal of developing her into the confident, self-assured and self-reliant head of her household.

 

The most common critique you’ll hear made about us pro-Lifers is that all we care about is saving that baby from the mill but as soon as she is safe we leave her to fend for herself, often in abject poverty, often without the support of her family or the father of her child that would have preferred she had the abortion.

 

And they are often right!  Even our Supreme Knight, Carl Anderson, in this last issue of Columbia magazine, while discussing the Knights ultrasound machine initiative acknowledges that showing mom and dad their baby and convincing them not to abort is the easy part, it’s the support for that family after they’ve made that life-altering decision that we must focus on.

 

That, my brothers, is what Room at the Inn does every day and they do it better than ANYONE ELSE IN THE COUNTRY (other Dioceses in looking to do exactly what Room at the Inn are already coming to Charlotte as they are the benchmark for this type of care…)

 

And now they want desperately to do it for many more women.  They want to expand their successful model to the college campus, where the statistics say women are most at risk of abortion. 

 

Our support, that we overwhelmingly committed to delivering, will enable them to do exactly that!

 

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So where are we at with our campaign.  Overall, Room at the Inn has raised $1.6M of non-Knight money and pledges.  All they need to break ground is for us to deliver on what we committed to at $1M and they can break ground on land that the monks of Belmont Abbey have donated.

 

Our goal is a $1M.  That averages out to $100 per man pledge paid over 5 years.

 

We’ve gotten pledges from 25 councils and have raised $130,000.   I’d like to specifically acknowledge a few councils.

 

The State Council at $35,000 was the first to pledge and have made their first payment.

 

6451 here in Hickory at 120% of their pledge goal and the first council outside of the state council to pledge.

 

9570 Here in Lenoir.  I mentioned this to them in a brief discussion during the Organization meeting in July and after their next business meeting we had a pledge at 100% of their commitment.

 

12537 Southport, NC…  Just North of Oak Island…  Made a council level pledge.

 

12654, 10852  St Matts and St Mark’s two of the largest councils in the state…  They are collecting individual pledges first and will hopefully close whatever gap they have with fundraisers

 

and of course 770, the first council in NC and the closest to Room at the Inn has overachieved based on the pledges of a couple knights including my own and they have just initiated a drive to get 100% of the membership pledged.

 

We at Room At The Inn offer you our heartfelt thanks and acknowledge your strong support of Life.

 

That leaves us of course with what we have failed to do…  We have not yet begun to fight!  98 other councils where we have no pledges and $820,000 left to hit our goal.

 

My friends, while we labor to raise this money, the enemy isn’t on the sidelines. 

 

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Some of you may have seen this….  Planned Parenthood is about to start the renovation of a building that will become the 2nd largest Abortion mill in the world.  The only one larger is in China…  It actually has a whole floor dedicated to late term abortions….   What’s more telling is where they put it….

 

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Right across the street from the University of Houston and it’s 28,000 college students.  It’s also right in the middle of 2 of the largest minority neighborhoods in Houston.   They know where the market is for abortion…  Where you find women without support and without hope…. without a choice… you find Planned Parenthood.  They know all too well where to market their “product”…

 

How do we respond as American Catholics to such an outrage?  We can voice our disgust…  We can sign online petitions…  We can write our congressmen… Perhaps vote for the pro-Life candidate in the next election (if there isn’t a more “important” issue……..) some of us might even go down to the job site and protest….  But it will still get built and they will still kill children and they will still ruin lives of those mothers and fathers to be… 

 

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Or we can build the “Michael J. McGivney Center for Life”.  A 20,000square foot residential facility dedicated to giving women hope and a real choice to that abortion.  We can build the first such ministry in the Nation and we can send a clear signal that we will just sit idly by and watch planned parenthood destroy life after life after life….

 

“But that center is in Houston!” you might say…  And our Center for Life will be the start of a national model for others to follow and, perhaps, when we have shown what can be done, the Knights of Houston will build another on the campus of the University of Houston!  We must be leaders, my brothers!

 

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Room At The Inn is commanding national attention…  They are recognized as THE model for the nation by Feminists for Life and by Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life, the foremost voice of the Catholic Church on pro-life issues.  They have been interviewed recently by National Review Online and EWTN.  We are getting donations from other states and other countries as they here the story.  

 

They WILL break ground with whatever money they have raised by October…  It is our job to make sure that what they build will be worthy of the work they do and will be at the scope they plan so they can serve as many women as possible! 

 

When they do break ground it will be a national event and we want to a big part of making it happen. 

 

 

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You can be a part of that in two ways…  You can make a council level pledge at the goal of $100/man paid over five years….  Or you can solicit individual donations from your membership, we’ve got a simple example for you to follow that is being used by 770 in Charlotte.  1 page with a simple and direct message from you their Grand Knight.  Whatever difference is left, that is the pledge your council can make.

 

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My brothers, an innocent child of God dies with every abortion we let happen.  350 times a DAY in our State…. 

 

It is not a question of IF our country, and we as citizens, will answer for the 50 million lives we have watched be slaughtered, it is only a question of what the price will be.

 

In the face of such a tragedy, the question to you and I will not be “What did you do?” it will be “Did you do everything you possibly could?”

 

So the question you as leaders must take back to your councils CAN NOT be “Should we fulfill our promise to Room at the Inn?” it must be “How do we get this done and done now?”

 

Please take your packages which include an introductory video to Room at the Inn, a two page summary, a sample pledge request and a brief pledge strategy.    Please do everything you can to make the Michael J McGivney Center for Life a reality.

 

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I leave you with a  quote that is carved in the stone of Union Station in Washington, DC.  Just two blocks from the Supreme Court..

 

“Let all the ends thou aimst at be thy country’s, thy God’s and truth’s…

 

Be NOBLE, and the nobleness that lies in other men,

 

sleeping but never dead,

 

will rise in Majesty to meet thine own”

 

Brother Knights, let’s build the “Michael J. McGivney Center for Life”.  Let’s be Noble and courageous.  Let’s lead this nation to a better way.

 

May God bless the Knights of Columbus and may he have mercy on our country.

 

Vivat Jesus!