Knights need to be a witness for life

I wrote the following for the Montana State Council of the Knights of Columbus newsletter.

Where do we stand as far as putting our faith into practice, not only in our church attendance, but in all that we do as Knights? I bring this up because of recent events related to Council 140 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Members of the council become members of the Casey Home Association which owns the Casey Function Center, which is basically the KC Hall. Note the pun Casey=KC? All sounds good so far.

In May, it became known that the Casey Function Center had entered a rental agreement to NARAL Pro-Choice (National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League) for a fund raising event. After some concerns were raised, the Casey Function Center canceled the contract. While this part of the story sounds like a good ending, one needs to ask how this rental agreement happened in the first place.

But, let's look at the rest of the story. It appears that the current president of the Casey Home Association is upset that they were required to cancel the contract. Remember that he is a member of the local council. He is now attempting to sever all ties between the local council and the Casey Home Association. After he accomplishes this separation, he plans on leaving the Knights of Columbus and maybe even the Catholic Church. If the Casey Home Association is made up of members of the Knights of Columbus, how can this happen?

What is happening to the Church? As Knights, we are called to defend the Church. We are called to be witnesses in the world to the sanctity of life from the moment of conception until natural death. For some reason, we've gotten in our minds that we can be personally opposed to something which is evil, but allow, or even sometimes promote, evil in our society. We can not allow society to control who we are as Catholics. We need to be transforming society.

In the vision of the president of the Casey Home Association, it is not Christian if the organization does not rent to anyone regardless of color, race, or creed. I do not believe that color or race should prevent us from allowing a group to use our facilities. But, if they profess something that is completely at odds to what we believe as Catholics, we need to take a stand. It is not Christian to allow evil to take over our society.

Perhaps this is a good time for each of the councils in Montana to take a look at the policies which exist concerning their ties with their halls, and their rental policies. If the policies would allow anyone to question our total support for live, perhaps it is time for us to rework those polices before we end up in a sitituation like that of Council 140 in Portsmouth.

Until next time may God bless you. Vivat Jesus