• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Effie Caldarola
          • John Garvey
          • Father Ed Dougherty, M.M.
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
  • CR Radio
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
Supreme Knight Carl Anderson, CEO of the Knights of Columbus, is seen in this screen grab Jan. 29, 2021, from the Knights of Columbus Supreme Council's YouTube channel. He was awarded the 2021 Pro-Life Legacy Award during the March for Life Rose Dinner, held virtually this year because of the pandemic. (CNS screen grab)

Justice for unborn called first ‘foundational’ principle of pro-life movement

February 1, 2021
By Catholic News Service
Catholic News Service
Filed Under: Feature, Knights of Columbus, News, Respect Life, World News

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Supreme Knight Carl Anderson urged the pro-life movement to remain committed to four foundational principles: justice, truth, democracy and compassion.

“The first is our commitment to justice,” he said, adding that “since the day Moses returned from Mount Sinai” with the Ten Commandments, “we’ve known that it is always wrong to intentionally kill an innocent human being.”

“As Americans, we understand that this idea is at the heart of justice and our entire justice system. Because a government that will sanction the killing of the innocent is capable of sanctioning anything,” he said in an address accepting the 2021 Pro-Life Legacy Award Jan. 29.

“It matters little that this sanction is camouflaged in the language of freedom,” he added.

Presented during the 39th annual March for Life Rose Dinner, which was held virtually, the award recognizes the Knights of Columbus CEO for “a lifetime of leadership in defense of the unborn.” Anderson, who has been involved in the pro-life issue for 50 years, has headed the Knights since 2000.

“No one has done more to advance the pro-life cause than Carl Anderson. He is a true pro-life warrior, and his work and tireless dedication to the cause is an example to us all,” Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life Defense and Education Fund, said in her award presentation.

The Rose Dinner is one of several events held as part of the March for Life marking the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion nationwide. This year, due to the ongoing pandemic and concerns about security in the nation’s capital, the march was mostly virtual; only a small group gathered on the National Mall and walked up to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In his remarks, Anderson said the Roe ruling is riddled with “falsehoods and misstatements of history,” and justice is possible only when laws are based on truth, he said.

The high court said the “unborn child has never been recognized in law as a person in the whole sense” and then “went on to act as though the unborn child has no rights at all,” he said. “This approach is essentially incoherent. The fact that a human being’s age does not entitle him to all rights does not mean that he has no rights.”

The more fundamental question, he said, is “what are the rights every human being is entitled to simply by the fact he is a human being with a human nature? The answer to that question is clear: We must all have the basic right to life — a right enumerated in the language of both the Fifth and Fourteenth amendments to our Constitution.”

The second great principle of the pro-life cause,” Anderson said, is the “insistence our governmental institutions must tell us the truth.”

“By denying what everyone knows to be true — that the unborn child is a living human being, Roe v. Wade rests upon the greatest legal falsehood since the court’s terrible decision upholding the fiction of ‘separate but equal’ racial segregation in Plessy v. Ferguson,” he explained.

While there are those who claim Roe is settled law, Anderson said that “no matter how entrenched, no matter its claim to stability, in America no unjust law is sustainable.”

He said the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was correct when he said the “arc of history may be long, but it bends toward justice.”

Regarding a commitment to democracy as the third foundational principle, the pro-life movement has made substantial progress, which has been “achieved through the exercise of our constitutional rights to peaceably assemble and to petition our elected officials.”

“We have confidence in our democratic institutions and that the executive, legislative and judicial branches will ultimately do what is right,” Anderson said.

He described “a consistent, strong consensus” that exists in the U.S. “to significantly restrict abortion.”

“To recognize this reality does not mean we advocate a majority may decide what is morally right or just,” he explained. “But it does mean that after nearly 50 years, Roe v. Wade and its supporters have failed to convince the American people that the decision is something other than ‘an exercise of raw judicial power,'” as Justice Byron White described Roe ruling.

White, a Democratic appointee to the court, and Justice William Rehnquist were the dissenters in the 7-2 ruling.

About his final principle of the pro-life movement — compassion — Anderson said: “The hallmark of the pro-life cause is compassion and generosity. We see every day how pro-life Americans reach out to help others.”

“There is something distinctly American about this care for a neighbor,” he said, and this “solidarity or accompaniment” is a “commitment to regard a stranger more like a neighbor and a neighbor more like a sister or brother. I have seen this so often in pro-life pregnancy counseling centers and in programs helping women suffering from post-abortion trauma.”

“A culture of compassion and love quietly permeates the pro-life cause. It is the wellspring from which all else flows,” he said.

From the beginning of the movement, pro-lifers know “we are on a lifetime’s journey,” Anderson said. Its direction does not bend or waver, though it may slow down he added. But in the end, our pro-life journey has a destination. And that, my friends, is victory.”

Also see

Jérôme Lejeune’s legacy advances ‘abundant life’ for people with Down syndrome in world and church

Federal judge’s pending ruling could block abortion drug from nationwide sale

Pro-life groups seek commitments on federal abortion limits from 2024 GOP contenders

Bishop calls ‘reproductive justice’ lecture series with abortion doula ‘scandal,’ ‘unworthy’ of Notre Dame university

Wyoming becomes first state to ban abortion pills

‘New pro-life agenda’ sees wins in state battles to expand Medicaid coverage for new moms

Copyright © 2021 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

Print Print

Primary Sidebar

Catholic News Service

Catholic News Service is a leading agency for religious news. Its mission is to report fully, fairly and freely on the involvement of the church in the world today.

View all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • Pathfinders: Five Archdiocese of Baltimore women who made history
  • Fire guts historic Catholic school in parish connected to St. John Neumann
  • RADIO INTERVIEW: Dining with the Saints
  • Suspect pleads not guilty in murder of LA Auxiliary Bishop O’Connell
  • Movie Review: ‘John Wick: Chapter 4, a festival of fatality’

| Latest Local News |

Catholic Charities’ William J. McCarthy Jr. named Loyola’s Business Leader of the Year

Sister Joan Cooper, O.S.F., dies at 94

Pathfinders: Five Archdiocese of Baltimore women who made history

| Latest World News |

National Eucharistic Revival aims to form disciples on mission with new Easter series

Laws, lawsuits and adult involvement needed to save kids from social media ‘harm,’ say experts

Confession is ‘encounter of love’ that fights evil, pope tells priests

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • National Eucharistic Revival aims to form disciples on mission with new Easter series
  • Confession is ‘encounter of love’ that fights evil, pope tells priests
  • Laws, lawsuits and adult involvement needed to save kids from social media ‘harm,’ say experts
  • Praying for healing for our pet
  • Jérôme Lejeune’s legacy advances ‘abundant life’ for people with Down syndrome in world and church
  • Texas parishioners affected by Ukrainian war, a wildfire have relied on faith, community to survive turmoil
  • Pope, World Council of Churches’ leaders talk about war, divisions
  • Pre-Vatican II Mass was formed by ‘clericalization,’ says papal preacher
  • Memorial to modern Christian martyrs opens in Rome

Search

Membership

Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2023 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED