So often when asked about how you live your pro-life convictions, a few responses come up. The main ones are going to events like the March or praying outside an abortion clinic, writing your congressperson, and helping the local crisis pregnancy center.

Regnum Christi members live their pro-life beliefs through their family witness, and by sharing the truth about the dignity of life and of the human person in the way they form apostles in all of their evangelization efforts.

There are so many other creative ways to be pro-life: here are 12 ideas we got from being together with the Church during the March for lIfe.

1. Talk about It

Nicole of the Susan B. Anthony List mentioned how important it was to talk to your neighbors, “it doesn’t have to be hard; it doesn’t have to be intimidating. There’s a lot that people don’t realize: like Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton actually legalized abortion on demand through all nine months of pregnancy… Did you know that we’re one of seven countries in the world that allow abortion on demand after five months of pregnancy?  The culture is pro-life… the vast majority of Americans are not OK with the status quo.”

Rehumanize International tries to present the pro-life message to people with different philosophies. C.J. Williams noted, “It is important to be able to speak someone’s language when trying to reach them with the principle that human life is intrinsically valuable.” She explained how not understanding them can sound by way of analogy, “You go to Mozambique and you speak English and they don’t understand you.”

Fr. Matthew Schneider, LC, noted that we can be pro-life on social media. He stated, “Most people are in the middle and can be moved. Stories move them more than arguments and are less confrontational. There are so many stories of great things those saved from abortion have done. Posting one of them starts a conversation without starting an argument.”

2. Create an Environment to Help Pregnant Women and Moms

Several colleges at the Students for Life conference mentioned new initiatives in recent months to help support pregnant women on campus. At the Students for Life Conference, the biggest standing ovation was when Madeline Runkles came on stage. Madeline is the one who wrote a Washington Post opinion piece after feeling shunned by her Christian school for being pregnant and encouraging schools not treat young woman choosing life so harshly.

Emily at the University of Michigan spoke about an initiative fundraising for a scholarship for a new mother, which they are awarding to a woman giving birth in February. They’ve even arranged babysitting for the first 8 weeks when that mother has class from among the students in pro-life club. She values this, “Because it shows real compassion for real people who are struggling with real problems like child care and money.”

Colleen Connolly from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond explained how they helped change a student guide: “I was able to edit the official document that VCU health gives students on campus to women when they get a positive pregnancy test. This paper has… the three options of abortion, adoption, and keeping the child. What the paper didn’t have was a lot of resources that were pro-life, resources such as OptionLine to help them make this choice… There are a lot of options out there to help students make the choice for life. We just need to be more educated, be more passionate, and be more ready to have the resources on hand to let these women know they are not alone.”

3. Showing the Value of the Disabled

Right now in the USA, 2/3 of babies diagnosed with Down Syndrome in the womb are aborted. Some Down Syndrome parents and people with Down Syndrome Marched to show their beautiful lives. One group had two signs reading, “Celebrating the gift of Down Syndrome,” and “Abortion is not the cure for Down Syndrome.” Another group called Keep Infants with Down Syndrome (KIDS) had young people with Down Syndrome carrying signs joyfully.

Other disabilities also matter as this woman in a wheelchair held a sign, “Life is intersectional to all human rights!” Abortion can be targeted against the disabled, and is thus a form of discrimination. Another woman was shocked when her brother and sister-in-law had a test done on their unborn baby for a genetic condition she had and would have aborted if the baby had that condition. She continues, “[They] had nothing to say when I asked if they thought I should be dead.” Abortion creates an environment that devalues the disabled and valuing the disabled tend to reverse this attitude.

At the Rally and Mass for Life, just before the March, the Archdiocese of Washington concretely helped the disabled by having a sign language interpreter on the corner of the screen the whole time to help the deaf.

4. Welcome Those Saved from Abortion in the Church

Several new programs have been designed to help Churches welcome mothers and children who might have considered abortion.

Care-Net runs Crisis Pregnancy Centers but wants to go further. Kathy LoBuglio explains, “Pregnancy is not a nine-month event. Crisis pregnancy centers are there to help women and men making pregnancy choices, to help them make a life-affirming choice. But many times women and men… are thinking about 18 years.” In response, she says, “The Church needs to step in and have a ministry for those people who are considering abortion. Then after they make that decision, the Church needs to be the organization and support structure for long-term discipleship.”

Embrace Grace lives by its slogan, “No single woman should walk alone.” Jessica Russo explained their mission: “We exist with the mission of equipping the local Church to love and support single and pregnant girls.” They organize a 12-week program about identity and value that culminates in a baby shower for the new mothers.

5. Promote Fertility Awareness

Dr. Robert Motley, MD of FACTS (Fertility Appreciation Collaborative to Teach the Science) notes how so often the discussion about fertility treats it as a problem. Many physicians are taught to assume Fertility Awareness (also known as NFP) is ineffective: however, they’re basing this on published information that’s 40 years old which wouldn’t fly anywhere else in healthcare. FACTS found many of the current methods are quite effective – well over 90% – in real use, which is similar to oral contraceptives. He suggests women get informed about the methods to be educated consumers who can either get help or a referral from their doctors.

6. Treating Everyone with Dignity

Bridget who’s currently at Franciscan University of Steubenville noted, “One thing that I think is important for us as pro-lifers is by visiting the elderly in nursing homes and caring for their life and their dignity.” Bridget was part of Challenge earlier and this is often an apostolate young woman in this youth ministry engage in.

Laura Kiziort with the American Life League gave a simple way to be pro-life: “I think you can be creative with pro-life if you treat other people in your own personal life with respect and dignity. That might mean cooking for a single mom or helping out a large family with their laundry and cleaning… If you pray at an abortion clinic that’s great; but then if you go home and treat your brothers and sisters with disrespect, you’re not being pro-life.”

7. Defending the Status of IVF Embryos

One of the new frontiers of pro-life legal action is what happens to frozen embryos when a couple who’s done IVF breaks up or similar. Embryo defense is trying to get a law passed to require consent of both parents before destroying embryos created via IVF. The current law allows one party to kill “their portion” of the embryos, even if the other party objects. Sasha McQueen explains: “Embryos should not be considered property and right now they’re considered property in all the states except Louisiana.”

8. Focus on Virtue

Marriana Leach of The Culture Project, a program based on John Paul II’s Theology of the Body, noted the importance of virtue. She exclaimed, “Virtue is what we need to restore the culture.”

Kimberly Bowler of Pure in Heart America in Boston spoke about virtue too: “Our mission is to proclaim the virtue of chastity and to uphold the sanctity of human life for all ages.”

9. Provide Medical Help Including Perinatal Hospice

Save the Storks provides mobile medical units that provide pregnancy tests and ultrasounds. Since they are redesigned buses, these 54 units can park outside a high school or on a college campus to provide woman with the tests they want, while offering them pro-life resources to help save their babies.

A creative form of medical help that is perinatal hospice, which is for families with children who won’t survive long after birth. A woman from Tepeyac OB/GYN explains their program: “We allow woman to have time with their baby whether it be minutes, hours, days or weeks.” She says, “It honors times between moms, and whole families, and their babies who have been diagnosed less than ideal outcome.” She went on to explain how they do a studio photo shoot and how they offer a stuffed animal that has the babies heart rate recorded to be activated by a press.

10. Art and Music

Rebekah Martinez recorded a pro-life musical track called “We Stand” about the fight to help women who feel alone. She thinks music is a wonderful way to spread the message because, as she says, “People listen to this music; they hear it and they hear the message.”

Mark from Exodus Forty explains their evangelization through apparel. “The way we decided to attack what it is to be pro-life is to go to the youth,” he said, “Our idea is using the apparel that we as young people just love to walk around with.” They had a wide variety of clothes with Christian and pro-life messages artfully printed on them.

11. Targeting Pregnant and Abortion-Minded Women Online

Online our messages often go out haphazardly to everyone. However, the Human Coalition has discovered how to target women who might consider abortion through search engine marketing. Lauren Enriquez explains, “Human Coalition is a technology-driven pro-life non-profit and our goal is to rescue children by extending compassionate care to their mothers.” They find these women online then give them individual help.

12. Help Those in the Abortion Industry Get Out

It can be tough for those in the industry to get out: if your last job was nurse at an abortion clinic, it’s harder to be hired than if you were a nurse at hospital or family doctor. And Then There Were None helps those in the industry get out. Nicola states they’ve helped 419 abortion clinic workers quit in 5 years. She explains, “We offer financial assistance, emotion support, spiritual support… We have resume services; we serve as their job hunter so we don’t stop until we find them a job.”

 

The 50^th anniversary of the first incorporations of Lay Members of Regnum Christi was celebrated on January 3^rd of this year.

Fr. Alfredo Torres, LC, and Fr. Juan Francisco González, LC, and one of the men from the 1^st group, who is currently the territorial administrator of Spain, were present at the ceremony in the Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar in Zaragoza, Spain. On this occasion, LaRed (the Legion of Christ’s internal communication service) collaborated with the General Historical Archive of the Legion of Christ to prepare the following article. It collected testimonies about the 1^st steps in founding of the lay branch of the movement.

The 1965 journal of Collegio Massimo seminary of the Legionaries of Christ (now the General Directorate) in Rome noted that the decision to found a Legionary community in Madrid was announced to the community, and that the superior of that community would be the Fr. Alfredo Torres, LC. At the time, Fr. Alfredo was the rector of the Collegio Massimo in Rome.

The priests settled in a house in Madrid, which Fr. Alfredo later set up as a center for the formation and apostolate for young lay people. Fr. Alfredo found support in Archbishop Antonio Riberi, then Apostolic Nuncio in Spain. “He opened the doors of the Universidad Complutense to me,” writes Father Alfredo. He continues: “At that time, many young people were disoriented and confused… So, the first thing I did was help the young people to drink directly from the Sacred Scripture, the message of God. And, thus, the main way of sanctification in Regnum Christi was born, through personal encounter with Christ, in the style of Saint Paul.”

1^st meetings of lay people

Vatican II had recalled, not long before, through Apostolicam actuositatem, “Our own times require of the laity no less zeal: in fact, modern conditions demand that their apostolate be broadened and intensified.” On March 5, 1965, the first group of young laymen met in the new house in Madrid, and on March 23, the first Mass was celebrated in the center.

During those years, Fr. Alfredo regularly visited the schools of Madrid to give talks on priestly vocations. “Little by little, I managed to form a group of young men, aged 17 and 18. We established the first meetings that we called ‘Encounters with Christ,’ because they revolved around the Gospels. The Encounters were weekly. I fixed a passage of the Gospel for them to meditate on in their homes. Then, at the Encounter, each one said what the Holy Spirit inspired in him from reading of the passage and what conclusions each had drawn for his personal life,” wrote Fr. Alfredo Torres, LC. He added: “Immediately, those guys were bringing others. I explained to them that the Movement implied, as its name implies, to be a mover. Saint Paul said, ‘Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel.’ ”

Regnum Christi in its ‘1^st hour’

Fr. Afredo related that “On January 3, 1968, we arrived at the Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar in Zaragoza, Spain. We were able to celebrate the Mass at the feet of the miraculous statue, during which I received the promises of the first eight official Lay Members of Regnum Christi.” Among these young men were Eugenio Blanco de la Quintana and Juan Francisco González Vidal, who years later would enter the Legion of Christ. In his priestly memoirs, Fr. Eugenio himself remembered affectionately the atmosphere of recollection and friendship that was lived in the group, and commented that at that time each talk began and ended with a visit to the Blessed Sacrament in the chapel.

Fr. Juan Francisco González, LC, commented: “The grace of God received on January 3, 1968 becomes more obvious and clear as the years go by and see what He has been able to do with the Movement throughout these 50 years. This is something that none of us who joined the Regnum Christi in the Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar in Zaragoza envisioned, and that mustard seed placed by God’s love in his Church has grown into the great tree that is now the Movement.”

“I conclude with a small anecdote that happened at the end of the rite of incorporation. An old woman approached me and said: ‘Hey, young man, are you from those missionaries who are going to evangelize the Americas?’ I immediately responded: ‘No, ma’am, I’ve never considered going to the Americas.’ Later, God wanted me to work in the Americas for 40 years; no doubt, that old woman was like the prophetess Anna for me. I thank God a lot for calling me to be part of Regnum Christi in that first hour. Although, as in every life, there have been times of difficulty, I am very happy in the Regnum Christi and in the Legion. All the merit comes from God who called me out of love to be part of the Movement and keeps calling me with the same affection and delicacy of that first day.”

Shortly after, four more young laymen joined Regnum Christi and thus formed the first Regnum Christi team in world, in Madrid, with 12 young people. After these additions, others followed, and in 1969, a group of young men and women in Mexico City.

This was translated from Spanish, which can be read on the Regnum Christi site of Spain.

Fr. Matthew Kaderabek, LC, chaplain of the lower school of Pinecrest Academy in Cumming, Georgia, was invited to bless a nativity scene placed inside the Georgia State Capitol building on December 5, 2017. He spoke with us about the event.

Fr. Matthew, can you please describe the event?

For the past four years, Mrs. Annie Witt has been organizing a Nativity Dedication down at the Georgia State Capitol. It was a simple Nativity blessing ceremony lasting half an hour.

I began the ceremony with a Blessing of the crèche, taken right out of the Book of Blessings. Then I sprinkled the crèche and the entire crowd of about 150 people with holy water. Then the 70 young members of The St John Bosco Academy children’s choir sang “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.”

I came back up to the podium and preached a fired-up Advent message to the crowd. Annie told me not to worry about watering down the message just because we were in the State Capitol. She said, “This is our event. We can make it as Catholic as we want.” I let them have it with both barrels, so to speak, drawing from the theme of that Sunday’s Gospel: Stay awake!

“Be ready!” I encouraged them to be like Mary, Joseph, the shepherds and the Magi, who were all very ready for Christ Jesus’ arrival, whereas King Herod, the scholars of the law who knew where the Christ would be born, and the innkeepers were not at all ready. I urged them to make time for prayer and works of charity, and rip out bad habits from our lives.

Then we had Agriculture Commissioner, Gary Black, perform two Christmas songs with his bluegrass band, including “O Holy Night.” This man has a big voice and didn’t need a microphone.

Georgia State Senator, Michael Williams, then recounted for the crowd what Jesus was willing to suffer for us in order to save us from our sins. No one was expecting to hear about the Passion of Christ during Advent but there it was.

The school choir sang another beautiful song, and then I came back up to say a closing prayer, and give them all my blessing.

If it is the fourth year, who else has done the blessing?

The first one to do the dedication was Archbishop Wilton Gregory himself. The next year, it was his auxiliary, Bishop Luis Zarama. I’m not sure who did it last year, and this year they ran out of important people to do the dedication, so they asked me.

There must be a reason Mrs. Witt chose you. How do you know her and her family?

Mrs. Annie Witt is a former Pinecrest Academy mom who had two kids graduate from our school in the past few years. She has been the chairperson of the Georgia Nativity Scene Commission whose purpose is not only to celebrate the birth of Christ, Our Lord and Savior, but also to inform the media and public about the constitutionality of private expressions of religious faith in the public square. Getting the Nativity displayed in the public sphere is part of their mission.

She knew me from Pinecrest and she seems to have run out of bishops to do the ceremony.

What is the legal status of this display? How is it possible to put up a nativity scene in a State Capitol given the separation of church and state?

Apparently, some years ago, the Catholic lawyers from the St Thomas More Society in Chicago went to court to fight for the right to display the Nativity in public places, and they won their case. The last three years, Annie has been allowed to leave the Nativity up in the Capitol for one week.

Unfortunately, someone in the Capitol or from the ACLU didn’t want this to happen this year, so they put new conditions on Annie and told her that she could only display the Nativity for a week if she put it up and took it down every day! Sadly, she wasn’t organized enough to line up a crew of volunteers to do this each day since it is not easy to get downtown to the Capitol, so at the end of the day, she had to take the Nativity down. We’ll see what she is able to do next year. She is a pretty determined woman.

What was your personal experience of the event? 

I thought it was very beautiful to be witnessing for Christ at the Georgia State Capitol. Preaching the word of God at the State Capitol added a bit of nervousness and excitement, on government property for the first time in my life. There’s a certain human respect wondering if you’ll have a receptive audience, but the audience was almost entirely Catholic and really receptive.

How did the people react?

The Georgia Senator, Michael Williams, who isn’t Catholic, was impressed and thanked me for the Advent message I preached. The children in the choir looked very receptive and very attentive during my talk.

What do you think it says to have a public display of religion like a nativity scene in a public building like the State Capital?

I think it serves very well to remind the world what Christmas is all about. As the bumper sticker says: “Jesus is the reason for the season.” It is so easy to get caught up in Christmas shopping and Christmas parties that people easily forget it’s Jesus that we’re celebrating. To be able to have a nativity set up right where the whole world sees it is a beautiful way to witness to what the season is about. It shows Christ loved us enough to come down from his heavenly throne to save us.