Bancroft youth start pro-life group

By KATIE LEFEBVRE, Globe staff reporter
November 24, 2005

BANCROFT - A new group has been started in Bancroft. The Survivors Pro-Life Youth Group began in June and has been having monthly meetings.

Alicia Morse, a freshman at Iowa State University and a parishioner at St. John the Baptist Church in Bancroft, started the Survivors Pro-Life Youth Group.

"I have always been pretty pro-life. In high school, I was seeing how our world has become tolerant to the whole abortion idea. I felt like a lot of times at school when I would argue it people would just be like people can make their own decisions. You didn't feel like you could convince them by just arguing," said Alicia.

She added that not only was she seeing the abortion issue, but she was also seeing how contraception was affecting people as well.

"It kind of tore down our culture in so many areas that we didn't realize - how we respect our elders, our grandparents; how we respect our friends, our family; and how we saw life all together," said Alicia. "With our pro-life group, we are trying to build up our culture in a round about way. We talk about the issues, but we are trying to build up a respect for every human being so that people realize how precious every life really is."

Alicia, along with her sister Emily and about 10 others, are currently part of the pro-life group.

Emily believes that the importance of the group is that there is a "need to come together, join together and fight against the society that tries to make life look like the only thing that matters is if you have power or wealth."

According to Alicia, the group is doing a curriculum called Life Principles that is a common sense philosophy on life and what a person's purpose is.

"It has really changed our group," said Alicia. "It is kind of amazing how people are beginning to understand why we are strong. It is going to be a year-long process. It is going to change the way we think about everything. It is a way of living."

Emily mentioned that the group plans to do monthly activities of volunteer service as well, including visiting nursing homes and helping single parents going to pregnancy centers.

"We can't be true Catholics and true Christians if we are not pro-life," said Alicia. "It is very central to our Catholic faith."

Emily attended a Pro-Life Action Ministries Banquet on Oct. 24 in St. Paul, Minn.

"My mom had heard about it through some friends," said Emily. "I thought it was really interesting because I had heard about Terri Schiavo and what her family had done to save her life. I thought it would be neat to go and listen to Bobby Schindler and see what it was really like."

Bobby Schindler, brother to Terri Schindler Schiavo, and Brother O'Donnel, the spiritual adviser to the Schindler family, were the keynote speakers.

"The words of each of these profound speakers were so enlightening and beneficial to me as a young Catholic Christian living in this culture of death that I wanted to share them with those who were unable to attend," said Emily. "Terri's death by dehydration and starvation on March 31 made headlines throughout the world and continues to haunt those who defend life in all stages."

Emily pointed out that Bobby Schindler reminded the banquet crowd that "the labels attached to unborn babies, such as fetus, embryo and 'blob of cells' help promote the culture of death's acceptance of abortion. 'Persistent vegetative state' was the label used to describe Terri Schiavo and also helped pro-death forces to deprive her of her human rights and dignity. Bobby strongly cautioned against allowing such dehumanizing labels to be used because they help make it seem okay to get rid of those individuals that society may consider to be a burden."

"They both encouraged everyone to continue coming together and letting people know the facts about euthanasia and the real meaning of life," said Emily.

Emily noted that there was a white rose on of the banquet tables reminding the attendees to resist the "culture of death."

"It was better than I expected," said Emily. "It gave you a lot of hope about what we could do and hope for the future."