St. Lawrence Council 2950
Utica KofC
 

Respecting Life and Supporting Expectant Mothers

The St. Lawrence Knights of Columbus Council 2950 proudly supports Image of God Crisis Pregnancy Center (IOGCPC) in Madison Heights, MI in their mission to respect life of the unborn child. The IOGCPC helps pregnant women by offering counseling, prenatal care, and spiritual care so they can understand God’s gift of life and the privilege and responsibility of being a mother.
 
The St. Lawrence Knights have raised money which, along with the Supreme Council, funded a state-of-the-art 3D ultrasound machine and an examination table for the Center and will continue to support them in their mission to preserve the sanctity of life. Special recognition to St. Lawrence Council officer Don Heydens who worked closely with Joe Monte, Director - IOGCPC as well as the State Council to understand the needs and get necessary matching funds and approval. Scott Morgan, Grand Knight - Council 2950, Jason Meyers – Deputy of State District #21, and Steve Salter – Past Grand Knight – Council 2950 are key supporters and were there at the dedication ceremony along with Don and Fr. Roman Pasieczny – Chaplain – Council 2950, and Pastor – St. Lawrence Church & School. The IOGCPC is located at 26040 John R, Madison Heights, 313-805-5303

2019 Wild Game Dinner Fundraiser

The St. Lawrence Knights of Columbus Council 2950 held its second annual Wild Game Dinner on February 9th, 2019 and it was a great success. The event raised money for local charities and treated guests to a delicious meal including dishes made with wild boar and venison all of which was planned and prepared by the dedicated Knights. Guests enjoyed the delicious food and drink while visiting with each other and participating in raffles for prizes. Prizes included the finest in firearms from Amen Fireworks as well as donated sporting themed artwork and metalcraft.
 
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Four local charities partnered with us and participated in the event by selling raffle and 50/50 prize tickets and each charity received $2100 from the funds raised. Those charities are: FAR Therapeutic Arts & Recreation, Challenger Baseball, Mary’s Children Family Center, and Mary’s Mantle. Special recognition to St. Lawrence Council officer Bob Walz who planned the event and was the Master of Ceremonies for the second straight year. Thank you to all the Knights who, although too numerous to mention by name, were key to this great event by helping with planning, cooking, serving, welcoming our guests, and cleaning up. 

Pro-Life Walk 2017

We live in a world of Fake News, and we always have.  From the beginning of creation, the author of fake news convinced Adam and Eve that God was not telling them the whole truth – and they believed him.

In this current time and place in mankind history, we are experiencing a tsunami of fake news, with wave after wave of lies and distortions. Riding the highest and longest crest of that tsunami is the abortion lie – still with us after 44 years.

From the beginning, this evil ideology snaked its way into the feminist movement. At a time when women were fighting for economic and social parity, and for recognition and respect for the objective truth of their biological nature, the feminist movement was hijacked by the sexual revolution that promoted contraception and ultimately abortion as the only way that women could have equality with men. They were told that abortion would set them free, that the child in their womb prevented them from achieving their dreams and their goals. According to this ideology, women were their own worst enemy – it was their biological nature that held them hostage, not the attitudes, stereotypes and stigmas of the prevalent society after all.

This flawed hypothesis was adopted and promoted by the elite, including Supreme Court Justice Ruth Ginsberg who said:  “the ability of women to participate equally in the economic and social life of the nation has been facilitated by their ability to control their reproductive lives.”  According to Justice Ginsberg and others like her, women are unable to assume any leadership roles in corporations, the military or politics or anywhere else unless they deny their ovaries. This would be like telling a black person that he cannot do (any of the above) unless he changes his skin color.

 

This massive and convincing assault culminated in the Supreme Court decision known as Roe. v. Wade, which was based completely on lies, and refused to consider the humanity of the unborn person in the womb, instead bestowing a superhuman and tyrannical right of one class of persons – pregnant women – to kill another class of persons – the unborn child in the womb, at any time and for any reason – this, in a nation whose people once triumphed over tyranny by pledging their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, for a Truth that was greater than themselves:  that all people are created equal and are endowed by their creator with the unalienable right to life, to liberty, and to the pursuit of happiness.

Women allowed contraception and abortion to define them – and unwittingly made themselves and their unborn children victims to the greatest civil rights issue of our time.

And though the feminist movement brought about many good and necessary changes in society, the inculcation of abortion and a contraceptive mentality has caused unbelievable harm to women, to men, to children, and to society. For example:

 

The roles of wife and mother were no longer held in esteem.

A woman’s value to society was decided by her status of employment.

The roles of husband and father were no longer honored.

A unisex approach to life was endorsed.

Recreational sex replaced the conjugal relationship.

Divorce, sexual promiscuity, pornography, and abuses to women and children proliferated.

Children’s lives were sacrificed for the pursuit of selfish endeavors.

 

This is a holocaust of epic proportions that has caused despair and destruction to envelop our very souls. Since 1973 nearly 60 million lives have been lost due to abortion.  This is well over one million each and every year, and nearly four thousand every single day.

How is it that something so incredibly and obviously evil was able to weave into the fabric of not only this great nation but throughout the entire world - without hardly an uprising, without hardly a protest, without so much as a stone being thrown?

Joseph Goebbels, the Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany said this:  A lie told once remains a lie, but a lie told a thousand times becomes the Truth.  But a lie such as this needs victims to perpetuate its lie.  The lie must become subjective – it must be made to apply to an individual and her circumstance.

Before a woman even enters an abortion clinic, she has already been told that her unborn child has no value. She has already been encouraged to abort her child – by her boyfriend, her husband, even her parents. If she is poor or unmarried, she is well aware of the difficulties she will face raising a child alone.

At the clinic, she is told that it is just a blob of tissue.  She wants to believe this, she may already believe this – she may have no idea of the stages of development in the womb – that at the 8th or 9th week – the time when most abortions occur, her baby has a beating heart and a brain that is functioning, that it has little arms and legs, eyes and ears and all of its organs are present.

She is never told that there are other options, that there are countless pregnancy crisis centers that can help her with all of her needs so that she can deliver a healthy baby.

 

 She is told that she can get rid of her problem quickly and easily – she is given a very brief explanation of the procedure and that she will only experience minor discomfort when the contents of her uterus are evacuated. And when it is all over, they will let her rest for an hour, maybe give her some orange juice, and she can go happily on her way.

If she has any doubts, she is reminded that she will be a burden to society and to her family – something they know she already feels, because that is why she is there.

The word “baby” is never spoken to her.

They don’t tell her about the emotional and physical pain she will most likely suffer.  That she will spend that last hour in the clinic feeling alone, used and abused.  That in the silence of that cold and sterile area of the clinic they call recovery, she  will hear the muffled cries of other victims of abortion, and be surprised to find out that some of those cries are her own.  She will feel like she is being rushed out of the clinic, because you can’t stay here, and she will leave feeling out of sorts, in pain, confused, and already regretting the loss of her baby – and at this time, she will call it her baby – not contents of her uterus.

She will spend the next few days, weeks, months, or years mourning the loss of her child, and every year, on the date her baby died and on the date she thought would have been his birthday, she will grieve for what could have been – for what should have been.

After 44 years, the abortion rhetoric has not changed much, except maybe to become more beguiling:  The Northland Family Planning Clinic in Sterling Heights (yes, it is called Family Planning), has another name on their sign –Serendipity.  Serendipity means “the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way”.  A sign that hangs in their clinic says “We do sacred work that honors women and the circle of life and death. When you come here bring only love.”

 

And just when you think it could not get any more evil, we learn by a series of undercover videos that Planned Parenthood has been exposed for the illegal harvesting of baby body parts.   The videos expose the complete callousness of the abortion workers as they discuss the various ways to manipulate abortion procedures in order to obtain the best samples of baby body parts for the highest possible profit – or as one abortionist stated, so that she could “get a Lambourgini”.

Abortion is not sacred work, it is unholy work. Abortion benefits only the abortionist. It does not honor women – it destroys their dignity. Abortion does not honor the circle of life and death, it regurgitates death, over and over. 

Brothers and sisters, we are in an epic battle for souls. The battle lines were drawn a long time ago when Satan, in the first wave of his attack, disguised himself as a serpent with a forked tongue and separated Eve, the mother of all the living, from the heavenly Father who created her -and Adam her spouse silently assented.

In the second wave, this same serpent separated the offspring of that mother from their own offspring by abortion, while the rest of us silently assented.

The third wave of a tsunami is said to be the strongest, and the most deadly.  Are we to allow this oppressive and destructive ideology to engulf us, or are we ready to bring the power that lives in us, the same power that raised Christ from the dead, to transform this world from a culture of death to a culture of life?

Just as it is not natural for us to be separated from God, it is not natural for a mother to be separated from her child.  It is time for us to reject the author of Fake News, and to honor what is truly sacred – the gift of Life, as intended by the Giver and the Author of Life.

 

As we go forth today, let us all pledge our own sacred honor for something that is greater than ourselves:  the sanctity of every human life, created by God and whether born or unborn, shares an equal inheritance to life, to liberty, and to the pursuit of happiness.

The Halifax Resolves

The Halifax Resolves

North Carolina’s April 12, 1776, action made it the first colony to officially authorize its delegates to support independence from Great Britain. Halifax Resolves plaque in the North Carolina State Capitol A plaque in the North Carolina State Capitol commemorates the Halifax Resolves and North Carolina’s early call for independence.

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Two hundred fifty years ago, North Carolina made a decision that helped set the United States on the path to independence. On April 12, 1776, delegates meeting in Halifax adopted what became known as the Halifax Resolves, authorizing North Carolina’s representatives to vote for independence from Great Britain. The action made North Carolina the first colony to officially empower its delegates to support a break from the Crown, months before the Declaration of Independence.

As we mark the 250th anniversary of that historic moment, state leaders, historians, and civic organizations are renewing attention on the document’s significance and its enduring place in both North Carolina and American history, helping us connect past actions with their impact today.

For modern readers, the idea of independence may seem straightforward. But at the time, the concept itself was still taking shape. “We think of independence as an everyday word, but they did not know what that meant,” said Bob Rosser, project coordinator for North Carolina’s America250 efforts at the John Locke Foundation. “In the resolve, they called it ‘independency,’ like democracy or another form of government.”

That uncertainty made the decision all the more consequential. Colonial leaders were not simply endorsing a familiar idea—they were stepping into largely uncharted political territory, with no guarantee of success.

“Every colony had to make its own choice. North Carolina could easily have stayed loyal to the Crown, while the colonies from Virginia to Massachusetts fought and won their independence.”

1770 map of North Carolina
A compleat map of North-Carolina from an actual survey (1770), showing the colony that would soon authorize independence.
Portrait of John Penn
John Penn, a North Carolina delegate to the Continental Congress.
Portrait of William Hooper
William Hooper, North Carolina revolutionary leader and signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Evidence from the period shows that leaders in the South were already grappling with that decision in early 1776. In a letter written Feb. 12 of that year, John Penn, a member of the Second Continental Congress and future signer of the Declaration of Independence, expressed both confidence and urgency.

“The People to the Northward have Spirit and Resolution, which I doubt not will carry them victorious through this contest. I hope we to the Southward shall act like men determined to be free….”

By April 12, North Carolina’s Provincial Congress answered Penn’s earlier call by adopting the Halifax Resolves. The original text of the historic document reads in part:

“Resolved that the delegates for this Colony in the Continental Congress be impowered to concur with the other delegates of the other Colonies in declaring Independency, and forming foreign Alliances…”

From Battlefield to Political Break

The adoption of the Halifax Resolves did not emerge in isolation. Just weeks earlier, North Carolina Patriots secured a decisive victory at the Battle of Moore’s Creek Bridge. Fought on Feb. 27, 1776, near present-day Wilmington, the battle saw Patriot forces defeat a larger group of Loyalists attempting to link up with British troops. The victory disrupted British efforts to regain control of the colony and weakened Loyalist influence in the region.

Map of troop movements before the Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge
Troop movements before the Battle of Moore’s Creek Bridge.
Moore's Creek historic site
Moore’s Creek historic site, tied to the Patriot victory of February 1776.
Portrait of Joseph Hewes
Joseph Hewes, North Carolina delegate and later signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Historians often point to Moore’s Creek Bridge as one of the first clear Patriot victories of the Revolutionary War in the South and a key factor in emboldening colonial leaders to take more decisive political action.

Rosser said the significance of the victory extended well beyond North Carolina.

“The victory, as word spread, gave other colonies hope and encouragement to keep fighting and keep coming together—that the revolutionary moment was real.”

In the weeks following the battle, that growing confidence translated into political momentum. With British authority diminished and Loyalist resistance weakened, North Carolina’s provincial leaders were in a stronger position to take the step they would formalize in Halifax, authorizing a break from Britain.

The 250th Anniversary

As part of North Carolina’s America250 commemoration, the original Halifax Resolves have returned to the state for the first time since 1776 and are now on public display in Halifax County.

Gov. Josh Stein said the anniversary highlights the state’s early leadership in the push for independence and its lasting place in the nation’s founding story. “North Carolina played a significant role in winning America’s independence,” Stein said. “The creation and adoption of the Halifax Resolves on April 12, 1776, was the first official action by any colony calling for independence from Great Britain, forever cementing North Carolina’s place in history as ‘First in Freedom.’”

The document is on loan from the National Archives and is believed to be the only surviving copy. It is being exhibited at the Halifax State Historic Site’s visitor center from April 10 through Oct. 6.

This shows that there is much more to our independence than Massachusetts and the battles at Lexington and Concord. The Halifax Resolves, adopted on April 12, 1776, came nearly three months before July 4, 1776.

Four Knights Exemplified June 9th

Four Knights Exemplified on June 9th
On Thursday evening, June 9th, in the main hall of the Knights Banquet Hall, four candidates were exemplified into the First Degree of the Order by Council 2950's degree team.  The new members for St. Lawrence Council are Brian Popis, Joey Manuszak, and Bill Slifco.  One member was exemplified from St. Therese of Lisieux: John M.

The degree team members, who gave their typical great performance, were Dennis Seefried, Harry Kuk, Don Heydens (captain), Ed Campbell, Warren Sawdon, Steve Salter, Joe Manuszak, Paul Cone, and Larry Shekoski.

Observers to welcome the new Knights included District Deputy Dave Kuptz, Grand Knight Deacon Donald Sandstrum from Council 11957, Grand Knight Jason Meyers, and Field Agent Dale Jacks.

With these three new members, the Council now has four members toward its goal of twenty-seven for the 2015-2016 fraternal year.

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