ARTICLES
July/August 2003 ARTICLES
Contents © 2003
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.
You Have to Intercede
Joe Scheidler Speaks in Pasadena
By Paul Hewson
On Saturday, May 24, Joseph Scheidler, national director of the Pro-Life Action League, spoke at Holy Family parish in South Pasadena as part of a fundraising campaign for Los Angeles Pregnancy Services -- a crisis pregnancy center located in the impoverished Pico-Union district.
About 100 people turned out to hear Scheidler speak. Diana Bennett, Los Angles Pregnancy Services executive director, called the event a great success. "The results were incredible," she said. "Many of those present have expressed commitment to sidewalk counseling and commitment to time spent in adoration before Our Lord to pray for an end to abortion." Bennett said the money raised at the event will be used to fund the center's expenses.
Scheidler, who is Catholic, declared that abortion is not just "an issue" among many. "It is absolutely at the root of what this nation stands for," he said. "As long as abortion is the law of the land, we have no law in this land. There's nothing to protect anybody. If the baby in the womb does not have the right to life, none of us do."
Scheidler talked about the importance of faith and called sidewalk counseling outside abortion clinics the most important thing in the pro-life movement. "I can not see how anybody who believes abortion is the taking of a human life can stay away from an abortion clinic," he said. "We have to be at the foot of the cross. We have to be there to intercede. Whether you save anybody or not, you are there to give them [the unborn] their dignity and to be a testament to their humanity. If you can go to a movie, to church, if you can go to other places, you can go to an abortion clinic. You have to intercede."
Bennett said she was particularly inspired by what Scheidler had to say about sidewalk counseling. "We should all be out there unless we are exclusively being called to be Our Lord's strength at adoration," she said. "But this call is rare because most people that come to adoration for the unborn usually walk out with marching orders."
Scheidler described St. Paul as "a racketeer of his time." In February, Scheidler, the chief defendant in a RICO (Racketeering Influence and Corrupt Organizations) lawsuit brought against him by the National Organization for Women, won a landmark 8-1 victory in the U.S. Supreme Court after 17 years of litigation.