ARTICLES
January 2004 ARTICLES
Contents © 2004
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.
Just Ignorant Little People
Protest Greets Knights of Columbus Dinner
BY MARIA KENNEDY
On October 13, pro-lifers picketed the Oxnard Knights of Columbus council's annual Civic Dinner because this year's keynote speaker was Congresswoman Lois Capps (D-Santa Barbara ), whose voting record shows staunch support for abortion on demand.
A review of Capps' voting record in Congress since 1999 shows that she not only votes in support of abortion rights, but is an activist who works to further them in the United States and abroad. Capps has adopted the policy of the Women's Caucus, which charges its advocates to advance abortion and population control, domestically and internationally. According to the Caucus' website, members "have championed women's issues around the globe from Cambodia to Cairo to Beijing, working to bring international attention to the plight of refugees and representing the Congress at U.N. world conferences on women and on population and development." Additionally, Capps has garnered the support of EMILY's list, a pro-abortion group that supports women candidates who champion abortion rights.
The October 13 picket was preceded by a flurry of calls to the organizer of the Civic Dinner, Steve Day. Pat Polley of Camarillo said that Day had pointed out on the night of the picket that Monsignor Charles O'Gorman, the former pastor of Santa Clara Church in Camarillo, had reassured the Knights that it wasn't a problem to invite Capps. The Oxnard council's grand knight, Frank Chavez, told this reporter on October 13 that Capps "is the keynote speaker, but she's not being honored." When asked why the council had selected Capps, Chavez replied, "because she's our congresswoman. It has nothing to do with her being pro-choice."
During the dinner, about 20 pro-lifers stood outside the hall holding signs and pictures of aborted babies. "Knights of Hypocrisy," "Pro Choice = The Murder of Children," were the messages on some of the signs. One protestor dressed as the Grim Reaper. Ken Fisher of Concerned Roman Catholics, who took part in the protest, said that "one Knight of Columbus, who said he was a Marine, came to me and said, 'what you guys are doing here is wrong.' I asked him how they could have a pro-abortion politician here. All night they [the Knights of Columbus] kept saying that this was not about abortion but about patriotism; I guess baby killing is patriotism."
Pat Polley said that the Oxnard council has done very little pro-life work i n years. "They have done so little to promote pro-life," she said. "They are not really Knights, they are a social club."
Polley noted that one of the Knights that attended the event, Ventura County supervisor John Flynn, saw the protesters and seemed bemused. In a November 5 interview, Flynn said that he was opposed to abortion. "I'm a pro life Democrat," he said. Flynn indicated that he did not think that it was problematic for the Knights of Columbus to invite pro-abortion politicians. "It's an honor to speak at a Knights of Columbus dinner; the Knights have been doing this for years," he said. "There was a protest over Lois Capps; they were walking in front of the hall, that's all. Lois Capps is the representative for this area; I don't think this provides a forum. I follow the rules of the Church; I'm against abortion. I'm an unusual Democrat."
When told about Flynn's statement, Polley replied, "he's the biggest phony. He's no help on pro-life. He's an extremely liberal Catholic." One pro-lifer in Oxnard said that Flynn had been very derogatory towards them in the '80s. More recently, in the 2002 elections, Flynn endorsed pro-abortion candidates Bill Lockyer for state attorney general and Brad Sherman for Congress. Both were also endorsed by Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Rights Action League. As for Flynn's being "liberal," according to the now defunct Camarillo Daily News, in May 1992, Flynn was named Man of the Year by the Gay and Lesbian Resource Center of Ventura County. In November 1985, he was endorsed by the homosexual Stonewall Democratic Club of Ventura County and a featured guest at a Stonewall membership meeting on November 17, 1985. More recently, in 2000, according to the September 28, 2000 Ventura County Star, he voted for Ventura County to extend medical benefits to domestic partners -- for which the Gay Rights Info Page on the internet gave him an A-plus rating -- "extremely pro-gay."
The Oxnard council has, in the distant past, hosted other pro-abortion politicians as guest speakers. In 1984, pro-abortion state assembly member Jack O'Connell spoke at their "Public Safety Dinner." O'Connell is now state superintendent of public instruction. Former Knight of Columbus Bill Hayes told me that he resigned from the Oxnard council in 1989 when it featured then-Senator Pete Wilson. Hayes and others staged a protest at the event.
After the picket over Pete Wilson's appearance, then-Grand Knight John Carabajal wrote in the Lance, the Oxnard council's newsletter, that "the hall was picketed by a Right to Life Group again because they disagree with Senator Pete Wilson's voting record on abortion. The Senator was aware of the picketing and entered through the back door. I back the peaceful picketing one hundred per cent. A dilemma arises because certain individuals disagree with the Knights' strategy. The Knights of Columbus have a program called Community. We are instructed by the K.C. Supreme [Knight] to interface with the community and honor its civic leaders, police, firemen, and other fraternal leaders."
That the Knights of Columbus supreme knight, Virgil Dechant, at the time supported honoring civic leaders without questioning their support for abortion rights, is apparent in a letter he wrote in December 27, 1989. "For some time we have been confronted by the dilemma of having a few members, out of a million and a half, who are public officials and by their voting record, can be considered pro-abortion. We do not need other groups to bring this to our attention."
Has the Knights of Columbus' policy changed? Former Oxnard council grand knight Carabajal told this reporter in a November 10 interview that, despite what he wrote in 1989, Wilson, Capps, and other pro-abortion politicians have been invited to speak "out of ignorance." Carabajal said that the people who picket the Civic Dinners often "have some fanatical people, some bad people in there." Carabajal also singled out the media as a source of discord. "You people blow things out of proportion," he said. "You look for things that are negative in the Catholic Church, you look for fights among Catholics." Carabajal noted that the Knights cannot limit themselves to pro-life speakers: "70 percent of the people are pro-choice," he said. "What do you do? Keep inviting the same 30 percent over and over?" Carbajal said that the present Grand Knight Chavez acted out of ignorance. "Frank Chavez doesn't know who is pro-abortion. We're just ignorant little people."
The supreme office of the Knights of Columbus in New Haven, Connecticut did not return calls for comment.