‘Jeremiah’s Call’ Garners Funds For Pro-Life Ads

By PRISCILLA GREEAR, Staff Writer

Published: December 11, 2003

ATLANTA—National pro-life leader Father Frank Pavone commended the Atlanta Archdiocese for its collaborative work to support Georgia Right to Life’s television ad campaign at its “Jeremiah’s Call” fund-raiser Nov. 24.

The funds will help get more of GRTL’s life-saving commercials in 2004 to the “unwilling audience” of the firmly pro-choice and the apathetic, he said.

The national director of Priests for Life, Father Pavone said the biggest obstacle to the pro-life movement is not Planned Parenthood or the National Abortion Rights Action League but the attitude of some groups within the pro-life movement who think they don’t need to unite forces with others, as neither Catholics nor other denominations have a monopoly on pro-life advocacy.

“(This project) is a model that needs to be followed nationwide, as in many places between groups there is a sense of disconnect,” he said. “I want to encourage GRTL and the archdiocese in reaching out through the media. These TV commercials are powerful. They change people’s minds and hearts. The value of utilizing the media is we are reaching people who are not going out of their way to hear the message … If St. Paul had TV, you can be sure he’d be using it to the maximum.”

The commercials are working around the country. Father Pavone reported that in the past 10 years “half of the abortion facilities in this country have been shut down.” He pointed out an emerging trend. “It’s an amazing phenomenon. And what has been on the rise are perpetual adoration chapels … As abortion mills continue to close adoration chapels continue to open.”

The Georgia Division of Health reports that in 2002 there were 34, 298 abortions. In 2001 there were 33,545 abortions in Georgia, in 2000 31,680, and in 1990, 39,245.

The event, which included a dessert reception, was held at the Crowne Plaza Ravinia Hotel and attracted some 400 supporters of “Jeremiah’s Call,” initiated by Archbishop John F. Donoghue in February 2001 to support the media campaign and led by the archdiocesan Pro-Life Office. Last year the archdiocese raised over $180,000 through the support of pro-life groups in churches, schools and organizations including the Knights of Columbus and the councils of Catholic women around the archdiocese. In 2003 it has raised approximately $95,000 to support the 2004 media campaign.

According to its development director, Becky Turner, GRTL currently is trying to meet a $250,000 fund-raising goal for commercials running in 2004. An anonymous donor has agreed to match all money up to $250,000, raised by Dec. 31, to reach the larger goal of $500,000. Turner said that the commercials, which ran for 22 weeks throughout 2003 at a cost of $450,000, have reached 1.9 million women of child-rearing age in the Atlanta market and that these commercials will definitely continue running through the first quarter of 2004. After that they will continue, with the frequency of air-time dependent on the amount of money raised.

“Education is our greatest challenge, and TV is our most effective tool in reaching the masses with the truth about abortion,” she said. Donations “are completely tax deductible, and it’s an eternal investment. All money will go directly to buying air-time.”

The commercials include a number to call to speak with a counselor on available options and give information on how to become connected with the nearest participating crisis pregnancy center. Results from GRTL polls at the mid-campaign point in 2003 show a 7 percent shift increase in pro-life opinion held by the target audience; one center reporting a 500 percent increase in calls and a 100 percent increase in actual client visits; a softening in attitudes of those who identify themselves as pro-choice; and an intensity evidenced by 35 percent saying they strongly agree that the ads would make them more comfortable advising a friend to have a child rather than an abortion.

As attendees finished their desserts, Mary Boyert, director of the archdiocesan Pro-Life Office, presented the Archbishop John F. Donoghue Evangelium Vitae Award, given to a priest for pro-life leadership, to Father Kevin Peek, praising him for his special efforts with youth. Father Peek has taken groups to a pro-life event in Washington and last year led a youth night of prayer before a memorial at the Georgia State Capitol on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Father Peek spoke of the example of his mother Mary, who has 11 children, and asked for prayers for his brother, Father Joe Peek, who has leukemia.

Elizabeth Hynes sang songs including “I Believe.” Archbishop Donoghue made opening remarks in which he asked God to strengthen the faithful for the fight against the pro-choice movement in which the devil works.

“Though we speak in terms plain to understand and known within every human heart, his agents devise the most seductive messages possible, confusing the simple truth with talk about ‘choice,’ ‘quality of life,’ and ‘vital medical research.’ The competition is relentless, but we do not tire—for our task, our mission, is life, and the life that comes from God, through our faith, is inexhaustible,” he said. “My only request, is that after tonight, you carry our message even further afield, so that many more may devote themselves to the cause of life, as you have, so that our strength will become more visible, and more felt. We are having an effect—I truly believe that the powers of death are being overcome in our country—but nothing works for change in a free society as much as strength through numbers, strength through visibility, and strength through conviction.”

The archbishop described Father Pavone as a man “truly inspired by the Holy Spirit.” Father Pavone, a priest of the Archdiocese of New York, became national director of Priests for Life in 1993 and in this full-time position has traveled to all 50 states and five continents, preaching and teaching against abortion and helping other priests to do the same. He serves as a member of Dr. James Dobson’s Focus on the Family Institute and in 2003 was elected president of the National Pro-Life Religious Council, a coalition of groups from various denominations working to end abortion.

Father Pavone encouraged attendees to consider other creative ways to reach the “unwilling audience,” in addition to the media campaign, and spoke of his organization’s program to match parishes to abortion facilities for prayerful activities. He declared the most dangerous people are not the deeply convinced pro-choice lobby but rather the indifferent, as those who are angry or fired up at least prove that “the issue matters.”

Addressing why it does matter so much and why it is more than just “one issue,” the priest asserted that the nation’s attitude towards abortion is connected to its attitude about all life, saying that problems relating to life’s value like racism and violence won’t be overcome until abortion is. “Children kill children because we’ve taught them their lives are disposable.”

As the Bill of Rights guarantees the inalienable right to life, Father Pavone said the legalization of abortion has changed the nature of government, which no longer protects all human life but permits people to decide the value of unborn human beings.

“It’s not entitled by the government; right to life is simply ours because we’re human … It’s not about viewpoints. It’s about victims … Roe v. Wade has unleashed in policy and the legal system a poison that ultimately affects every aspect of law and life in America,” he said. “If a government has the authority to dispose of babies in the womb it has the authority to dispose of me and you … If a politician can’t respect the life of a little baby, how is he supposed to respect yours and mine?”

The most significant development nationally in the movement is the signing into law in November of a ban on partial birth abortions, where the fetus is killed after it is partially delivered. Now being challenged in court, the ban is not yet in force.

Commenting on the significance of the project’s name, Father Pavone spoke of how Jeremiah had prophesied to the king of Judea that his land would be invaded by the Babylonians, urging Judeans to repent. Father Pavone said, “God has chosen you” just as he chose Jeremiah, Moses and Isaiah.

Those participating in the event’s silent auction expressed their support of all life by placing bids in the live auction.

Following the event, attendee Kevin Dye, who had the winning bid for a backpack with a giraffe for one of his children, said, “This is definitely God’s will for me to be here. I’m alive because I had a mother who chose life … She had me and I had wonderful adoptive parents … I had a right to live,” he said. He added, “I don’t think anybody can condemn somebody for having an abortion considering how many voices in society say it’s OK.”

Dye likes to start a dialogue on the issue with pro-choice people, as “once you start thinking about the issue the pro-abortionists are coming out on the wrong side; there’s no other way to look at it. Once you peel away all the euphemisms of abortion” it is clear it’s a “terrible evil,” he said.

Peggy Thomas, event coordinator along with her husband, Albert, said one result of this year’s Jeremiah’s Call is that it has more people thinking about the issue. Parishes participated in various ways including by holding holy hours, taking up a second collection and by showing the project video that includes the commercials.

“We had a lot more parishes involved this year, a lot more priests came this year (to the event),” she said. “People are getting to know more about it and if it continues over the years it’s really going to grow.”

Thomas, who had been involved in pro-life work since the ‘70s and has counseled women and used her home as a shelter for unwed pregnant girls, encouraged people to send in donations by the end of the year, as “we’ve got to do as much as we can for the babies.”

Boyert said that Jeremiah’s Call has been a strong community effort for commercials have proven around the country to work where people have drawn support from each other.

“It’s really exciting, really cool to see people standing up, doing these things,” she said. “That’s kind of why we’re holding this event tonight. The point is to get everybody involved.”

She added that in the 2004 legislative session her office will be lobbying on issues including a Woman’s Right to Know bill, bills strengthening the feticide and parental notification laws and another regarding a pro-life license plate. There will be the annual memorial Mass on the Jan. 22 anniversary of Roe v. Wade and a vigil the preceding night at the Cathedral of Christ the King.

To view the ads visit www.grtl.org/ads/. The “Jeremiah’s Call” campaign continues to receive donations to help fund the ads. To make a donation send checks payable to Georgia Right to Life, Educational Trust Fund (GRTL-ETF), to Pro-Life Office, Jeremiah’s Call, 680 W. Peachtree St., NW, Atlanta, GA 30308-1984. For information contact Mary Boyert at (404) 888-7821 or mboyert@archatl.com.