Archive for the 'Club News' Category

I was shocked to find out this morning that Chicago teenager Finoy Lukose died tragically while swimming on July 19 in Lewis County, Kentucky.

Finoy attended our last two TeenSpeak conferences, and just from meeting him on those two occasions, it was clear that he was a young man who loved God with all his heart and was passionately committed to putting his Catholic faith into action by, among other things, fighting for the rights of unborn children, and serving others — as attested to by the fact that he died while on an Appalachian church service trip.

Finoy was to have been a senior this fall at St. Ignatius College Prep in Chicago, where he was part of the Respect Life Club, Student Congress, and the volleyball team.

He will be greatly, greatly missed. Please pray for the repose of his soul, and for his family during their time of grief.

Eternal rest, grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace.

The Archdiocese of Chicago’s Respect Life Office is hosting its second annual Justice and Life Youth Leadership Summit on July 25-26 at St. Cletus Parish in La Grange.

There will be great activities, praise and worship, daily Mass, and more. You can find out more information here, and get the registration form here [PDF].

I hope you can make it!

We were honored when we found out recently that Generations for Life has been named a collaborating member of the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry, since GFL is the first youth organization focused primarily on the pro-life cause that has been accepted as a collaborating member of the Federation.

The NFCYM hosts the biennial National Catholic Youth Conference, which we attended for the first time in 2009. That year’s conference, held in Kansas City, drew a crowd of over 22,000! At our display booth, we handed out over 1,000 “Precious Feet” pins, along with hundreds of pro-life stickers and pieces of pro-life literature.

Because of the thoroughly positive experience we had in in Kansas City, we’re really looking forward to NCYC 2011, November 17-19 in Indianapolis. This year we’ll also be giving away the “Your Mom Chose Life” pins — the winning design from the Pro-Life Button Workshop at our TeenSpeak conference held earlier this year.

Make your plans to attend NCYC 2011 now — and when you’re there, make sure to stop by and see us!

This time to counter Planned Parenthood’s poorly attended teen rally at the California State Capitol:

The youth group from St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Dixon, California deserves a hand for standing up — literally — to Planned Parenthood when the abortion giant tried to make inroads in their community by setting up a harmless looking booth at the town’s street fair this weekend.

When the church’s youth minister, John Johnson, found out the booth, he immediately sent out text and Facebook messages to everyone in the church’s youth with a simple invitation:

Meet in 10 minutes at street fair to protest Planned Parenthood.

Within minutes, seven members showed up and began praying on the sidewalk in front of their booth, and taped signs to their shirts making it clear that abortion is what Planned Parenthood is all about.

Planned Parenthood’s pink-shirted staffers, of course, weren’t happy. (more…)

I recently came across an interview with Jessica Foti, a former member of the pro-life club at Boylan Catholic High School in Rockford, IL, and currently a college student at Franciscan University in Steubenville, OH, who is going to be walking across the United States this summer with a team from a great pro-life ministry called Crossroads.

From her responses, it’s clear that Jessica has a very clear understands what spreading the pro-life message is all about. Here’s how she answer the question, “Why is being involved in Pro-life ministry so important to you?”

Being involved in the pro-life movement has been a personal calling and growing passion of mine ever since I learned about the ministry when I was 14. My involvement in the pro-life movement began because of innocent curiosity and enthusiasm to help and has thus developed into an ongoing call to holiness in which I desire to love God through reaching out to others in this ministry. My love, concern, and respect for life and dignity of the human person have blossomed into such a huge part of my life that everywhere I go, I desire to love everyone I encounter. (more…)

Check out these great videos of the surprise welcome given to Joe Scheidler at his tribute event Saturday night:

(more…)

I just got an e-mail from my friend John-Paul Deddens at Students for Life of Illinois, who asked me to spread the word about this great opportunity:

Apply to be an SFLI Intern for the summer of 2011!

You will build up the collegiate pro-life movement through research, media, video, activism and more! You will make a real impact on the direction of the pro-life movement in Illinois.

Here’s what Lindsay had to say about her experience last summer:

“My summer job? I witnessed two lives being saved. I blogged, created websites, designed fliers and t-shirts, gave speeches to pro-lifers, did side-walk counseling, and helped put together a leadership retreat from scratch. The best part? I didn’t know how to do any of those things when I started. What other job could give me this much opportunity to make an impact?”

Duration: Summer (approximately 2 months)

Requirements: Motivated, hardworking, pro-life college student.

Compensation: Room and board at UIUC’s Newman Hall provided

Get Application: Here [PDF]

Send completed application questions, resume and cover letter to: Emily@ProLifeIllinois.com

Website: ProLifeIllinois.com

Deadline: Monday, April 4th 2011

Questions? Contact SFLI at 217.255.6675 or email Emily@ProLifeIllinois.com

Here’s the latest video from pro-life teen Mary Susan, who explains how to deal with bullying:

Eight years ago, our friends at Rock for Life came up with a simple idea: they asked pro-lifers of all ages to wear a Pro-Life T-Shirt for one day in April.

They called it “National Pro-Life T-Shirt Day”.

Since then, the Day has gotten bigger and bigger each year. In fact, it’s so big that National Pro-Life T-Shirt Day has now become National Pro-Life T-Shirt WEEK!

The great thing about wearing a pro-life T-shirt at your school, at work, or wherever, is that it gets people talking about the humanity of the unborn child and the violence of abortion — which
a lot of people never think about.

Imagine how many people’s minds can be changed — and babies’ lives can be saved — when we give this witness for 7 straight days from April 12th through 18th!

There’s more information here.

To participate, you can wear one of the official NPLTW shirts (available through the link above), or any other pro-life shirt, such as the “In His Eyes It’s a Life” winning design from the Pro-Life T-Shirt Workshop at our TeenSpeak conference last year.

I hope you’ll join me in participating in National Pro-Life T-Shirt Week. Just by wearing a pro-life T-shirt and being out there in public, you’ll be helping to build a Culture of Life!

I was privileged to give a series of talks this past Friday at the Archdiocese of Omaha’s pro-life teen conference held at V.J. & Angela Skutt High School in Omaha.

The Archdiocese’s Respect Life Apostolate organized the event, which served as a reunion for high school students who attended the Archdiocese’s March for Life pilgrimage in January, and to encourage them to ramp up their involvement in pro-life activities. That’s why the Apostolate selected “The Next Step” as the very appropriate theme for this conference.

The first talk I gave was titled “Making the Case for Life”, which dovetails with the League’s Sharing the Pro-Life Message handbook — copies of which were given to everyone present. This talk was very well received, as evidenced by student Clare Ellis, who commented, “This talk helped me as well as others in understanding better how to talk to people that are pro-choice and have a better discussion.” (more…)

This weekend, I’m heading to Nebraska to give a series of talks at a conference Friday night sponsored by the Archdiocese of Omaha Respect Life Apostolate.

The idea behind this conference is to serve as a reunion for high school students and young adults who attended the Archdiocese’s March for Life pilgrimage in January, and to encourage them to ramp up their involvement in pro-life activities. That’s why the Apostolate has selected “The Next Step” as the very appropriate theme for this conference.

If you live in the area, please come! You can get more information here [PDF].

It’s an honor to be a part of this event, and I’m really looking forward to it.

***

If you’d like to invite Generations for Life to speak to your group, contact us, and we’d be happy to talk with you.

I just got an e-mail from my friend Bryan Kemper about a great spring break opportunity:

If your Spring Break is between March 9th and April 17th we want you to spend it praying for the end of abortion. Stand True and Austin Coalition for Life are teaming up to provide a great pro-life mission opportunity for you during spring break.

March 9th marks the start of the spring 40 Days for Life campaign where pro-lifers from around the world gather to pray and minister outside of abortion clinics. Hearst and minds are change and hundreds of babies are saved during each 40 Days for Life event.

Former Planned Parenthood Director, Abby Johnson quit and joined the pro-life movement because of the efforts a 40 Days for Life campaign in Texas. One of the key figures in her journey into the pro-life movement is Elizabeth McClung who will be hosting this Spring Break Mission Trip in Austin, TX. (more…)

Generations for Life has partnered with Live Action, Students for Life of America, Rock for Life, Right to Life of Central California, Susan B. Anthony List, Teen Defenders, Cherish Life Ministries, Stand True, Students for Life of Illinois, LIFEsocal, Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust, and Pro-Life Action League in sponsoring the Expose Planned Parenthood Video Contest to show America why America’s largest abortion chain must be defunded.

You’ve seen the undercover videos of Planned Parenthood aiding and abetting child sex trafficking, covering up statutory rape, and lying to young girls.

You’ve read the reports about how Planned Parenthoods across the United States have been charged with crimes ranging from covering up illegal late term abortions, not reporting the rape of young girls, and falsely billing the state of California.

Now it’s time to create your own video to tell Congress why they should defund Planned Parenthood. (more…)

In response to the “Walk for Choice” in Chicago sponsored Saturday by the Illinois Choice Action Team, over 200 members and friends of the Crusaders for Life teen pro-life club — many of whom belong to St. John Cantius Parish in Chicago — organized a Pro-Life Flash Mob in Daley Plaza to counter the event. They then followed the same route as the pro-choicers, but on the opposite side of the street:

God bless ‘em!

While they had a little help from the club’s adult moderators, much of the planning and execution of this flash mob was carried out by the club members themselves, on their own initiative.

It’s for reasons like this that I’ve often said, and will continue to say, that young people are not the future of the pro-life movement, they are the here and now of the pro-life movement.