Contact: Eric Scheidler, Pro-Life Action League, 773-251-8792, eric@prolifeaction.org;
Shawn Sullivan, Apostolate of Divine Mercy, 574-286-7860, sullyatlaw@sbcglobal.net;
Monica Miller, Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, 248-444-9096, mmmillerlife@gmail.com
CHICAGO, May 13, 2016 /Christian Newswire/ -- Three pro-life organizations plan to hold a public protest when the University of Notre Dame confers its prestigious Laetare Award on Vice President Joe Biden during commencement ceremonies on Sunday, May 15. Though a professing Catholic who claims to support the Church's teaching that abortion is always gravely unjust, Biden has been a staunch supporter of legal abortion through most of his political career.
The Pro-Life Action League, Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, and the Apostolate of Divine Mercy will join forces at Angela Boulevard and Notre Dame Drive from 9 a.m. to noon on May 15, to protest the award and display large photographs of the unborn victims of abortion. Monica Migliorino Miller, director of Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, explained: "Seven years ago the University of Notre Dame honored Obama, a pro-abortion president. Now it has once again turned its back on Catholic social doctrine by awarding the Laetare Medal to Biden—a politician who advocates a law that has sent millions of unborn children to their deaths, in complete contradiction to Christ and His Church."
Miller, who was arrested at Notre Dame seven years ago while protesting on campus against President Obama's commencement address, further remarked, "We know that Notre Dame would never honor a person who supported laws that denied minority groups access to education, health care and housing—but it is painfully obvious that for Fr. Jenkins the murder of the unborn simply doesn't matter. And perhaps that is the real disgrace!"
The Apostolate of Divine Mercy's Shawn Sullivan offered the perspective of a local pro-life activist for why the Biden award is so wrong: "With the authentic pro-lifers working so diligently, at God's behest, to combat the advances of evil in abortion, Notre Dame's persistence in awarding the ambassadors of the culture of death is a significant blow to the morale of the faithful. We have diligently kept watch to keep abortion out of our community, and succeeded in removing South Bend's lone abortuary—which sat in the shadow of Our Lady's Dome—only to have Father Jenkins again invite evil in through the front door."
Eric Scheidler, executive director of the Pro-Life Action League, lamented Biden's abandonment of his pro-life principles: "Joe Biden once spoke out against Roe v. Wade. He even took part in the annual March for Life. But then he abandoned unborn children for political expediency and joined the pro-abortion majority in the Democratic party, while still claiming to be 'personally' opposed to abortion. Biden is eager to point out that his Catholic faith inspires him to support policies that care for the poor and disadvantaged. Why must he turn his back on the most vulnerable of all, the child in the womb?"
In addition to hosting the protest on May 17, Miller, Sullivan and Scheidler have also taken out ads in the Notre Dame Observer and the South Bend Tribune, denouncing the award to Biden. A copy of that ad can be seen here.
For more information please contact:
Monica Miller, Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, 248-444-9096, mmmillerlife@gmail.com
Shawn Sullivan, Apostolate of Divine Mercy, (574) 286-7860, sullyatlaw@sbcglobal.net
Eric Scheidler, Pro-Life Action League, 773-251-8792, eric@prolifeaction.org
