Stephen Wandor, Staff Writer

“The best way to defend life is to celebrate life.”  This quote from Matthew Kelly became the mantra for our club this year and, in many ways, should be the motto adopted by the pro-life movement.  As many of our speakers and events this year highlighted, cultural change is effected not through powerful slogans or logical arguments but through love.  As pro-lifers we must first show love to both the woman and child. Without this focus, nothing else matters.  This is why we put such an emphasis on celebrating life.

This past year the Notre Dame Right to Life club has sponsored many events and activities that have furthered the call to love and celebrate life.  By volunteering at the Women’s Care Center, club members have had the opportunity to support members of the community through their crisis pregnancies and also learn how necessary it is to provide love and care for these women.  Life extends beyond the womb, and the club has worked to promote a celebration of life at all stages by attending dance parties at Hannah and Friends with mentally disabled children.  Trips to Portage Manor to play games with the elderly has given the club another opportunity to rejoice in the gift of life.

Outside of regular volunteer work, the club has hosted many seminars and lectures to engage students in learning about the beauty of life and how it can be better defended.  From Gianna Jessen to Abby Johnson, the speakers have provided a witness both to how precious life is and how we can build a culture of life in the Notre Dame community and in the world.  The seminars have allowed the pro-life message to be explored in small intimate settings where students and faculty can have frank discussions on how the pro-life message affects areas from philosophy to architecture.

Beyond service and education, the final aspect of cultivating a pro-life culture is prayer.  Through monthly Respect Life Masses and weekly rosaries at the local abortion clinic, the club fosters a prayerful plea to end abortion and other offenses against human dignity.  This often overlooked component of the movement is essential, because in the end we must place all of our hope in God.

Though these events and activities have provided a groundwork for building a new culture of life, we, both as a club and as a movement, cannot believe that we have done ‘enough.’  As Ms. Winn of the Feminists for Life pointed out during her lecture, we as students must ensure that the university is putting in place all the policies necessary for pregnant and mothers and mothers with children to be successful at Notre Dame.  Furthermore, as a movement, we need to develop resources and options that provide life affirming care that can compete with Planned Parenthood in every area.

We as a society need to begin seeing what life really is—an immeasurable gift from God with value and dignity that must be respected in all its stages.  This means providing love and support to all of our neighbors.  As a movement, we cannot solely focus on the legality of abortion.  Love and celebrating life are also essential and will change hearts and minds, which is more important than changing laws.  If we can change the culture, so too the laws will change.  The Right to Life club has challenged the Notre Dame community to enact this change and will continue working with Our Lady’s university. We firmly believe being pro-life is not a political stance—it is a way of life.  Let’s live it!

Stephen Wandor is a senior aerospace engineer who truly enjoys the wandors of flight.  He also enjoys a wandorful pun from time to time to lighten his overly political world.  Please feel free to contact him at swandor@nd.edu.