12th Annual Proudly Pro-Life Awards Dinner Honors Chaput, DeVoses
By Dave Andrusko

The 12th annual Proudly Pro-Life Awards Dinner brought together a wonderful cross-section of pro-life activists, office holders, and clergy at the beautiful Willard Inter-Continental Hotel in Washington, D.C., to honor three pro-life champions. Organized by the National Right to Life Educational Trust Fund, the April 20 gathering honored the Most Reverend Charles Chaput, the Archbishop of Denver, and Richard and Helen DeVos, whose foundation has made unborn children a major focus of its philanthropy.

Both the Archbishop and Mr. DeVos, speaking for himself and his wife, were passionately eloquent. Archbishop Chaput told his audience that he had just returned from a papal conclave and took the opportunity to talk about Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI.

John Paul "understood that real Christian discipleship seeks to serve the whole human person, from conception to natural death," he said. "John Paul understood that we can't build justice while deliberately killing - - or allowing anyone else to deliberately kill - - the innocent and defenseless."

Archbishop Chaput was equally enthusiastic about the new Pope. "In every important way, Pope Benedict XVI is an affirmation of the legacy of Pope John Paul II," he said. Friends and collaborators for many years, "Cardinal Ratzinger was John Paul II's closest adviser in matters of faith, Scriptural interpretation and moral theology, so they shaped and supported each other's thinking in profound ways."

The overflow crowd was fortunate to hear a number of impassioned speeches. The audience heard from NRLC President Wanda Franz, Ph.D.; Senator Sam Brownback (R-Ks.); Tim Goeglein, the deputy director of President Bush's Office of Public Liaison; and NRLC Associate Director Darla St. Martin.

Engagingly hosted by radio and television personality Mark Larson, the gathering carried on the tradition of the Proudly Pro-Life Awards Dinner, whose roster of prior honorees reads like a "who's who" of the Movement.

Previous recipients include Pat Boone, Archbishop Renato Martino, Dr. James Dobson, Mrs. Arthur DeMoss, John Cardinal O'Connor, Gov. Robert Casey, Congressman Henry Hyde, Senator Bob Smith, Congressman Christopher Smith and Congressman Charles Canady, Judge Robert Bork, Mr. Virgil Dechant of the Knights of Columbus, Senator Jesse Helms, Mr. Wellington Mara of the New York Football Giants, Mr. Thomas S. Monaghan, and Bishop James T. McHugh, Mr. Lawrence Garvey, and Fr. Frank Pavone.

(See pages 15 & 18 from the Proudly Pro-Life Awards Dinner.)