St. Barnabas Church Respect Life committee members manned a table after all Masses at the parish March 30-31, offering parishioners an opportunity to sign letters addressed to their state and federal elected officials expressing their pro-life stance as Catholics and their concerns about recent legislation in other states condoning infanticide. (Photo provided by Lizette Lampe)ARDEN — Shocked by recently enacted laws in New York and proposals in Virginia allowing infanticide in the wake of a failed abortion, parishioners of St. Barnabas Church recently organized a letter-writing campaign to make their pro-life voices heard.
“Our letter writing campaign was prompted by the horrendous news and events that have been occurring regarding Right to Life issues in the New York State legislature and proposals spoken by the governor of Virginia that encourages infanticide,” explained Father Adrian Porras, pastor.
At the state level, Arden parishioners expressed their support for N.C. House Bill 54, the Unborn Child Protection From Dismemberment Act, and the defunding of Planned Parenthood in letters mailed to North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and 12 state senators and representatives from the western North Carolina districts.
At the federal level, parishioners mailed letters to U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis and U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows in support of the Born Alive Infants Protection Act.
A total of 3,000 letters were mailed to those state and federal representatives.
“Our Right To Life committee was just horrified and angered after the New York and Virginia infanticide laws passed earlier in the year,” said parishioner Lizette Lampe. “This spurred us to get involved legislatively. We all put our heads together.”
Lampe also reached out to Senators Burr and Tillis by writing letters and submitting them on the senators’ websites.
“Several of our parishioners have done similar things,” she explained. “We are constantly in touch with pro-life websites, such as Susan B. Anthony List, and we send e-mails on a regular basis. We wanted to send legislators a stronger message, by blitzing our Representatives with handwritten letters, mailed by USPS.”
Lampe said that many of the volunteers on the Right to Life committee at the parish have busy lives and a letter writing campaign takes a lot of time, but the effort to stand up for the dignity of all human life is worthwhile.
The weekend of March 30-31, she and some of the other volunteers staffed a table at all of the Masses. They were there with clipboards and 16-page packets of letters for people to sign and print their addresses.
“It was labor intensive, but parishioners were willing to take the time (to sign),” she said.
The committee also helped raise money for postage after all Masses over the course of two weeks. Other parishioners donated labels, envelopes and postage.
Dr. Joanne Gregory, St. Barnabas Respect Life committee coordinator, wrote the letters and spent countless hours working with other volunteers addressing and stuffing the envelopes once the letters were signed.
“It was a lot of effort and required a lot of volunteers that work tirelessly with me on this,” she admitted. “I felt for this to be successful the letters needed to be personalized and sent individually, to have credence versus petitions or anonymous letters.”
Gregory said she believes it is important that the legislators who have been proposing these pro-life bills and supporting them should know how they as North Carolina voters feel.
“And the legislators who are pro-choice need to hear that there is a large pro-life voice that needs to be heard and taken seriously,” she added.
— SueAnn Howell, Senior reporter