Culture of Life

“Among the vulnerable for whom the church wishes to care with particular love and concern are unborn children, the most defenseless and innocent among us. Nowadays efforts are made to deny them their human dignity and to do with them whatever one pleases, taking their lives and passing laws preventing anyone from standing in the way of this…Precisely because this involves the internal consistency of our message about the value of the human person, the Church cannot be expected to change her position on this question… It is not ‘progressive’ to try to resolve problems by eliminating a human life…” Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis

In union with the Magisterial teachings of the Church and the Holy Father, the Knights of Columbus stands strong in its conviction that every human life is a gift of God, endowed with certain inalienable rights — the first among these being the right to life. Even in the midst of difficulties and uncertainties, we believe that human life is sacred and inviolable, and ought to be defended with maximum determination. To this end, the Knights of Columbus supports policies that promote a Culture of Life and opposes legislative efforts that promote abortion, contraception, sterilization, cloning, the destruction of embryos, assisted suicide, and euthanasia.

One of the most effective ways in which the Knights of Columbus has promoted a Culture of Life and helped thousands of women save their children is through the Ultrasound Initiative. As of October 2019, the initiative has funded and placed 1134 ultrasound machines — valued at more than $54 million — in all 50 states, Mexico, Canada, and countries in South America and Africa. Thousands of babies have been saved, and the lives of countless mothers, fathers, and families have been enhanced thanks to the work of the Knights.

Our Order’s steadfast defense and promotion of a Culture of Life is grounded on our ultimate assurance that in the natural law written in the heart of every person is the recognition that human life is sacred from its very beginning to its end. In the depths of our consciousness, human intellect knows that the very source of its existence—i.e. human life—ought to be protected and celebrated. In that regard, the message of the Knights of Columbus extends far beyond our Order and our religious creed; it is a universal message that every person of good will can come to affirm.

The right to life is unlike any other right. It is the most basic right and the condition of all other personal rights, constituting the foundation of every human community and the political community itself. St. John Paul II famously noted that if human life itself is not respected, then respect for all other rights—for example, the right to health, to marriage, to culture, to religion—is “false and illusory.” Human rights of every kind are “incomprehensible” without the right to life. Our Order, therefore, joins the universal Church in acknowledging the dignity of human life and in its efforts to achieve legal and constitutional protection for every human person at the international, national, state, and local levels.

Furthermore, in accordance with the teachings of St. John Paul II in Evangelium Vitae, we affirm that “abortion and euthanasia are […] crimes which no human law can claim to legitimize. There is no obligation in conscience to obey such laws; instead there is a grave and clear obligation to oppose them by conscientious objection….In the case of an intrinsically unjust law, such as a law permitting abortion or euthanasia, it is therefore never licit to obey it, or to ‘take part in a propaganda campaign in favor of such a law, or vote for it.’”

To read more or donate to the Ultrasound Initiative, please click here.

100% of your donation will directly support the Culture of Life Fund.