Knights Walk for Life in Ogden

Intermountain Catholic

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The Knights of Columbus conducted a Walk of Life in Ogden on the Saturday before Mother's Day as part of their state convention.

OGDEN — The Knights of Columbus displayed their pro-life values May 7 with a Walk for Life in Ogden prior to the awards dinner that was part of their annual convention. During the four-block walk from the convention hotel to Saint Joseph Church, participants recited the rosary, led by the Most Rev. John C. Wester, Bishop of Salt Lake City.

Pat Reed and his daughters Andrea and Stacey were at the front of the procession. Pat Reed wore the Fourth Degree Knights regalia and carried the cross, his daughters wore pro-life T-shirts and carried rosaries.

"Our mom was very pro-life," Andrea Reed said. "She passed away a couple months ago. She saved me from dying from abortion."

Both Andrea and her sister were adopted, and being asked to participate in the walk was important because their mother saved them, Andrea said, adding that she was thinking of her mother during the walk. She also thought that, without her mother, she wouldn’t know the people she knows, or have the future she plans; a senior at Saint Joseph Catholic High School, she has been accepted to Utah State University’s bio-veterinarian program.

More than 100 people participated in the walk, including Knights, their families and Saint Joseph parishioners. Among them were Dave McClellan and his wife, S’Tracy. Dave McClellan is a Fourth Degree Knight. S’Tracy McClellan, a choir member at Saint Joseph Parish, said she was constantly praying for the babies during the walk, and she also thought often of Mother Mary.

This is the first time that the Knights’ annual convention began with a Walk for Life. The idea came up during one of the first planning sessions, said Edward Burns, district deputy for District #1. "We all zeroed in on it because we’re all pro-life and it was going to be Mother’s Day, too," he said.

During his homily at the Mass that followed the walk, Bishop Wester drew an analogy between the Gospel reading of the disciples on the way to Emmaus and the Knights’ procession in support of the sanctity of life. The procession, he said, was symbolic of the way Jesus calls Catholics to walk together. Any one person probably would have felt silly, walking through Ogden alone, carrying a sign or praying the rosary in support of the sanctity of life, he said.

"It would have been very difficult, but together there was a sense of helping each other find the way, supporting each other, encouraging each other," the bishop said. "We were true pilgrims, allowing the Lord to lead us who knows where. When you’re a real pilgrim, you don’t care so much about the destination. You know that being on the way is enough, and that the Lord will provide for everything, and the Lord will make sure that we get to where he wants us to go."