Knights of Columbus part ways with AK Right to Life
Disagreement over a medical procedure at the Catholic hospital in Anchorage has set the Knights of Columbus and Archbishop Roger Schwietz against Alaska Right to Life.
Historically allies in their mutual opposition to abortion, the Catholic fraternal organization and the state’s largest anti-abortion group are now, at least temporarily, going their separate ways.
Knights of Columbus statewide deputy Tom Malone of Fairbanks sent word Jan. 30 that Knights councils in the Anchorage Archdiocese are not to allow Alaska Right to Life to speak at Knights functions, and that councils should not make any financial contributions to the organization "at this time."
The move came after Alaska Right to Life distributed a statement critical of Archbishop Schwietz during the prayer service that the Knights coordinate every year to mark the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision on abortion.
Archbishop Schwietz led the Jan. 22 prayer service at Anchorage’s Memorial Park Cemetery. After the event someone gave him one of the Alaska Right to Life fliers, which asserts that the archbishop is allowing Providence Alaska Medical Center to perform abortion. It also says that Alaska Right to Life "cannot join in any ceremony that includes the archbishop or his diocesan representatives."
This is the latest flare-up in a conflict that is nearly two years old.
At issue is a controversial procedure at Providence Alaska Medical Center, which is part of the Seattle-based Providence Health System operated by the Sisters of Providence.
A pregnant woman who comes to Providence may elect to induce labor in certain cases when a team of doctors determines that her unborn child is incapable of life outside the womb. An ethical team at the hospital must review the particulars of each case to ensure that inducing labor would conform to Catholic principles.
When it learned of the practice in 2003, Alaska Right to Life began picketing the hospital and claiming publicly that it performed abortion. The organization also appealed to Archbishop Schwietz to halt the procedure, which he has the authority to do.
The archbishop did briefly impose a moratorium on the early induction procedure later that year.
The archbishop then enlisted the help of the National Catholic Bioethics Center, a respected Boston organization that frequently provides ethical consultations for bishops, to ensure that the hospital’s practices were morally acceptable.
Over the next several months ethicists from the center worked with Providence ethicists and hospital leadership to revise the hospital’s guidelines on early induction.
The protocol "went back and forth until it reached the point where we thought it was fully in compliance with Catholic moral teachings," John Haas, Ph.D., president of the bioethics center, told the Anchor this week.
The Anchor reported last summer on the conclusion of the revision of Providence’s guidelines. However, Alaska Right to Life has continued to picket the hospital, and decided to step up its efforts last month.
According to Ed Wassell, an Anchorage Catholic who is president of Alaska Right to Life, the 13-member board unanimously voted to speak out on the matter during the Knights’ annual pro-life prayer service.
Wassell said the board wanted to use the occasion to "respectfully" call on Archbishop Schwietz to end the contested procedure at Providence.
However, when Wassell informed Knight James Curro of his intentions two days before the event, Curro, a key organizer of the prayer service, nixed the idea.
Curro and his wife, Ann, are the Knights’ "State ProLife Couple."
Curro told the Anchor last week that he was "shocked" at Right to Life’s proposal.
"It was a prayer service, not a political rally," he said.
He told Wassell that Right to Life members were welcome to attend the event, but that he couldn’t give them a platform to challenge the archbishop.
The next day, Wassell asked if Alaska Right to Life could distribute a memorandum at the event explaining its positions on early induction and inviting people to the picket.
Curro said that would be OK so long as it was done after the service.
However, the following day, when Curro arrived to begin setting up for the prayer service, he noticed a man handing out the Alaska Right to Life fliers. Curro said he asked the man to stop but he refused.
So Curro found Wassell in the growing crowd and reminded him of their agreement. Wassell then stopped the man who was handing out fliers.
The following week state deputy Malone took Curro’s recommendation that the Knights temporarily break ties with Alaska Right to Life.
"I don’t see where the Right to Life (organization) has any jurisdiction to be telling the bishop how to act," Curro told the Anchor later.
Archbishop Schwietz reiterated that point.
"It would seem that this organization has not taken the time to understand our Catholic principles," the archbishop said. Right to Life’s assertions that he and Providence approve of abortion "is character assassination," he added.
He noted that he initiated "the long and difficult process" of developing guidelines "that all the ethicists could agree with, the best Catholic ethicists we could find, in order to make sure that there was nothing akin to abortion going on."
Editor’s Note: Ed Wassell, who when this story was written was president of Alaska Right to Life, told the Anchor in a tape-recorded interview for his story that his 13-member board had voted unanimously on a resolution to speak out against the archbishop and Providence at the Jan. 22 memorial service. However, in a subsequent interview, he said that at least one member voted against the resolution or abstained, and that others were not present to vote. He wasn’t sure how many had voted in favor of the resolution. Also, this story originally said Tom Malone was from Juneau; he lives in Fairbanks.