“Every year, we struggle to secure funding for our ministry,” shares Sandy Buck, cofounder of Be Not Afraid, “and 2016 was a particularly difficult year for us financially.”
BNA is a national Catholic ministry headquartered in Charlotte that provides support to parents carrying their unborn child to term following a prenatal diagnosis. Founded originally as a local, parish ministry of St. Mark Church in Huntersville, BNA welcomed its first baby in 2009. Since then, the ministry has grown into a private non-profit organization that has assisted parents in 25 states and will welcome its 100th baby this spring. BNA has also helped other dioceses interested in replicating its model of care – most recently, in the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Ind., and the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, Texas.
The ministry receives no diocesan or regular annual funding, however, and relies entirely on donations and fundraisers to assist expecting parents and help develop similar ministries elsewhere. Fundraisers by several Charlotte-area Knights of Columbus councils have been critical to BNA’s continued operations.
Notes Rich Adams, Past Grand Knight of North Carolina Council 7343 at St. John Neumann Church, “We are happy to support BNA. As Catholic men, the Knights of Columbus believe in the sanctity of life from conception to natural death, and the work that BNA does in supporting families expecting vulnerable infants is admirable.”
The Supreme Council of the Knights of Columbus has offered three significant donations over the past five years, and most recently, the Respect Life Committee at St. Paul the Apostle Church in Spartanburg, S.C., also held a successful baby bottle campaign in support of BNA.
“Our committee is a small group, ranging from three to six core members,” says committee member Katherine Brown. “We have hosted baby bottle fundraisers for pregnancy resource centers in the past, but we chose BNA as our focus with this fundraiser because of the little-known high abortion rate among mothers receiving poor prenatal diagnoses, and the impact of services like BNA in reducing that abortion rate.”
While abortion rates in general have dropped since the mid-1970s, abortions following the detection of a fetal anomaly are on the rise. A 2006 article published in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons noted that 80 percent of parents told that their unborn child had a severe congenital anomaly decided to abort. More importantly, however, the same article noted that when presented with a program of comprehensive support at the time of diagnosis – like that provided by BNA – more than 80 percent of parents chose to carry their unborn children to term.
Brown knows something about the parent experience of a prenatal diagnosis, and the support BNA provides.
“During my first pregnancy, my husband and I were given a poor prenatal diagnosis at 19 weeks and offered the option to abort our daughter,” she recalls. “We chose to carry her for as long as God allowed…and after our loss, I knew (I) wanted to be part of something that helped those who were walking that same uncertain path. I attended a BNA conference in Charlotte in 2011, and knew I wanted to be involved.”
Brown is the BNA Prayer Sponsor Coordinator assigning and updating prayer sponsors who pray for parents carrying to term daily.
Special efforts were taken to educate St. Paul parishioners about the needs of parents experiencing a prenatal diagnosis in advance of the fundraiser. BNA offered an evening presentation the week before the kickoff, and mothers who experienced a prenatal diagnosis and carried to term were allowed to speak at each Mass the weekend that the bottles were distributed.
“After Mass, several parishioners shared stories they had heard of parents struggling against pressures from medical professionals to abort after a prenatal diagnosis,” explains Heather Hayes, chairperson of the parish’s Respect Life Committee. “Most commented that not enough young parents know about their options when faced with an unexpected diagnosis. The lack of awareness of the option of carrying to term is the biggest challenge.”
When the bottles were collected and the money inside counted, the efforts of this small group of dedicated pro-life volunteers resulted in the collection of over $2,600 to support BNA. Hayes reports that the BNA baby bottle campaign was the parish’s most successful Respect Life fundraiser to-date.
“We were amazed and frankly humbled by the generosity of the St. Paul parish community,” Buck says.
“This is the largest single donation we have received from any parish,” Townsend adds. “And we would love to see one or two of our local Charlotte parishes support BNA with baby bottle fund raisers this year.”
BNA has received requests for support from parents in California, Texas, Michigan and Florida in just the first week of 2017, besides continuing to provide the only comprehensive service of support for Charlotte-area parents carrying to term following a prenatal diagnosis.
For more information about BNA, go to www.benotafraid.net. Find them on Facebook at “Benotafraid.net.”
— Tracy Winsor, Special to the Catholic News Herald
HUNTERSVILLE — Close to 500 men attended the seventh annual Catholic Men’s Conference, “Men on a Mission,” at St. Mark Church March 4.
The conference was an opportunity for the men of the Diocese of Charlotte to live their Catholic faith, and lead their families and others to God by the example of their lives.
This year it featured three dynamic Catholic speakers with very different delivery styles, including former Carolina Panthers quarterback Steve Beuerlein. Bishop Peter J. Jugis also celebrated Mass for the men. The day-long conference also featured Adoration and Benediction, with a Lenten reflection by Father Cory Catron, parochial vicar at St. Mark Church.
Soft-spoken Catholic speaker Robert Rogers, from Mighty in the Land Ministries, shared his testimony of how his wife Melissa and his four children were tragically killed during a flash flood in Kansas in August 2003. “The flood washed us off the freeway… I was in that flood as well. How I survived, only God knows,” Rogers recounted.
“The core of my message is to know God deeply, intimately, personally, and to live a life of no regrets,” he said.
Beuerlein followed Rogers’ poignant testimony. The former NFL quarterback told football stories about his college years as quarterback for the University of Notre Dame. Buerlein also shared with the men how central his Catholic faith has been since he was young.
“My Catholic faith is really at the core and center of who I am,” Beuerlein said. “It’s always been that way. I was born into an incredibly strong Catholic family… The example they set for us at a very young age is kind of the example I strive to live by myself now.”
Preaching on the Gospel of Luke 5:27-32, the calling of Levi, the tax collector, Bishop Jugis encouraged the men gathered to follow Christ.
“It’s an invitation that’s made, not just to Levi, but to each one of us here this morning, who has heard those words from Jesus, spoken to each one of us: ‘Follow me.’ Follow Him. Get up right away and start on the journey,” Bishop Jugis encouraged the men.
Father Bill Casey, superior general of the Fathers of Mercy, was the final speaker of the day. A former U.S. Army officer, Father Casey used a fiery tone to encourage the men to think about the things of above. Quoting St. Thomas Aquinas, the priest described heaven this way: “Heaven is the place where every good thing you have ever known or needed, and did not have; searched for, and could not find;…and everything that has eluded you, will be yours.”
Joe Warwick, a parishioner at St. Ann Church in Charlotte who has attended all seven men’s conferences, said he was thankful to have been at this year’s event, as he was deeply touched by Rogers’ testimony.
“I saw one of the greatest, if not the greatest, personal testimony of one man’s faith I’ve seen or heard today at the seventh annual Charlotte Catholic Men’s Conference. His faith is intact, but his soul continues to cry out,” Warwick said, “Robert Rogers has raised the bar higher than any lay person I’ve seen regarding being a husband and father through his witness as head of the domestic church.”
Sergio Miranda, core-organizing team leader, said he received great feedback from the participants, “I personally believe the Holy Spirit was with us that day. We were electrified and recharged with an energy that can only be experienced from men gathering, sharing and praying together.”
— Rico De Silva, Hispanic Communications Reporter