Speakers encourage pro-life supporters to continue

Father Joseph Neilson, OCD, reads the Mary Rose Doe Award he received April 21 from Ann Covey (standing) of Fayetteville.
Father Joseph Neilson, OCD, reads the Mary Rose Doe Award he received April 21 from Ann Covey (standing) of Fayetteville.

“Tonight we have real cause to celebrate,” said Wayne Mays, master of ceremonies at the Rose Dinner April 21. The annual Arkansas Right to Life fundraiser was particularly joyful this year because those gathered cheered the April 18 Supreme Court decision that upheld the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act.
Mays, ARTL president, toasted the court’s 5-4 decision that ruled the federal ban is constitutional, which was received with much applause from the dinner guests at the Hilton Little Rock Metro Center.
Making partial-birth abortion illegal has long been a goal of the National Right to Life Committee and its state affiliates. In 1997, ARTL lobbied for a state ban and the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act was passed by the Arkansas General Assembly and signed into law by Gov. Mike Huckabee. The law was later declared unconstitutional, which also happened on the national level.
“This monumental decision, for the first time since 1973, has criminalized a specific abortion procedure and abortionists who perform it will be subject to imprisonment,” said Rose Mimms, ARTL executive director, in an April 20 press release. “This is an astounding development in our efforts to end legal abortion in our nation.”
During the dinner, Dr. Grover Evans Sr. of Our Lady of Good Counsel Church in Little Rock was the featured speaker. Evans, 55, is special consultant for systems design for Arkansas Rehabilitation Services and the Arkansas Department of Health and Human Services. He is also a world-class swimmer with three world records, a Paralympic record and 15 American records.
He spoke about the car accident that nearly killed him 30 years ago, which left him a quadriplegic and the challenges that he has faced and conquered since then.
“Our world is so torn, young people have no idea of the value of life,” he said. “Give me a chance and let me know show you what I can do.”
He challenged the audience to take a stand for all life and be an example of what it means to love unconditionally.
After Evans’ talk, Father Joseph Neilson, OCD, of Marylake Monastery in Little Rock, was presented the 2007 Mary Rose Doe Award. This award has been given annually since 1985 to recognize individual pro-life work in Arkansas. Long-time friend and pro-life volunteer Ann Covey of St. Joseph Church in Fayetteville presented the award.
Covey said Father Neilson helped organize the Saline County Right to Life chapter and arranged for volunteers to pray and counsel women outside Little Rock abortion clinics in 1977. He influenced the first Little Rock Right to Life march in 1978, the opening of Abba House, a home for unwed mothers, and in 1980, helped open St. Joseph Helpers, also called Arkansas Pregnancy Resource Center, in Little Rock.
Father Neilson, 75, has “been a champion of the unborn for more than 30 years,” Covey said. And he has always used a “loving and holy approach to this serious moral issue.”
Father Neilson left Arkansas in the 1980s, but continued his pro-life work by establishing pro-life offices in Dallas and Oklahoma City.
A near-fatal car accident in Dallas in 1986 profoundly effected his physical abilities from that point forward. In 2002, he returned to Marylake where he continues to celebrate Mass and is a spiritual director and confessor to many including several priests, said longtime friend Brother Bernard Joseph O’Neill, OCD, of the monastery.
Father Neilson seemed caught off guard by the standing ovation he received when presented the award.
He offered a few words of advice.
“Never give up, if you fall down, get back up and start again, but never, never give up. The recent Supreme Court decision was a real example of the principle, never give up,” Father Neilson said. “Eventually you’ll get where you’re going.”

Tara Little

Tara Little joined Arkansas Catholic in 2000 and has served in various capacities, including production manager and associate editor. Since 2006 she has managed the website for the Diocese of Little Rock.

Latest from News

Formation Day

The next Parish Catechist Formation Days will be held March 22 at St. James Church in…