By Mary Owen
When the Memorial to the Unborn at St. Boniface needed a facelift, the Knights of Columbus at the Sublimity Catholic Church stepped in to help.
“Our council put up the first memorial,” said Kent Purdy, a spokesman for St. Anthony Council 2439. “Al Self was the person who headed it up, and really did most of the work.”
George Gerspacher filled Self’s shoes by heading the renovation and improvement of the memorial this time around, Purdy said.
“It is most gratifying to continue on with the project Mr. Self started 15 years ago,” Gerspacher said. “He’s in poor health now, but if it were not for him, the memorial wouldn’t have been here in the first place. He spent a lot of time putting it together and it’s kind of a memorial to him, too, as well as the unborn.”
The Knights of Columbus are committed to protecting and honoring the sanctity of human life, and actively pursue this goal by raising Memorials to the Unborn across the nation. The Sublimity council also has installed monuments at Lone Oak Cemetery in Stayton and Our Lady of Lourdes Church in nearby Jordan.
“We needed to renovate the St. Boniface monument because of some water damage to the base,” Purdy said. “And a wooden cross that was laid on a bed of red lava rock in front of the granite monument was falling apart. In other words, it was looking pretty shoddy.”
According to Purdy, David Wendell of Stayton learned from his wife, Carolyn, a worker at Oregon Right to Life in Salem, about an anonymous donor who funds such monuments. Wendell secured the funds from the donor through Affordable Family Memorial in Portland, allowing the Knights to initiate and approve the necessary changes, Purdy said.
“It is gratifying to have accomplished it,” said Gerspacher of the work completed in May which included a granite cross to replaces the worn wooden one.
Gerspacher said the Knights hope to rededicate the memorial in July or early August.
“We want a few of the people involved in the original dedication to be there,” he said. “We’ll rededicate it following Sunday Mass.”
St. Boniface’s priest, the Rev. Irudayaraj Amalanathan, called Fr. Amal by his parishioners, is please by the Knights’ hard work to erect a monument in honor of the unborn children lost to abortion, which is regarded a sin by the Catholic community.
“Life is purely a gift from God, and we can never merit that gift,” Fr. Amal said. “That is freely given to us, to live fully well for the glory of God.”
Purdy said he hopes and prays that “a young lady might have been helped or healed by our monument.”
“Regardless, the monuments are at least something that might make some people stop and think about the issue who maybe otherwise wouldn’t have given it a thought,” he added.
