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Defend Life Director named pro-life hero

When Pro-Life Appreciation Night emcee Steve Peroutka announced that Jack Ames had won the James A. Miller-Robert G. Haase Hero Award, the hundreds of pro-lifers at Michael's Eighth Avenue in Glen Burnie erupted in thunderous applause.

Their spontaneous outburst of approval, roughly translated, said, Hey, we know this guy! He eats, sleeps and breathes pro-life!

"I've always been pro-life," Jack admits.

Jack traces his realization of the intrinsic evil of abortion to his junior year at Villanova in 1962, when he read Fr. Austin Fagothey's Right and Reason, the standard ethics text in Catholic colleges.

In addition, he recalls, "One of my great teachers, Peter Kreeft I had him for logic forced me to think logically."

This penchant for logical thinking, combined with his conviction that abortion is an abomination, spurred him into his fIrSt pro-life action in 1972.

When a pro-abortion bill was being debated in the Virginia legislature, Jack, a self-employed mechanical-electrical engineer living in Richmond, put a copy of Dr. Jack Wilke's hard-hitting flyer, "Abortion: Life or Death," in every state legislator's mailbox.

A year later, Roe v. Wade ren­dered all state abortion laws moot. Jack swung into action, organizing pickets of a local Richmond abortion mill (run by a Presbyterian minister) and starting Richmond Right to Life, a branch of Virginia Right to Life.

In addition to picketing abor­tion mills, Richmond Right to Life sponsored an anti-abortion slide show every year at the state fair.

Moving to Baltimore in 1977, Jack found some sporadic pick­eting and other pro-life activity going on, but was disappointed at the absence of a coordinated, ongoing pro-life effort.

At the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen he became active in the Respect Life group with Eileen Bolgiano, who eventually asked him to take over the group.

He began a speakers' program, sponsoring monthly pro-life speakers, such as Michael Schwartz and Judie Brown, between the 9:15 and 11:00 a.m. Masses.

But attendance was meager. So Jack welcomed an invitation by Joseph Koterski, a Jesuit scholastic who taught philosophy at Loyola College, to move his speaker's bureau to the college to attract larger crowds.

That same year, 1987, Jack co-founded Defend Life with Mrs. Bolgiano.

"We wanted to start a real grassroots, active pro-life group for the Archdiocese," he explains.

The speakers' program at Loyola featured many leaders in the pro-life movement, including ex­abortionists such as Beverly McMillan, Anthony Levatino and Bernard Nathanson.

Other outstanding speakers were former Congressman Bob Doman, Congressman Chris Smith and Joanna Bogle from England.

A highlight for the lecture program came in 1990, when Joan Andrews spoke, just after her release from prison for dismantling an abor­tion machine.

"Over 200 people were there," says Jack. "Bishop John Ricard, former auxiliary bishop of Baltimore, introduced her. That was a real turning point for Defend Life."

Attendance peaked at 500 at a lecture given by abortion survivor Gianna Jessen.

Three years ago, Defend Life expanded its program to reach a wider audience by co-sponsoring pro-life speakers and religious plays by St. Luke Productions at parishes, schools and Knights of Columbus councils throughout Maryland.

Other recent Defend Life highlights that Jack remembers with fondness:

• Scott Klusendorf's dynamic Pro­Life 101 apologetics course at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in 2002.
• The massive summer Face the Truth Tours in 2001 and 2002, with hundreds of participants and hun­dreds of thousands of viewers.
• The tremendous boost given Defend Life's efforts through the support and generosity of Steve and Michael Peroutka.

When Jack thinks of Defend Life's successes, two young people spring to mind.

Charles Sikorsky was a young attorney when he came to hear Fr. Paul Marx at one of the lectues.

"I told him, 'Defend Life needs young people like you to become active in the pro-life move­ment,'" says Jack.

Charles went on to become director of Defend Life. He was recently ordained a Legionary of Christ priest.

Jack encouraged Loyola stu­dent Liz Dever to become head of Loyola's Evergreeens for Life and to join American Collegians for Life.

Liz became an indefatigable pro-lifer, volunteering for Human Life International and later working for other pro-life groups.

Now, Liz Dever Walz is rais­ing and homeschooling four (soon to be five) children.

Looking at Defend Life here and now, Jack says, "We've set up a good organizational structure. With our newsletter, blanket e-mail, database, and our octopus automatic phone network, we can react quickly to a particular situation."

He points to Defend Life's quick response in setting up an effective picket when then-gubernatorial hopeful Bob Ehrlich spoke at a Planned Parenthood dinner even when the planners tried to avoid the picket with a last-minute location switch.

"We are able to get out the pro-life message and give aid and support to local pro-lifers in their parishes," he says.

In the future, Jack says, he wants to "continue doing the same thing we're doing now: provide speakers for parishes, schools and Knights of Columbus councils.

"But I'd also like to see more pro-life activity at the high school and middle school level, using the Life Corps approach­young, full-time college graduates promoting the pro-life message at these schools."

Generation Life in Philadelphia and Generations Life in Chicago, headed by Annie Scheidler, have been successfullly operating this type of project, says Jack.