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Margaret Grace Schneider put beliefs into action

Margaret Grace Schneider, who died in December at the age of 83, was a person who stood up for her beliefs-especially for her beliefs in the sanctity of life.

"My parents' whole orientation was pro-life," said her daughter, Mary Ann Kreitzer.

"Every child born in our household was welcomed. There was never a hint that each new child was not a cause for celebration; it was always a source of great excitement to us that a new baby was coming."

Mrs. Schneider's reverence for life led her to become extremely active in the pro-life movement so much so, that she braved the cold to walk in last year's March for Life, at the age of 82.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1919, Margaret attended Trinity College in, Washington, D.C., graduating with a bachelor's degree in English.

She attended law school at Case Western Reserve University, but after two years, ran off to marry her childhood sweetheart, Raymond Schneider.

"Mom had been adopted by a couple in their fifties, so it was almost like she was being raised in a Victorian household," Mary Ann explained.

"Her mom loved my dad­until she found out he wanted to marry my mom. She didn't want my mom to get married-period!"

But Margaret's dad, who approved of the match, helped his daughter to elope with Raymond, an ensign in the Navy who was about to be shipped out for duty in the Pacific.

They were married in September, 1941, and got to the island of Oahu in time to see the Japanese planes flying over to attack Pearl Harbor.

Margaret was evacuated to the mainland, the first of many moves during her husband's long naval career.

"We moved every three or four years," recalled Mary Ann. "Mom had a tough row to hoe. My dad worked long hours, so she' was virtually the sole caregiver to us children."

As the mother of five girls and six boys, she worked incredibly hard, said Mary Ann. But she knew how to delegate work to keep things running smoothly.

"Each one of us older children had charge of a younger child. It was my job, for example, to get my younger brother, Bobby, dressed and ready for bed."

Mary Ann, the fourth old­est, recalls "doing a lot of laundry­folding" and that her mother would motivate her by paying her three dollars to iron a basket of clothes.

Margaret also set an example of piety-in the best sense of the word.

At Trinity College, she had belonged to the Catholic Evidence Guild, whose members would go out and lecture on the faith in parks.

Once she gave a talk on confession, not knowing that Frank Sheed of the well-known Catholic publishers, Sheed & Ward, was in the audience. Afterwards, he told her she was "damn good."

Mary Ann remembers get­ting up early with her mother to attend 6:30 Mass before going off to high school.

"She was totally orthodox in, her beliefs, but liberal, as the Church is liberal, on social issues," says Mary Ann.

She believed in helping the poor and was against capital punishment. In law school she wrote a paper on Rerum Novarum, the social encyclical of Pope Leo XIII.

Although her husband wasn't too sure about the importance of a college education for girls, Margaret would say, "An educated man is an educated man; but when you educate a woman, you educate a whole family."

"She encouraged us all to go to college, and most of us did," said Mary Ann.

Margaret herself eventually went back to college when her children were older, receiving a master's degree in education at Loyola College in Baltimore. She subsequently was a substitute teacher in Howard County schools.

Margaret launched into pro-life work after attending a slide presentation showing the methods of abortion by pro-lifer Dr. Jack Wilke in 1972.

She became involved in Virginia Right to Life, and with Nellie Gray and the annual March for Life.

She raised thousands of dollars for the March for Life through the March-a-thons, gave pro-life talks to students at The Catholic High School in Baltimore, and for many years, headed the pro-life group at her parish, St. Augustine Catholic Church in Elkridge.

She also joined the anti­abortion "rescue" movement. In 1992 she and Mary Ann spent 23 days in the county jail in Buffalo for blocking an abortion clinic during Operation Rescue's "Spring of Life."

After her husband died in 1985, Margaret volunteered twice a week at the Little Sisters Of the Poor in Catonsville, where she was a regular reader at Mass.

"She gave us a tremendous example of acting on what you believe in," said Mary Ann.