Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly joins Connecticut Knights, their families and others to rally for life in the state’s capital
Several thousand pro-life advocates, including a Supreme Council delegation led by Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly and hundreds more Knights and their families, participated in the fourth Connecticut March for Life in Hartford on March 19. Knights served as marshals along the downtown route, distributed about 600 K of C pro-life signs for marchers to carry, and sponsored 28 buses that transported at least 1,000 people to the capital.
Supreme Knight Kelly and Jennie Bradley Lichter, the new president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, were among the speakers who addressed more than 2,000 people at the pre-march rally.
“The Knights have always stood with pregnant moms and their unborn babies, because that’s who we are,” the supreme knight told the crowd. “It’s our duty as Catholics, but it’s also our responsibility as men. ... To be truly pro-life means we are willing to lay down our lives, because that’s what real men do.”
Connecticut’s abortion laws are among the more permissive in the United States, allowing abortion for any reason through 24 weeks of pregnancy. The state’s lawmakers have passed several measures in recent years that have made abortion access easier. Even before the overturn of Roe v. Wade in 2022, the state passed legislation offering a safe haven to people traveling from other states to obtain an abortion. The same year, Connecticut was also the first state to pass a so-called “shield law” preventing lawsuits from being filed against abortion providers and patients who travel to for abortion procedures.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court returned the issue of abortion to state legislatures in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in June 2022, the March for Life Education and Defense Fund has expanded its demonstrations on the state level, with Connecticut being one of 18 states where demonstrations sponsored by the March for Life are being held in 2025.
Lichter, attending her second state march since assuming the role of March for Life president Feb. 1, encouraged Connecticut marchers to continue supporting the essential work being done at more than 3,000 pregnancy resource centers across the country.
“I’ve had a chance to learn a little bit about the many amazing life-affirming and life-saving organizations you have here in Connecticut,” Lichter said. “To all of the PRC staff and volunteers here … you are the front lines, and we’re grateful for you.”
Since 2022, Knights in the United States and Canada have raised nearly $14 million to support pregnancy resource centers through the Order’s ASAP (Aid and Support After Pregnancy) program, which matches 20% of a council’s donation to a PRC or maternity home, up to $2,000. Knights have also donated more than 1,900 ultrasound machines to pro-life medical clinics and pregnancy resource centers since 2009, through the Order’s grant-matching Ultrasound Initiative.
“Six out of 10 women who have chosen abortion would have preferred to choose life if they had the emotional and financial support that they felt necessary,” Lichter said. “That is such a call to action for every one of us … to make that support available and make sure that women who need it know how to find it.”
Other speakers at the rally included Bishop Frank Caggiano of Bridgeport, who led the opening prayer; Melissa Ohden, an abortion survivor and the founder of Abortion Survivors Network; Christopher Healy, executive director of the Connecticut Catholic Conference and a member of Father James J. Gannon Council 4193 in Wethersfield; and Peter Wolfgang, president of the Family Institute of Connecticut and a member of Hon. Rev. Thomas F. Gaffney Council 31 in New Britain.
Wolfgang said that despite the state’s pro-abortion legislation he believes the pro-life movement in Connecticut is growing more hopeful every day.
“We will continue to fight for the day where every unborn child in the state of Connecticut is protected in law and welcomed in life,” he said. “Even if we don’t live to see it, we know it will happen someday and when it does it will have something to do with what is happening right here and right now.”
Reflecting on the example of St. Joseph, whose feast day coincided with the march, Supreme Knight Kelly challenged men to embrace their roles as fathers and protectors, putting the needs of others before their own.
“Too many men refuse to get married when an unborn baby enters the picture; they’d rather run than take responsibility. Too many men are acting like boys, but we don’t need boys,” he said. “In short, we need men to act like men. … If we truly oppose abortion, we must do everything we can to support the women in our lives.”
The supreme knight concluded by calling on all men in attendance to embrace the “mission of greatness” they were made for. “If we’re going to build a culture of life,” he said, “it starts with you and with me, and we’ll succeed when every man becomes the man that God is calling him to be.”
Find more information about your state’s March for Life at marchforlife.org/statemarches.