By Anne DiBernardo - Florida Catholic

TAMARAC | For their 23rd annual Mary for Life banquet, members of St. Malachy’s prolife ministry did not need to look far for a keynote speaker: Joan Crown, the Archdiocese of Miami’s Respect Life director, took the 116 people in attendance on an inspiring trip down memory lane, as she reflected on 30 years of struggles, triumphs and miracles.

"The perseverance of the prolife movement can be seen at this yearly event, as the same people are consistently there, and Joan Crown has been an exceptional leader, fighting the good fight for 30 years," said Eugene Cunningham, president of the group, which sponsors the banquet every year on Dec. 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception.

Crown, called a “trailblazer” by peers, is the longest serving pro-life leader in South Florida. Her duties include educating the public and legislators about all the prolife issues, from abortion to euthanasia and the death penalty; overseeing the day-to-day work of five pregnancy help centers; coordinating the annual Catholic Days at the Capitol lobbying trip to Tallahassee; overseeing theProject Rachel post abortion healing program and the Project Joseph outreach to men who want to become better dads; and taking about 100 high school students each January to the March for Life in Washington, D.C. 

More recently, she took on a new role as “general contractor,” working to transform a 5,000 square foot space in Hollywood into the permanent home of Our Lady of Hope Expectant Life Center.

In her talk, Crown said she had no idea what God had in store for her when she was invited to accompany a neighbor to a prolife meeting back in 1981.

“At that first meeting, respect life founding director Father Daniel Kubala said our country permits the killing of unborn children through all nine months of pregnancy. I jumped up and said, ‘I don’t believe that,’ so he probably saw some kind of fight in me that needed to be channeled into the prolife effort. 

“Not that I wasn’t prolife, but I didn’t believe our country was doing that and he had to prove it to me,” Crown recalled. “So he said to me, ‘Here — this is Roe vs. Wade (the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion) — read.’”

Crown began working with respect life as a volunteer director of the South Broward Pregnancy Help Center. The centers offer counseling and alternatives to abortion as well as prolife education.

“Back then, Father Kubala told us, we need to have a place for women in crisis to come so we could walk them through this storm. My fellow volunteers and I would sit praying … and when the doorbell rang, we were praying it was the mailman. We were so scared yet we were willing to be there if someone needed our help,” Crown said.

One of her first days at the pregnancy center, she encountered “a mother of five children, pregnant with her sixth, (who) was being beaten by her husband; and instinctively I knew the answer to her problem could not be to kill her child. It has to be to get her counseling for her husband and try to get her to repair that family.  Apparently nobody had ever said that to her before, so we found the resources to get her out of that situation.”

In 1984, she was appointed associate director of the Respect Life Ministry. Her new responsibilities included attending prolife conferences throughout the country. At one of them, she met Father Frank Pavone, founder of Priests for Life.

“He was saying we have to do more than this; this is life and death, a battle between good and evil,” Crown recalled. “He said this can’t be a hobby, and this can’t be a past time — this has to be a commitment. And he was so right. I see people come and go and if they are not coming for the right reasons, they are not going to stay. You really have to put on your armor of the Holy Spirit to come into this work.”

Crown said she identifies with the Prophet Jeremiah, who was called a weeping prophet because he had to bring a message that the people did not want to hear. That was her first thought in 2006, when she was told she would succeed Father Jordi Rivero as director of the ministry.

“My first reaction was ‘take me to the cry room.’ I thought what a tremendous responsibility this is … and I was willing to take it, but I wanted to cry first,” said Crown.

She also lamented some of her struggles, including the fact that some of the greatest resistance has come from those within the Catholic Church.

“We had to go out and convince them that this was a worthwhile fight, that these are real children,” Crown said. “People just don’t get that these are children and we are killing them by methods that would rival some of the worst serial killers of our time.”

She learned quickly that popularity is not in the job description. “Back then we were labeled as crazy people, but I found scripture that says, ‘My truth sounds like foolishness to those who are lost’ and that is my comfort.” 

“By now, I realize I am labeled an activist,” Crown said. “I never thought I would feel so strongly about an issue to become an activist, but that’s what I think I am.” 

She admits that she never imagined she would be doing this work for 30 years, and notes she has no fancy titles or letters after her name. 

“We read in 1 Corinthians where God chooses the lowly — that is me,” she said.

Which brings her to her motto, words inscribed above her desk which she looks at often: “Why has such privilege been granted to us, to defend Him in his least ones.”

“You have to remind yourself that if you have been chosen to do this, it is a privilege,” Crown said.    

ABOUT MARY FOR LIFE

St. Malachy’s prolife ministry sponsors many events throughout the year to promote awareness about life issues.

In addition to the annual banquet, the group prays in front of abortion facilities, participates in the annual “Life Chain,” and every year, on the Saturday closest to the Jan. 22 anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion, holds a prayer service at Our Lady Queen of Heaven Cemetery in Fort Lauderdale for two aborted babies that were found in a dumpster.

The group also sponsors an annual Walk for Life and has held pro-life rallies in front of a federal courthouse on Jan. 22.