State Life Director
July 2021
Faith in Action Life - Programs HERE - Resources HERE
Greetings and welcome to the 2021-2022 fraternal year. As Life Director for the State of Indiana, I look forward to serving you during the next year.
Faith in Action began just three years ago. The program goal is to strengthen our men and their families in the faith. The Supreme recommended programs in the Faith in Action program, included in the Life category, are designed to bring all brother Knights closer to God and the Church and protecting the sanctity of life from conception to natural death. . The result: we can be an example of a leader that other men embrace, and want to be a part of/want to be a member of the Knights of Columbus. We hope to build on the success of the Supreme Recommended programs, and also the many other creative and faith filled programs many of the Indiana councils offer.
Life is one of four categories in the Faith in Action Program. The other three are Family, Faith and Community. Supreme has provided several recommended programs in each of the four categories. The Life recommended programs are:
March for Life
Special Olympics
Ultrasound Program
Christian Refugee Relief
Silver Rose
Mass for People with Special Needs
Pregnancy Center Support
Novena for Life
March for Life, Ultrasound Program and Special Olympics are featured programs and count as two activities. The following are some examples of Life programs that many councils are currently doing:
1) Biking for Babies, September 17-19----Support our Bikers (or become a biker-contact Robert at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). Last fall we had 25 bikers and raised $11,000 for the Ultrasound initiative. Robert Newport, the Indiana Biking for Babies Captain and winner of the Michael Velasco Cristo Rey award at the convention last month, will be leading us once again. Pro-life prayers warriors are needed as we fund our Ultrasound program. Check out the video https://vimeo.com/215291022 and flyer CLICK HERE. Consider having your council/families “cheer on” the bikers along the route (US 40 from Terre Haute to Richmond-You may also a leg of the journey-I plan to ride a 20 mile leg from Indy to Greenfield) and a map with times will be provided upon request/next month and/or sponsor a biker. (Men and women invited.)
2) Silver Rose program… Indiana hosted the Silver Rose during May. Please check out Supremes info on the Silver Rose at www.kofc.org/life and ... The Silver Rose entered northern Indiana on May 2nd and exited southern Indiana on June 1st …some council cities who hosted and supported Life and honored Our Lady of Guadalupe included: Goshen, Hammond, Lowell, Lafayette, Zionsville, Lebanon, Brownsburg, Fishers, Anderson, New Albany, Tell City and Bristow…see below the Silver Rose highlights last month. Watch for more details about the 2022 program later this year.
3) 40 Days for Life-Next campaign begins on September 22nd. Have your council pray at the 40 Days for Life site for an hour, two hours or take an overnight shift. (Central Indiana Knights joined to do an overnight prayer vigil on Friday, March 19th, the Feast of St Joseph, at the Indy Planned Parenthood and had over 150 participants through the night.) Since 40 days for life began in 2007, 18,816 lives have been saved; 110 abortion centers have been closed and 221 abortion workers have quit. 40 days for Life and in 63 countries and 1,000 cities. And many saves were not recorded plus thousands of hearts changed.
4) Life Chain Sunday-participate in your local or start a local Life Chain which takes place the first Sunday in October-the 3rd. (October is respect life month).
5) Ask your Priest/Chaplain if you can place crosses, (representing aborted babies) on the Church property during Respect Life month or during January around the Roe V Wade anniversary.
6) Offer up your council Rosary monthly or quarterly for Life.
7) Encourage your council members to become sidewalk counselors/be on the front line to help women make the right choice/consider other options instead of the abortion clinic or Planned Parenthood.
8) Invite the local Special Olympics representative to speak at a social night.
9) As a council, attend right to life events/dinners a supporting the organizations who are the front line and lobbying legislators for Life.
10) Host a movie night for the council/parish with movies such as Unplanned, Bella or October Baby. Have pizza, popcorn, cookies and lemonade with a free will offering, with proceeds to Life organizations.
11)Organize Christmas caroling with Knights families, to sing at assisted living or nursing homes.
12)Sponsor a Knights “Freezing for a Reason” Polar Plunge team.
13) Ultrasound initiative – in the last few months we have awarded or paid for eight units, and now we have requests from several pregnancy resource centers in need of an ultrasound machine. If each council member could contribute $5, we could raise the monies to meet the demands for the next year… of if each council raises $500 from its members we could meet those requests. Please remember statistics show that 90% of woman in a crisis pregnancy who see their ultrasound, will keep their baby.
Silver Rose Highlights May 2nd to June 1st…
· Number of Councils: 15 includes Goshen, Syracuse, Lowell, Hammond, Lafayette, Lebanon, Anderson, Zionsville, Brownsburg, Fisher, New Albany, Tell City and Bristow…
· Participants: Lebanon/Frankfort had 107; New Albany 50; Fishers 40 and estimated number for all councils was 500…
· Click for pictures from the Silver Rose in Indiana: PIC1 PIC2 PIC3 PIC4 PIC5
Check for complete details on each Faith in Action program and the Faith in Action initiative at https://kofc.org/uns/en/programs/index.html. Keep in mind these are recommended programs, but other Life based programs such as those listed above (some you have developed in your council) also qualify as part of the required four activities for this category.
Also, please begin sending your activities today online at http://www.indianakofc.org/ and click on Forms.
One final comment/suggestion: PRAY and COMMUNICATE…as a leader, begin everything with prayer and communicate often. We have some wonderful initiatives and want to be sure all brother Knights are aware so they/the council can receive the blessings of these programs.
If you need help or have any questions about the Knights, especially the Knight’s Life initiatives, please contact me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Also, there are a couple of brother Knights who I work closely with: Culture of Life Chairman Michael Velasco (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) and Special Olympics Chairman Michael Lewis (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). The three of us are the Indiana Life team.
Vivat Jesus and God bless you!
Larry Kunkel
State Life Director
Indiana Knights of Columbus
317-223-4892
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.