By Dennis Kellogg
Director of Communications
The 2024 Bishops’ Pro-Life Banquet was both a celebration and a recommitment to doing more for the pro-life cause in Nebraska.
A capacity crowd at the Marriott Cornhusker Hotel ballroom in Lincoln Friday, Nov. 22, celebrated recent election results in which a pro-life initiative defeated a pro-abortion initiative, enshrining in the state constitution protection for unborn children in the second and third trimester. Speakers also encouraged those attending to help increase their efforts to protect women and children.
Archbishop George Lucas of Omaha, Bishop Joseph Hanefeldt of Grand Island and Bishop James Conley of Lincoln each spoke as part of the annual banquet presented by the Nebraska Catholic Conference. Tom Venzor, executive director of the NCC, welcomed those attending and thanked everyone for their efforts in the recent election. Venzor was later presented with a gift from his staff, for his leadership in the campaign to defeat Initiative 439 and pass Initiative 434.
Greg Schleppenbach, CEO of The Culture Project, congratulated Nebraskans for rejecting a “culture of death” in their voting on the abortion issue. The evening was a homecoming for Schleppenbach, who served as state pro-life director and executive director during his 25 years with the Nebraska Catholic Conference. He then went on to spend six years as associate director of the Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. His current work with The Culture Project involves leading a group of young people across the country whose mission is “to restore culture through the experience of virtue.”
Schleppenbach told the crowd the goal of the pro-life movement is “not simply to make abortion illegal. It’s to make it unthinkable.”
In an interview earlier in the day with the Southern Nebraska Register, Schleppenbach said, “We truly have to change the mindset of people, the culture at its root, to understand better the nature of the human person… That’s going to be a very long-term project that’s going to have to look at a lot of different things and attack it at a lot of different angles.”
Schleppenbach cited the “Walking With Moms” program which he worked with while he was with the USCCB as one good program.
“The Church needs to do what the Church does really well,” he said, “and that is provide support structures for pregnant moms and families and addressing all the kinds of issues that often drive women to even think about, let alone go through, an abortion.”
Schleppenbach said The Culture Project has prompted him to look beyond fighting “the supply side of abortion” to addressing the demand side.
“That means reaching young people earlier in their lives and in getting them on the right path before the culture of death gets its grips on them and takes them down very dark and destructive paths,” he said. “And the culture of death is reaching young people younger and younger and younger.”
Schleppenbach said The Culture Project has created a peer-to-peer ministry of young people right out of college “who we form very intensely before we go into the dioceses that we serve and start speaking to middle school and high school students.” He said they aim to reach seventh- through 12th-grade students on topics including human dignity, sexual integrity and virtuous living.
Schleppenbach said it’s not just talking about a life of virtue, either. He said the “lived reality of these missionaries and their example is what is so compelling for young people.” He added that all people need to share in the work to change the culture, which will take time and effort.
“We can’t give what we don’t have, and each of us needs to attend to our own life and soul and response to God to make sure it is as vigorous as it needs to be,” Schleppenbach said. “When we see that transformation in our hearts, and as we grow interiorly, we’ll have more to give to those around us, which is ultimately what’s going to turn this culture around.”
Also at the banquet, the 2024 Gospel of Life Award was presented to Nikki Shasserre of Lincoln. Shasserre co-founded the pro-life student group while she attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The former member of FOCUS most recently served as the campaign manager for Protect Women & Children, leading the successful effort to stop the pro-abortion amendment and enshrine protections for the unborn.
The courage of St. Joan of Arc inspired the theme of this year’s banquet, taken from her quote, “I fear nothing, for God is with me.” In a letter from Nebraska’s three bishops to those attending, the bishops said, “Her confidence in God’s presence inspires us to answer our own call to serve the Lord, especially in the ongoing mission to uphold the sanctity of life.”
Watch the entire video interview with Greg Schleppenbach, CEO of The Culture Project, on the Catholic Diocese of Lincoln YouTube channel. While there, subscribe for more Catholic videos from the diocese.
