12th Annual Proudly Pro-Life Awards Dinner Honors Chaput, DeVoses.

The 12th annual Proudly Pro-Life Awards Dinner brought together a wonderful cross-section of pro-life activists, office holders, and clergy at the beautiful Willard Inter-Continental Hotel in Washington, D.C., to honor three pro-life champions. Organized by the National Right to Life Educational Trust Fund, the April 20 gathering honored the Most Reverend Charles Chaput, the Archbishop of Denver, and Richard and Helen DeVos, whose foundation has made unborn children a major focus of its philanthropy.

Both the Archbishop and Mr. DeVos, speaking for himself and his wife, were passionately eloquent. Archbishop Chaput told his audience that he had just returned from a papal conclave and took the opportunity to talk about Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI.

John Paul "understood that real Christian discipleship seeks to serve the whole human person, from conception to natural death," he said. "John Paul understood that we can't build justice while deliberately killing - - or allowing anyone else to deliberately kill - - the innocent and defenseless."

Archbishop Chaput was equally enthusiastic about the new Pope. "In every important way, Pope Benedict XVI is an affirmation of the legacy of Pope John Paul II," he said. Friends and collaborators for many years, "Cardinal ...