Knights of Columbus Conflict

For years, Small Victories has had clashes with several pro-life groups after the groups questioned their self-imposed authority or began to ask questions about how their donations were really being used. Small Victories would become not just defensive, but would aggressively use their radio show, website entries, letters to the editor and even picketing the groups’ events and facilities holding signs accusing the groups of being liars and hypocrites, apostate and even going to the outrageous extreme of saying that they are pro-choice.

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The following is just one example of these conflicts and how Small Victories and its leadership handle them. This particular incident is documented by a very startling pronouncement on their old radio show and by numerous letters to the editor of the Highland News Leader, articles and photos from their website street reports below. Could this be because the Knights of Columbus would not submit to Small Victories’ self imagined authority and dared to question their finances and 501 C 3 status? Is Small Victories' definition of being pro-choice accurate? You decide.
On February 20, 2007 the President of Small Victories on her weekly radio show made the following statement.

Listen carefully here, the speaker said that because of her pro-life stance against a Catholic hospital having an abortionist on staff, she was being called a "heretic" and that finally she "stood up and told the Bishop to either take the word Catholic off that sign or else get that abortionist out." She then says that she had the Knights of Columbus on her front lawn holding their torches saying, "Burn the Witch!"
Isn't that scary?

Note, that when she finishes her story she says, “Yeah, that happened”. WHY?   It is as if she really needs to prove that what she has said is true, knowing herself that it is not.

Interestingly in a report written February 5, 2002, by the President of Small Victories and posted to the Operation Save America website she described the banquet quite differently than what she described on her radio program that day. She reports

"We drew a line in the sand one year ago at a speaking engagement where Angela asked the bishop to either take "Catholic" off the hospital sign or get the abortionist out! To her surprise; she received a standing ovation but the bishop was humiliated. (Galatians 6:4) The seminarians on the other hand thanked her for having the courage to speak the truth"

(Editorial note: The use of italics is ours, the use of bold is theirs. )

View this web page here.

If the website link no longer works here is a copy printed and then scanned in PDF format. The comment is toward the bottom of page 2.

Why would her description of this event be so different just 5 years later?
This account was written just one year after the event she had spoken at occurred, why then is there no mention of the Knights of Columbus standing on her lawn with torches shouting “burn the witch” in this account? You would think that because it is fresher in her memory at this point she would mention it at least in passing, especially since she is trying to make the reader believe that there was a line drawn in the sand, and Small Victories was standing against a hierarchy that was complacent about having an abortionist on staff at their hospital.

Besides the fact that a hate crime occurred here and no one noticed, why is she bringing it up 6 years later?
What is she hoping to gain?
What point is she making?
Why has this incredibly traumatic torch incident never been mentioned, before or since?

The reader has to admit, that if there were 20, 10 even 5 people on their front lawn with torches, that they would not just close the curtains and go to bed, hoping they would go away by morning. Naturally, in the future they would try to avoid the group that was standing on the lawn holding torches. However, in this case Small Victories continued to take money from and associate with the Knights of Columbus until 2006.

What happened in 2006? Well according to the Secretary of Small Victories in a letter to the editor of the Highland News Leader (see below), the Knights of Columbus held a fundraising dinner and had the nerve and audacity to give the money to and have as their speaker, someone other than the President of Small Victories. This led to accusations by Small Victories that the speaker and her organization were referring women for abortions, an accusation that is totally ridiculous on its face.

According to The Knights of Columbus, someone in their organization got wise to what was actually going on with the money that was being given, and at that point began to ask questions about the organizational structure and deductibility of donations made to two of the local pro-life agencies.

Why would the President of Small Victories make such an outrageous statement on her radio show about the Knights of Columbus?

Why would her description of this event be so different just 5 years later?

Well it may have something to do with the fact that on February 18, 2007 the Knights of Columbus in Highland Illinois, (Small Victories Home Town) held a Pro-Life fund raising dinner, an event that Small Victories had received donations from in the past. However this year, (2007) Small Victories did not get any of the proceeds as a donation. Remember this radio broadcast was made February 20th, 2007.

Just 7 days after this radio broadcast aired, the following letter was published in the Highland News Leader.

LETTER 1

Strangely the letter writer mentions that the "Highland Right to Life" was not getting any money from the Knights of Columbus in Highland, and Small Victories is not mentioned at all.

However in letter number two, the letter that was written by the Knights of Columbus in Highland to dispute the first letter, the letter writer mentions that both Highland Right to Life and Small Victories received nothing, due to that fact that the K of C had been asking them both to produce their 501 C 3 certification letters, as required by the IRS tax codes. The answer that was given was apparently "NO", and not just no, but something to the effect that the Knights of Columbus were giving out "Blood Money" so neither organization wanted any of it anyway.

LETTER 2

Why is this important?

Well at first blush it does not seem important at all, until you realize that the director of Small Victories, and the President of Right to Life Association of Highland are one in the same person, according to the Secretary of State's office in Illinois. That does tend to make things a little clearer does it not?

LETTER 3

In this letter the Secretary / Treasurer of Small Victories states “The Highland Right to Life and Small Victories are two different organizations.”
This may be true but the registration that was made with the State of Illinois shows that the President of Small Victories File # 61574158 and the President of The Right to Life Association of Highland File # 5028379 are one in the same person. They even have the same address as their registration address.
A check to verify the 501 C 3 status of the Highland Right to Life (Right to Life Association of Highland) shows that they are not actually a certified 501 C 3, but they are registered as a Not For Profit in the state of Illinois, a fact that is artfully dodged by the letter writer, but could cause an organization that is making donations to them quite a problem if they thought they were donating to a 501 C 3 and would get a tax deductible donation. This is just one of the reasons that the IRS tax code makes it mandatory for 501 C 3 and other charitable organizations to provide this information to the public upon request.

Perhaps that is why the Knights of Columbus had a problem with Small Victories not producing their 501 C 3 documents when asked.

View the Right To Life of Highland Certification from State of Illinois

View the Small Victories NFP Certification from State of Illinois

This is the address of the Secretary of State of Illinois website so you can search for yourself, to verify what we are saying is true.

Cyberdrive Illinois

It should be noted here that the Right To Life Association of Highland is not registered with the IRS as a 501 C 3, they are registered as a NFP with the state of Illinois only, so they would never be able to give the documents that the Knights of Columbus were asking for anyway.
You can verify this by going to the IRS website:

IRS Charity Search

LETTER 4
In letter number 4 a local citizen points out that charitable gifts and giving is not set in stone, and if you want to receive, you just be prepared to show that you are eligible to receive. She also points out that just saving the baby is not enough, you must help the mother care for the child after it is born.

In this next letter the daughter of the President of Small Victories tries to shame the previous letter writer for speaking out against her parents and their organization. It is a rather feeble attempt to justify the bad behavior of the leadership of Small Victories, and does not really explain why they have refused to provide their financial information.

LETTER 5

In the last letter the author of letter 4, points out that they have never really addressed the issue that was originally pointed out
And alleges that the officers of Small Victories have put other members of their family up to defending their organization and their cause.

LETTER 6

One year later (2008) the Knights of Columbus and Small Victories must not have patched their differences because Small Victories picketed the Knights of Columbus again.

See the pictures of the protest here:
<http://www.smallvictoriesusa.com/StreetReports/2008/Aprw1_08.html>

Small Victories writes that they took their “proclaiming line” to the local Knights of Columbus Hall, to picket the fundraiser that was about to be held.

Strangely they are holding signs that imply that the Knights are Pro-Choice.
"Sunday- We took the proclaiming line to a local Knights of Columbus Hall where a right to life fundraiser was about to begin. We had confronted the heads of this organization with their hypocrisy sometime ago. They were stiff-necked and rebellious with this sin. We then contacted their bishop from the Springfield diocese and made him respectfully aware of the problem and our intentions to peaceably and prayerfully expose this heresy. You cannot be pro-choice and Catholic. "

The author of this report does not explain what sin the Knights of Columbus actually committed to make them pro-choice or what their Bishop did in response to their complaint. But we do know that the Bishop of the Springfield Archdiocese and the new priest of the local parish (St. Paul's Church Highland) both attended this event that night, so they must not have been too turned off by the report they received from Small Victories.

We also know that the President of Small Victories wrote a letter to the Editor of the Belleville News Democrat complaining about the new parish priest and the way he was running things. Alluding to the idea that he was mismanaging things in the church, but not giving any real proof to back it up. Could he also have questioned her authority? Perhaps he also asked for their 501 C 3

While this letter has been removed from the BND.COM website, a transcript of it may be found on a blog here:

Southern Illinois Catholic

In conclusion, it is clear that Small Victories loves to point out that "we are our brother's keeper" but they also refuse to submit to or be "kept" by anyone.

In other words they have appointed themselves as your keeper, and they have every right to question you and your actions and motives, but you have no right to question them and theirs.

Clearly it is actions like these that require the pro-life community to stand up and require Small Victories to become really accountable and make their financial statements, available to their donors, as well as the public and allow the donors to decide whom they will give their money to, and for what cause and activities it should be used.

This lack of accountability is what makes it easy for not for profit groups to misuse funds, redirect funds to other groups that would not receive them otherwise, and hide any and all activities that would not be approved by their donors and the public at large.