Be Our Guest / Stephen Kappes

Feb. 12 Mass, program remember unborn children tragically lost to abortion

Important update: The Mass and Reception in this column have been cancelled
 

Do you remember 9/11? It serves both to recognize and remember the terrorist attacks where 19 men hijacked four airplanes and killed more than 3,000 people on American soil on Sept. 11, 2001.

Many of you may not be familiar with the number 2,411—another atrocity that took place at the hands of one man in the Midwest.

That figure—2,411—represents the number of aborted fetal remains discovered on property owned by the late Dr. Ulrich “George” Klopfer. The abortions took place between 2000 and 2003. Klopfer had performed abortions at his Indiana facilities starting in the 1970s before his medical license was suspended in 2016 for various violations.

After Klopfer died in Illinois in 2019, his family’s attorney called the Will County, Ill., coroner, who called the sheriff’s department and the county attorney for assistance with a collection of human remains on Klopfer’s property, discovering bodies and medical records stating that all were from Indiana.

The remains of 2,411 unborn children were eventually returned to Indiana and interred on Feb. 12, 2020, in Southlawn Cemetery in South Bend, Ind.

Klopfer’s story is not so much about abortion as it is about victimization; it is, in my opinion, about one of the greatest atrocities ever to befall mankind.

The Knights of Columbus of the State of Indiana has deemed this event the “2411 Never Forgotten Project,” and will not sit idle while attempts are made to relegate 2411 to the National Day of Remembrance in September as just another number of abortions.

2411’s significance is not just meant to document this tragedy. It is also about retaining laws requiring the mothers or the institutions performing the abortions—or elective miscarriages—to properly bury the fetuses.

All are invited to attend this year’s 2411 Memorial Mass and program beginning at 1 p.m. on Feb. 12 at Holy Name of Jesus Church, 89 N. 17th Ave., in Beech Grove. This year’s keynote speaker is Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita.

A reception will follow. For more information, call 317-784-5454. (Please note: Mass and Reception Cancelled)
 

(Stephen Kappes, a member of Holy Name of Jesus Parish in Beech Grove, is also chapter president of CUF Holy Innocents.) †