Written By Preston Noell
On January 23, the day after the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., the Tradition, Family and Property Washington Bureau held its “traditional pro-life reception” with remarks by John Horvat on the topic of “Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother: The Key to Bringing America Back to Order.”
Each year, international delegations of pro-lifers come to march in the pro-life extravaganza. This year saw representatives from the Netherlands, Italy, France, Belgium, Lithuania and Brazil. Some were veteran activists, others freshly minted pro-lifers, one a law student from Lithuania. While their backgrounds were diverse, they are all united in opposing the wanton killing of unborn children, and their international travel shows they don’t just talk-the-talk, but walk-the-walk as well.
This year’s remarks were delivered by John Horvat II, the American TFP’s vice-president. He drew from the principles laid out in his award-winning book, Return to Order: From a Frenzied Economy to an Organic Christian Society. Return to Order promotes the timeless principles of Christian civilization that are wonderfully adapted to human nature. Such principles produce an organic socio-economic order that is full of exuberant vitality and refreshing spontaneity.
Connecting reception attendees’ opposition to abortion to honor, Horvat said: “The highest definition of honor, then, is the esteem given to standards of excellence we see in people, especially when their qualities or offices reflect God. From this point of view, there is honor 
in the saintly hermits who lived their lives even when completely isolated from public esteem. There is honor in the martyrs who died for the faith even though the Muslim public hates them. There is honor in the Pro-Life activists who wait hours in the cold to counsel a mother contemplating abortion. These all hold themselves to standards of excellence and have honor that merits esteem even when society does not recognize their excellence.”