Paul Schenck

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For the U.S. Representative, see Paul F. Schenck.

Paul Chaim Benedicta Schenck (born in 1958) is an ordained Catholic priest who is a pro-life activist[1][2] along with his twin brother, Robert Schenck.[3][4] They are both active in ministries in Washington, D.C.as well as throughout the United States and other countries.

Early ministries

The identical twins Robert and Paul Schenck were raised in a Jewish home in western New York (Grand Island, New York). They both attended colleges near Rochester, New York. Paul was baptized as a non-Catholic Christian when he was 16 years old.[5] Paul and his brother each married in 1977 and lived and worked in the Town of Tonawanda, New York until Robert left in 1976 (he returned in 1982)and Paul in 1994.

Paul founded the New Covenant Tabernacle Church in Tonawanda, New York, in 1982, after joining the Reformed Episcopal Church in 1994 he was vicar of a mission in Virginia Beach and rector of a parish in Catonsville, Maryland. Paul was the executive vice president of the American Center for Law & Justice from 1994 to 1997. Robert later joined the Evangelical Alliance and transferred his ordination to the Methodist Episcopal Church.[6]

Schenck was received into the Catholic Church in 2004. He was ordained a Catholic priest on June 12, 2010, under the Pastoral Provision, which allows married former clergy of the Anglican tradition to be ordained without the requirement for celibacy.

Pro-life activist careers

Until about 1994, the brothers had worked together, primarily in Buffalo, but then Schenck moved to Virginia Beach and joined the ACLJ, the public-interest law firm. Robert moved to Washington, D.C., where he founded Faith and Action.[7][8]

In Schenck v. Pro-Choice Network of Western New York, Schenck's challenge to a court order prohibiting certain forms of sidewalk counseling went to the Supreme Court in 1996. The case was to decide details about restraining orders, in particular for protesters around abortion clinics. The Court held that the injunction provisions imposing "fixed buffer zone" limitations were constitutional, but the provisions imposing "floating buffer zones" violated the First Amendment. The Court voted 8-1 in Schenck's favor striking down the floating zones. The Court used that case to strike down similar restrictions in Colorado, Arizona and California. In 1996 Paul Schenck became Rector of the historic Cummins Memorial Church near Baltimore, Maryland. Paul and Robert both have received numerous awards from legal, community, charitable and relief organizations including the Catholic Lawyers Guild, the Franciscan University of Steubenville, the Thomas More Society and the Maryland Right to Life. Besides his studies at Elim Bible Institute, Paul graduated from Luther Rice University (with a B.A. biblical studies), was given the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters by the Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in Merrimack, New Hampshire, (and in Rome) was granted the Graduate Catechetical Diploma by The Most Rev. Paul Laverde, the Bishop of Arlington, Virginia. Subsequently Schenck studied liturgical theology at the Catholic University of America and received the Master of Arts in Theology from Catholic Distance University, summa cum laude. In 2007, he received the Master Certificate in Executive Leadership from the University of Notre Dame Mendoza College; in 2009, he completed certification with the Pastoral Provision in the Catholic Church at Immaculate Conception Seminary at Seton Hall University in the Archdiocese of Newark. Schenck is a member of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University in Washington, DC where completed the Master Course in Bioethics conducted by Dr. Edmund Pellegrino. In 2012 he received the Doctor of Education degree in applied clinical pastoral practice from the Graduate Theological Foundation in South Bend, Indiana. In 2013 he was awarded certification in Health Care Ethics from the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia, PA in which his thesis was "The Incredible Shrinking Person: dementia and the personhood debate" under the direction of Dr. Stephen Napier of Villanova University.

Robert received the Master of Arts in Christian Ministry and the Doctor of Ministry from Faith Lutheran Theological Seminary in Tacoma, Washington.

The Schenck brothers work side by side on Capitol Hill in Washington where Robert is president of Faith and Action, an ecumenical mission, and Paul is chairman of the National Pro-Life Center. The buildings are at 109 and 113 2nd Street North East, just across from the official entrance to the United States Supreme Court. Robert is also chaplain to the Capitol Hill Executive Club which convenes in the historic Mansfield Room, and he is Chairman of the Board of the Evangelical Alliance. Father Paul Schenck is a priest of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg (PA) and Director of the Respect Life Office. He is married and has eight children, two daughters-in-law and a son-in-law.

Washington, D.C.

On March 10, 2004, Paul, to the surprise of some of his Protestant associates, especially those back in Buffalo, entered into full communion with the Catholic Church. Paul served as a Pastoral Associate in Priests for Life from 2004–2007, was the National Representative of Catholics United for Life and was appointed Director of the Office of Respect Life Activities by Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg (PA) in 2008. He founded the National Pro-Life Action Center (NPLAC) on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC and remains its chairman.

On June 12, 2010, Paul Schenck was ordained a priest for the Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg. While Paul Schenck is married and has eight children, the ordination was permissible under the pastoral provision created by Pope John Paul II for Anglican clergy received into full communion with the Catholic Church.

Fr. Paul C.B. Schenck conducts pro-life ministry in three capital cities, Harrisburg, PA, Annapolis, MD and Washington, DC as well as throughout the nation.

Works

Notes

  1. ↑ Dr. Paul Schenck at the Wayback Machine
  2. ↑ National Clergy Council
  3. ↑ Reverend Rob Schenck, MA
  4. ↑ Faith And Action - In The Nation's Capital:
  5. ↑ "About Paul Schenck". PaulSchenck.com. 
  6. ↑ "CNN.com". CNN. 
  7. ↑ Hunting for justice in an insane, upside down world January 1999
  8. ↑ Pro-Life Champion Paul Schenck: A Watershed Odyssey Alternate URL May 2004

References

  • Live From the Gates of Hell: An Insider's Look at the Antiabortion Underground by Jerry Reiter (2000) ISBN 1-57392-840-2
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