Operation Rescue Founder Randall Terry - Still Slaying Dragons After All These Years
by TIM DRAKE

SAINT AUGUSTINE, Fla., MAY 21, 2006 (www.ncregister.com)  —  Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry — who entered the Catholic Church on Holy Thursday — describes his library as his “sanctuary.”

It’s all that and something more. Not only is it a space where Terry can retreat from the noise of his three, soon to be four, rambunctious young boys, but it’s also where he spends time in prayer and strategizing his run for the Senate in Florida’s Eighth District. While it has been several years since his direct pro-life action work, his library décor demonstrates that he’s still out to slay dragons.

Unlike the knights of old, he doesn’t reside in a medieval castle. But his two-story stucco beach home tucked in a gated community just two blocks off Florida’s First Coast is as close as you can get.

The focal point of Terry’s library is a crucifix surrounded by various icons. There’s one of St. George slaying a dragon. There’s another of St. Demetrius. Terry also has statues of St. Michael, and a Scottish warrior.

The Book of Common Prayer, which used to stand upright like the St. Joseph Daily Missal on the opposite side, has fallen down on its back.

“It’s probably fallen down because of my conversion,” Terry, 46, said with a laugh.

The steps of Terry’s journey can be traced as one walks the hallway leading to the library.

Frames reveal key points in Terry’s life.

In one framed newspaper article, Roe v. Wade’s Norma McCorvey hugs Terry during his first run for political office — a failed attempt to run for the House of Representatives in New York. In another article, written after his move to Florida, Terry stands reflectively looking out at the Atlantic Ocean, pondering his next move.

That move, joining the Catholic Church, came unexpectedly this Lent after what Terry describes as a 20-year search for Truth.

That journey is evident from the mementos and books found in the home. A copy of Ott’s Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma sits on the bathroom counter. Luther, Aquinas, Chesterton, Belloc and the early Church Fathers line the bookshelves. A photograph of Terry with Pope John Paul II sits in the home’s entryway, as well as in his library.