Last week, January 24th, I went, as per my annual tradition, to the March for Life down in Washington D.C. Though it is my annual tradition, I was not able to go last year. I don’t know if I ever posted on it. What happened last year was that I was all paid to go and I was at the meeting spot, which was in front of Blessed Sacrament Church on Staten Island, waiting with the other pilgrims for the bus to arrive at 5:30 AM. We waited and waited and by around an hour later we got word the bus had broken down and there was no replacement available. With a communal sigh of disgust we had to accept the fact that we could not go in 2024. Also once the march was cancelled and no one went. The March was cancelled in 2021 because of Covid. With 2016 being my first year, I have gone to eight Marches the last ten years.
This
year we again met in front of Blessed Sacrament Church but this year the bus
showed up! The process was the same as
in 2023. The bus dropped us off at St.
Patrick’s Church in Washington DC, attended Mass, and then made our way (about
four or five blocks) to the Washington Monument where nearby the pavilion for
the speakers was set up.
In
2023 I posted pictures of St. Patrick’s Church, and so I’ll let you go back to
that. I will post this plaque that stood outside
the church showing it goes back to 1792.
The
pilgrims that attended this Mass at St. Patrick’s were those from busses from
the Archdiocese of New York. The
celebrants—and it looks like there were quite a few—were all pastors and auxiliary
bishops from New York. The chief
celebrant was Bishop Peter J. Byrne who was on our bus and is the auxiliary
bishop for Staten Island. Let me include
these video shorts of the processing in and the processing out from Mass.
It was a lovely Mass with a touching homily from Bishop Byrne.
This year everyone entering the Mall had to go through metal detectors. This took quite a while. People had to empty their pockets and open their bags and quite a number of items could not go through. Beside a tree before going into the metal detectors I noticed a few pocket knives that people left on the ground in the hopes I think of retrieving them afterward. It was different, and the wait on line made me miss the first half of the speakers. But as I found out later, the ones I missed were all from politicians. Thank you Lord for being spared their hot air. Here is a picture of the crowd at the Mall.
I was all the way in the back and I could hardly see the stage. There were two big monitors for video display of the speakers. There was a time when most of the speakers at the March were testimonies of those impacted by abortion. Now it seems most of the speeches are from politicians. I am forever moved by those who have experienced abortions only to regret it and from those saved from abortions. Here from YouTube are three such speeches.
From
Dr. Catherine Wheeler, an obstetrician who came to reject doing abortions.
From
Beverly Jacobson, a mother of a disabled child who was pushed to abort the
child.
And
from Josiah Presley, a survivor.
Now
for some pictures. I can’t post them
all, but here’s a bunch. Let’s start
with the starting line of the March.
And
then this one to get a feel for the crowd.
One
of the highlights for me is looking at all the different signs. They can be so creative. Here are some.
That’s
probably enough of pictures of pithy signs.
Some other phrasing on signs included:
Save
the Baby Humans (with a picture of a turtle)
Child
Sacrifice Dies With Us
Chemical
Abortion Pills kill babies, harm women, & pollute our drinking water
Make
Abortion Unthinkable
Love
Them Both (with a picture of a pregnant woman)
Honor
Motherhood Choose Life
Defund
Planned Parenthood
One
of the other highlights is looking for where the pilgrims come from.
The
University of Mary is in Bismarck, North Dakota. Holy smoke, that’s 1,534 miles of
driving. I wonder how long it took them. Here’s another pretty far place.
And
here’s the furthest of them all, Ireland!
Here’s
someone interesting. We saw him in the
Mall crowd listening to the speeches.
How
about this little kid who rode on his father’s shoulders the whole time.
That is so cute.
The
marching route was different this year.
Instead of going around the Capital and turning to the Supreme Court
Building, we turned in front of the Capital and then turned left toward the
Supreme Court Building. I think that’s
because now with Roe having ended, abortion is out of the courts and into the
hands of legislators. A pretty picture
of the Capital building.
Let’s
end with the funniest of them all. You
probably need to be a football fan to get this.
Mahomes
is the quarterback for the Super Bowl winning Kansas City Chiefs who seems to
get extraordinary protection from the referees. LOL, he's going to be in the Super Bowl again next week.
