March for Life, 2023

I was able to make the March for Life again this year.  There was some doubt.  First at the beginning no one was sure if there would be a march, so the usual organizer on Staten Island didn’t organize transportation this year because Roe had been overturned with the Dobbs decision.  Then a few weeks before the March date, I got an email from an old organizer who used to arrange it.  She said she would be getting a bus.  My only problem: I had a business trip that same week and I wasn’t sure if I would be home by Thursday night.  March for Life is always the third Friday in January—January 20^th this year—coinciding with the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision.  Well, by God’s grace the business event ended a day early and I was home by Thursday night.  Tired as I was, I got up at four in the wee hours of the morning and met the bus before departure time.

This year was different.  Instead of Mass on Staten Island before departure, we had Mass in D.C. upon arrival, a Mass for the whole contingent from the NYC Archdiocese.  Definitely it was way more than our single bus.  It was a lovely Mass at a beautiful church (St. Patrick’s) celebrated by a wonderful auxiliary bishop who had attended the first March for Life fifty years ago.  Unfortunately I did not catch his name.  I do remember he started his homily by pointing to his face and saying, “Look at this face.  Do you think this face is old enough to have been here fifty years ago?”  And then he went on to describe how he was involved with the very first March.  Here’s a picture of St. Patrick’sChurch in Washington, DC from the back looking toward the altar.

 

The Church was full.  Here’s a picture of the church from the outside.

Then we had to walk about three quarters of a mile to the Washington Mall where a stage was setup for the speeches.  This year’s theme was, “Next Steps: Marching into a Post-Roe America.”  There were great speeches.  You can see the list at the March for Life website and you can YouTube any speech or the entire event.  The memorable speeches were from football coach Tony Dungy and his wife—they mentioned they have adopted eleven children!—from Connecticut State Representative Treneé McGhee, who as a black woman railed against the inherent racism in the pro-abortion side, and of course the keynote speaker, actor from the TV series, The Chosen, Jonathan Roumie.  I’m going to post Jonathan Roumie’s speech here, but I encourage to listen to them all.  Roumie’s speech is more religious than anticipated for a mixed audience, so I leave it up to you if you want to listen to it.  He’s apparently a devout Catholic.

 

There were some great passages in his speech.  Let me post a couple.

 

They say we live in a post-Christian society. I reject that. You can reject that. Change the culture by impacting the culture. Embrace that which is bigger than you — He who gave you abundant life and He who has called you by name; do not be afraid. Mute the noise of the popular and embrace the counterculture of Christ’s love, and the message He offers you: The road is wide which leads to destruction and many will enter it. So enter through the narrow gate, my dear friends, for therein lies the kingdom of heaven.

And

We are under an assault on our sense of virtue. We’re enduring an affront to the innate holiness we are all imbued with, and called to, and an attack on the family structure and the sacredness of the gift of life.

 

But as ones created in the image and likeness of God who is Himself love, we are charged to be the standard bearers who defend and preserve the dignity of every human, but especially the most vulnerable which begins with the initial stages of life and continues throughout the entire cycle from conception through that phase we all aim to enter into our golden years, followed by the final stages of our earthly existence.

You can read from a transcript here.  

The crowd was huge as usual.  I’ve heard it said this was one of the largest.  So much for ending these marches.  Here are a few pictures where I tried to capture the scope of the attendance, and I admit the pictures are woefully inadequate. 

One of my favorite things to do at the March is to look for novel signs.  I’ve got a bunch but I’ll just share a few.

Here’s a much unexpected one, “Pro Bikers for Life,” and they were in their black leather biker gear. 

The Nashville Dominican Sister were there, as every year.

I have a special love of the Dominican Sisters.  As usual there were people from other countries, but here is a group from Poland.

And a Muslim young lady, who was on our Staten Island bus, showed that this goes beyond one religion.

Finally what would a march be without a marching band? 

 

I love the pageantry, I love this movement, and I love this event.  If Washington D.C. is too far from where you live, there will be state and city march events this year.  You will enjoy attending if you do.

March for Life, 2020

I went to my fifth March for Life.  The process was pretty much like previous years.  We start with early morning Mass, get on the bus and get to Washington D.C. in four plus hours, find our way to Constitution Avenue, roughly parallel with the Washington Monument.  You make your way into the crowd, proceed west toward the Capital Building, making a right onto First Street just passed the Capital, and the March ends at the Supreme Court, two blocks in from Constitution Avenue.  The distance is perhaps a mile.  This year it was so packed that we stood still for about an hour before the march started moving for us.  Once we entered the crowd, it took us about two and a half hours to reach the end, including that hour of waiting.

This year there was a special speaker.  For the first time ever, as everyone probably knows by now, the President of the United States attended in person.  No, I did not get to see President Trump speak.  Most of the speakers at the March are in the morning.  Those of us who travel that same day to Washington usually miss the speakers.  The bus from Staten Island, NY usually gets to Washington around noon time, and then has to make its way down to the Mall area.  The prominent speakers have all spoken by then. 

Every year it seems to be more packed.  I don’t know if it had to do with the President showing up, but it felt like it was the largest crowd I have ever seen the March have.  My hunch is that the size of the crowd had not much to do with President Trump attending.  He only announced it a day or two before.  People who attended had to make their plans weeks before.

OK, here are some pictures.

Let me say, there was lots of true and deep support for President Trump this year.  When Donald Trump was first elected, the pro-life movement was skeptical of him.  They voted for Mr. Trump out of expediency.  To whom else could they vote for?  No one else took our cause.  But now, Donald Trump has won them over.  The feeling across the board was of true devotion to the President.  No one cared about his indiscretions.  He is truly a Pro-Life hero.  There were Make America Great Hats everywhere.  In our very group, there was an 80-ish old Nun who went out of her way to buy a MAGA hat and wore it the whole time.  And she did it with the most pleasant smile I’ve ever seen a woman have.  There were lots of pro-Trump signs.

Oh, I should recount this too.  There was an enterprising street seller of hats who had the best sales pitch chant: “Don’t become a Democrat/Buy yourself a MAGA hat.” 

There was lots of rosary praying as you marched—the marchers had to be eighty or ninety percent Catholic—and you heard lots of marching chants:  “We Are The Pro-Life Generation” and “We love babies, yes we do/We love babies how about you.”  I always get a kick of the the chants.  For some reason I didn’t encounter as many bands and music as I have in the past, but here was a good one.

Some more photos.  Here’s a nice photo of the March heading toward the Capital. 

As you reach the top of Capital Hill, I like to look back on Constitution Ave and see the crowd behind me.  It stretches as far as you can see, and there had to be more than an hour’s worth of crowd ahead of me.

And finally the end at the Supreme Court.

How fitting someone with a MAGA hat walked by. 

March For Life, 2022

After not having a March for Life last year because of the pandemic, the pro-life people came back with a strong march this year.  I was there again, my sixth attendance.  Let me share some pictures and video clips.

The day for me started with Mass at St. Charles Catholic Church on Staten Island.  It’s not my parish but the trip coordinator’s parish and that is where we would meet the bus.  The priest—I never caught his name—gave a wonderful homily on how forty years prior a Fr. Walter Ciszek, S.J. described right there at St. Charles his experience incarcerated in the Siberian gulag.  He had been captured by the Soviets during WWII and sent to Siberia as a spy, all on trumped up charges and spent twenty-two years there.  Fr. Ciszek had written several books on his life before he passed away, but on that particular day forty years ago he explain to the gathered congregation how in all those years in the gulag he had not converted one soul in Russia.  But he had borne witness.  The point of the pastor’s homily at St. Charles the day of the March was that just like Fr. Ciszek we may not convert one soul with our March in Washington this day, but we would be there to bear witness to the injustice and evil of abortion.  He was quite inspirational.

By the way, do a search for “Bible quote bear witness” and see how rich a Biblical phrase “to bear witness” is.  But when I hear it my thoughts always rush to John 18:37 with the words of Christ, “For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth.” 

Now this year we arrived earlier than the past and the rally speeches may have started later than in the past.  In the past I was never there to hear the speeches, but this time I was there and was able to hear about half the speeches.  They were fantastic.  The personal testimonies were so moving.  Several had me in tears.  If you have time, watch the speeches.  Here is the video for the entire rally.  The actual speeches start at just before the 36 minute mark, and make sure you listen to the National Anthem performed by Matthew West at the 37:30 mark.  Super performance.

 

The speeches end at around the 2 hour mark with a God Bless America beautifully again performed by Matthew West. I would say I was there for the last forty minutes of the speeches. 

I must embed the Keynote speech, Fr. Mike Schmidt’s speech.  If you’re only going to watch one speech, watch his.  It was terrific.  Now if you’re not familiar with Fr. Mike, he has one of the top podcasts in the country, the Bible in a Year Podcast.  I think everyone is amazed at how his podcast has zoomed to the top, but as you will see Fr. Mike is very charismatic.  And very smart.

 

It really was freezing.  Low 20’s and with a steady wind.  I was off camera, off to the left of the stage.

So at the conclusion of the speeches we were dismissed to March up Constitution Avenue toward the Capital Building, then pass behind it and in front of the Supreme Court Building.  Just like every year.

Here is a picture of my view of the stage.

 

And then our group from Staten Island collected itself and marched on. 

 

You may remember (or go back to my previous posts “March for Life” posts) the sign with the infant with the crown of thorns.  He’s our sign post for us to keep together. 

And we’re off.

 

I spoke to a young fellow with the group with that green flag up ahead.  They were from a high school in Savannah, Georgia.  It took them over 10 hours of bus ride to get to D.C. and they were going back later that afternoon.  It’s amazing the commitment of people that come.  I love the signs.  Here are a few new ones that I was able to photograph.

 

 

 

That last one is from a group from the Dominican Sisters of Mary in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  I didn’t ask but gosh that must have been a fourteen hour ride for them.  Obviously the young lady is still a novice since she is not wearing a habit.  There was about six in their group there and we got into a little conversation about me being a Lay Dominican. 

Let’s check out some sounds in a video.

 

“Sweet Caroline!”  Lots of singing along the trail.  I have to apologize.  My phone doesn’t take the best videos.  I did take my camera but unfortunately the batteries died early.  Here’s a very lively cheerleader group.

 

I have no idea what their chanting or where they’re from, but what an energetic bunch.  To be young again!

I always like to include a picture of the journey toward the Capital Building. 

 

No we were not like the Jan 6, 2020 riots.  We were peaceful. 

And here then from on top of Capital Hill looking back toward the rest of the marchers.

 

Then we turn the corner to behind the Capital.

 

And then the final destination in front of the Supreme Court.

 

Pray that the justices this year decide to overturn Roe v. Wade. 

There is always some sort of action by the Supreme Court.  Usually there are a handful of pro-abortion activists that station themselves there to attempt to counter the Pro-Lifers.  Though I don’t think I captured the pro-abort’s in the video, you can hear the Pro-Lifers overcome them with chants.

 

“Hey hey, ho,ho, Roe v. Wade has got to go. 

Hey hey, ho ho, Roe . Wade has got to go.”

It’s always nice to see a time lapse video of the entire March.

I try to look for something to tip me off of where I am in that mass of humanity, but no such luck.  We all bore witness.  They estimated the marchers to be at around 150,000 this year.  I think that’s a little down from other years, but with Covid and the cancelling of the march last year, I think that’s to be expected.  But that time lapse video sure makes it look impressive.  I didn’t feel it was less than other years.

Notable Quote: In the Image of God by Donald J. Trump

Back on January 24th, the day of the March for Life, I posted a Notable Quote on Psalm 8 which I used as a springboard for a teaching moment on why abortion is wrong, all of which climaxed with this as the central thesis:

Abortion is wrong for many reasons: the destruction of innocent life, the negation of love, the violation of human dignity. But those reasons are just satellites around the very core reason, that abortion violates the very image of God.

I posted that in the wee hours of the morning and then went down to participate in the march.  I never got to see President Trump’s speech that day except on a video clip later that evening.  Only recently did I read exactly what he said.  Here’s a key paragraph:

“When we see the image of a baby in the womb, we glimpse the majesty of God’s creation. When we hold a newborn in our arms, we know the endless love that each child brings to a family. When we watch a child grow, we see the splendor that radiates from each human soul. One life changes the world… We cannot know what our citizens yet unborn will achieve. The dreams they will imagine. The masterpieces they will create. The discoveries they will make. But we know this: every life brings love into this world. Every child brings joy to a family. Every person is worth protecting. And above all, we know that every human soul is divine and every human life, born and unborn, is made in the holy image of Almighty God.”

            -President Donald J. Trump

My goodness.  We essentially said the same thing with the same rhetorical development.  We both started with the majesty of God’s creation, developed it to His creation of mankind, asserted the dignity of mankind, and concluded that abortion is wrong because we, born and unborn, are made in the image of God. 

No we did not share notes!  Thank you Mr. President.  Great minds think alike. 

The next day after that Notable Quote of Psalm 8, I posted pictures and video from my attendance to the 2020 March.  You can see that here.  

I have been told this may have been the largest of all the annual March for Life processions, perhaps some 500,000 attended.  I came across this time lapsed video of the entire March in 60 seconds.  It’s pretty cool.

Somewhere in there is me!

March for Life, 2025

Last week, January 24^th, 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.