'Strength and Unity'

New Yorkers join tens of thousands at March for Life

By MARY ANN POUST

Energetic high school students new to pro-life activism joined New Yorkers long dedicated to the cause at the 35th annual March for Life in Washington, D.C.—in a show of commitment and shared struggle that touched even veteran marchers.

"There was a feeling of strength and unity in the movement—and the fact that we're not going away until this changes, that we're going to remain steadfast," said Father Larry Paolicelli, pastor of St. Augustine's in Highland, who's been marching for 20 years.

This year, he traveled to the march with a busload of 44 people, most of them his Ulster County parishioners, including 20 children, the youngest of whom was 2.

The Highland bus was one of more than 40 that left from various points in the archdiocese for the Jan. 22 march held each year on the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide.

Another bus, from Our Lady of Shkodra parish in Hartsdale, took 34 people to the march, including parish secretary Prena Berisha, who brought her two teenage sons—as she has for the last four years—and a 14-year-old friend of theirs.

"The first year, I made them go," she said. "But the second, third and fourth years they wanted to come back."

Maria Ramos, a pro-life worker at St. Peter's parish in Yonkers, led a parish group of 30 for the second year in a row. She said that next year, she'll approach the youth group about attending.

"Young people want to be counted," she said. "I'm hoping next year we can bring two buses."

As much a pep rally for the movement as a protest, the march attracts tens of thousands of pro-life supporters from all over the country, always with a strong showing of young people—something that never fails to inspire the adults that accompany them.

"The movement is young, it's alive," said Sister Lucy Marie, S.V., the Respect Life coordinator for the archdiocesan Family Life/Respect Life Office.

Typical of the young people's reaction to the march was that of Helena Visconti, 17, a senior at Cardinal Spellman High School in the Bronx, who called it "really awesome."

"I didn't think it was going to be as big and extravagant as it was; some people were really into it," she said.

Helena, who went on a bus from Spellman, added that she was never able to go to the march before because it conflicted with her Regents exam schedule.

"I'm pro-life and I'd always wanted to go, but it's held during exam week so I never was able," she said. "But this year, I didn't happen to have any exams that day, so I went."

Sister Lucy Marie traveled to Washington the night before the march with two busloads of enthusiastic girls from Cathedral and Mother Cabrini high schools in Manhattan.

"These girls are New Yorkers, they're used to crowds. But they said they've never seen so many people come together for the same cause, people who believe what they believe," Sister Lucy Marie said.

The girls attended the vigil Mass held annually in Washington's Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, then rolled out their sleeping bags in a Washington-area school to "camp out" for the night.

In the morning, they went to a youth rally and Mass that packed the Verizon Center before heading to the rally that precedes the march, where speakers took to a stage to address the group.

Among them was Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J., who headed a long string of politicians who took to the microphone to make sure participants saw the fight against abortion in political terms. He warned that "America's liberal elites" were "empathy-deficient" when it comes to the unborn, turning around a phrase about Americans made by Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., in remarks on the presidential campaign trail a few days earlier.

Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, himself a candidate for president, downplayed those ambitions to emphasize his experience as an obstetrician, helping bring 4,000 babies into the world.

President Bush, in remarks recorded at a White House breakfast earlier that morning and replayed at the rally, lauded those who work for "a culture of life where a woman with an unplanned pregnancy knows there are caring people who will support her; where a pregnant teen can carry her child and complete her education; where the dignity of both the mother and child is honored and cherished."

March organizer Nellie Gray said the turnout for the annual event underscores the recognition that "it's not going to work trying to change this from the top down. It's not working that way. We're going to unite the grass roots."

Knights of Columbus Supreme Knight Carl Anderson said the Knights, who help organize pro-life events around the country, do so because "abortion hurts everyone," from the unborn child and the parents to doctors and nurses who are compromised by their participation.

More than two dozen cardinals, archbishops and bishops also stepped onto the stage. They included Boston Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley; Archbishops Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, Kan., Henry J. Mansell of Hartford, Conn., Donald W. Wuerl of Washington, Raymond L. Burke of St. Louis, Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Ky., and Timothy P. Broglio, newly named to head the U.S. military archdiocese.

Auxiliary Bishop Gerald T. Walsh, the rector of St. Joseph's Seminary in Dunwoodie who has attended several marches, said that what most impressed him this year was "the numbers."

"It was the biggest I've ever seen, and of course there were lots of young people," said Bishop Walsh, who led a group of 60, most of them seminarians from St. Joseph's and from its Neumann Residence for men considering the priesthood.

"We had all of Dunwoodie, most of Neumann, and I even saw some kids in the Cathedral Prep program there with their parishes," he said. "That's a very good sign."

Catholic News Service contributed to this article.

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