Braving record cold, thousands heed cardinal's call to support life at march
Sept 20, 2005
Invigorated by a cardinal's call not to "sit on the sidelines and simply allow others to dictate the future of our society," thousands of Catholic pro-lifers joined those of other faiths in the March for Life Jan. 22, marking the 30th anniversary of the Supreme Court decisions legalizing abortion.
WASHINGTON (Catholic Post, Jan. 23, 2003) -- President Bush saluted the marchers in a telephone call from St. Louis, noting that temperatures in Washington had barely reached above the teens, with wind chill in single digits.
"I know that many of you have made great sacrifices to come to Washington today -- riding buses all night and braving the cold all day," Bush said. "I admire your perseverance and your devotion to the cause of life."
The night before, some 7,000 people joined Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua of Philadelphia for Mass during the National Prayer Vigil for Life at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington.
Recalling Pope Paul VI's 1965 call to the United Nations -- "War no more; war never again" -- and Pope John Paul II's declaration to the same body in 1995 that "abortion is war on the unborn child," the cardinal said, "We reiterate the goal for which we will never give up: Abortion no more; abortion never again."
Cardinal Bevilacqua, who chairs the U.S. bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities, said that on each anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade and Doe vs. Bolton decisions on Jan. 22, 1973, "we come here . . . to declare openly that we cannot, we may not sit on the sidelines and simply allow others to dictate the future of our society."
"We can celebrate that after 30 years those who defend abortion finally realize that we who defend life will continue day after day, year after year, to testify publicly on behalf of the unborn and that we promise that we will not stop until every child in the womb has the legally protected right to be born," he said.
Cardinal Bevilacqua was joined at the Mass by four other U.S. cardinals, 36 bishops and archbishops and more than 300 priests.
After hundreds of young people spent the night at the basilica and in other locations nearby, Bishop Sean P. O'Malley of Palm Beach, Fla., closed the prayer vigil for life early Jan. 22 with a Mass at which he said Catholics must be motivated by concern for neighbor -- "the one who needs our help" -- like the good Samaritan was.
Our neighbors are not limited to those who share the same group or social class or ethnic origin, he said. Rather, they encompass all "who need our love, our mercy, our active concern," he added.
"Who is our neighbor?" Bishop O'Malley asked. "On Jan. 22, 2003, the year of our Lord, the road to Jericho is strewn with the unborn . . . even as their lives are being attacked and snuffed out."
The March for Life opened several hours later on the National Mall with a prayer that God would "restore the conscience of the nation" by working to "change our hearts and change our laws" on abortion.
The theme of the 2003 march was "Affirm the sanctity of each human life by word and deed."
In his remarks, Bush said the pro-life movement had been sustained during the past 30 years "by constant prayer and an abiding hope: that one day every child will be born into a family that loves her and a nation that protects her."
"And when that day arrives, you will have the gratitude of millions -- especially those who know the gift of life because you cared, and you kept faith," he said.
The anniversary also was marked by those who support legal abortion.
Some 1,300 people -- including five likely Democratic presidential candidates -- attended a Jan. 21 dinner sponsored by NARAL Pro-Choice America, the organization formerly known as the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League.
Among those presidential candidates was Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, one of 12 Catholic members of the U.S. Senate targeted in a new campaign by the Crusade for the Defense of Our Catholic Church, a project of the American Life League.
The campaign said in a full-page ad in the Jan. 23 issue of The Wanderer national newspaper that the 12 senators "claim to be Catholics, but their public support for the deadly practice of legalized abortion is scandalous in the eyes of the church." It urged Catholic bishops and priests to refuse Communion to "these and all public figures whose unrepentant support for the killing of babies in the womb defiles the Mass and the body of Christ."
In addition to Kerry, the group includes Sens. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, Tom Harkin of Iowa, Tom Daschle of South Dakota, Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, Susan Collins of Maine, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, Patty Murray of Washington, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Barbara Mikulski of Maryland and Joseph Biden of Delaware. Only Collins is a Republican.
Braving record cold, thousands heed cardinal's call to support life at march