Tanner E., Neva M., Olivia M. and I joined up with the Immaculate Conception Parish chaperones at the Pro-Life Mass in St. Joseph Cathedral last Wednesday, January 19, 2022. We began our journey after that Mass and returned to Sioux Falls last Sunday evening. We thank the individuals who donated toward this pilgrimage including John Langer.
We traveled 24 hours overnight, lodged, and then attended the March for Life rally in the morning with music and speakers. We marched with about 150,000 pro-life people from west of the Capitol on the Mall, down Pennsylvania Avenue, to the front of the Supreme Court building. The group “Silent No More” was giving a speech there while we prayed. They are a group of people who have had abortions and are willing to now speak up and help those who are suffering the after effects of having an abortion. (This organization is opening an office with Mission S.O.S. in the Gas & Goodies strip mall next to the apartment next to Planned Parenthood at 41st Street and Sertoma Avenue across from Roosevelt High School.)
That evening our group went to the national Bible Museum and Fisherman’s Wharf. We then did a lighted evening walk to the memorialsin the Mall area. (We walked a total of 20 miles that day.)
We had free time all day on Saturday until the Sunday Vigil Saturday evening Mass at St. Dominic Church and our departure for another overnight trip back to Sioux Falls. The diocese did not have anything specific planned. I worked out a plan for the day with all of the chaperones on the bus. I gave them a tour of the Franciscan Shrine of the Holy Land and the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. (As a seminarian, I was a tour guide there and served the Masses there.)
In the afternoon I took them to Arlington National Cemetery and the United States Marine Corps War Memorial (Iwo Jima Memorial). I was “wiped out” after returning and walking the slowest of all people with a limp. I eventually recovered this past week. We are hoping this will be the last March for Life. If the present Supreme Court cases lead to the overturn of Roe vs Wade and Doe vs Bolton, then the abortion issue will probably return to the states other than international funding. Pro-Life presidents use the Mexico City policy to block the United States from paying for abortions abroad.
