By
busloads, area pro-lifers
witnessed for unborn in D.C.
By Lou Baldwin
Special to The CS&T
WASHINGTON — You didn’t see the story in your daily newspaper,
but 140 busloads of men, women and children from the Philadelphia area
traveled to Washington, D.C., on Jan 22 for the 35th annual March for
Life.
Most were registered with the Archdiocese, although others attended on
their own, said Deacon David B. Schaffer, archdiocesan deputy secretary
for evangelization. He has been making the trip for about 20 years.
“I didn’t think it would be this long, but the Supreme Court
hasn’t overturned Roe yet,” he said of the high court decision
Roe v. Wade, which made abortion legal.
“We’ll keep praying and keep coming,” Deacon Schaffer
added.
Charles Lewis of St. Stanislaus Parish, Lansdale, marched with his wife,
Anne. “I always find it funny how the numbers for this are under
reported in the press, and overblown for so many other things,”
said Lewis, a former archdiocesan director of public affairs and former
congressional aide.
“When I was a congressional aide, we used to marvel at the numbers
who came,” Lewis said. “Even the non-pro-life people were
amazed by the numbers.”
Cardinal Justin Rigali attended the rally that preceded the march before
leaving for a flight to Rome. He also celebrated Mass at the National
Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on the Eve of the demonstration, and
again on Tuesday for many Philadelphia-area demonstrators at St. John
the Evangelist Church in Silver Spring, Md.
Seminarian Anthony T. Rossi, third year theology, was among about 150
seminarians from St. Charles Borromeo Seminary who attended the Tuesday
Mass, which honored St. Vincent, martyr. The Cardinal’s homily compared
the saint’s role as a witness to the marchers’ role as witnesses
for truth.
Rossi, who has attended the march since his days at Bishop McDevitt High
School, said he was most impressed by “the sight of many faithful
people, young and old, who were witnessing.”
Auxiliary Bishops Robert P. Maginnis, Joseph R. Cistone, Joseph P. McFadden
and Daniel E. Thomas all marched, along with a large number of other clergy.
Brian Taylor, an eighth-grader at Our Lady of Good Counsel School in Southampton,
marched for the first time. “This is amazing,” he said. “I’ll
come again.”
And Mary Sly, who came by bus from St. Michael the Archangel Parish in
Levittown, made her march in a wheelchair.
“It’s worth coming — we have to preserve life,”
she said.
Kimberly Sanan, a marcher who attends Cardinal Dougherty High School,
is president of her school’s Respect Life Club. “Pro-life
means a whole lot to me,” she said. “I think giving someone
a chance to live is a beautiful thing.”
Tom and Marianne Lacey drove down from St. Dominic Parish in Philadelphia
to march with their young children, Celine, Maria, Brendan and Veronica.
“We just wanted our kids to see they are not alone. There are a
lot of pro-lifers,” said Tom Lacey, whose first march was in 1986,
in a blizzard.
Father Joseph Coffey, a Philadelphia priest on active duty as a U.S. Navy
chaplain, said he’s a veteran of about 25 national pro-life demonstrations.
“We’ll just have to keep coming, no matter what the weather,
until Roe is overturned,” he said.
Lou Baldwin is a member of St. Leo parish and a freelance writer.
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