Today we kick off the beginning of the 40 Days for Life campaign. I would like to share our experience during the Texas Rally for Life in Austin this past January:
First thing we saw were so many fresh young faces!! So many passionate youth!!
On Saturday, January 27, a small group of Sacred Heart parishioners and their friends had driven to Austin for the Texas Rally for Life to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the tragic Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision in 1973, legalizing abortion throughout all nine months of pregnancy.
In the wake of this decision, more than 60 million unborn babies have been killed in the United States and countless women and men have suffered emotionally and spiritually.
Yet on that Saturday in Austin, we saw the evidence of what many Pro-Life organizations are saying: the youth of America are overwhelmingly Pro-Life and enthusiastic in defending the most vulnerable and voiceless in our society, the unborn babies!
We began this Rally for Life by congregating at 17th Street and Congress with thousands of other pro-lifers, visiting the tables of pro-life ministries, collecting signs to carry in the parade to the Capitol building, and talking with many of the people who were in attendance.
We met a young Conventual Franciscan seminarian named Friar Albert from San Antonio, who prayed with us. We gave him a PAPA prayer card and took down his email in order to communicate with him and determine the number and names of those in his congregation that may want our prayers. Within a week he sent us the names of 16 seminarians who wanted our prayers and who will be added to our database!
Kevin Knox gave out a good number of PAPA prayer cards and recorded the names of those wanting to be a part of our PAPA Apostolate.
One of the largest and most passionate youth groups in attendance was the Aggie Catholics from St. Mary’s in College Station.
St. Mary’s Catholic Church has a very active congregation of young Catholics who attend Texas A&M and Blinn College.
At 1:00 pm, the huge mass of pro-life humanity began their march to the Capitol building where there would be many speakers beginning with our own Governor Greg Abbott!
It took about 45 minutes for the thousands of people to complete the walk. We were thankful for the many police officers blocking the streets for us to pass. The line of people was as far as the eye could see! Such a beautiful sight for all of us who attended!
At the entrance to the Capitol grounds by the gate there were some
pro-abortion demonstrators with their signs, yelling their worn-out slogans of death, but we were shielded by a line of police officers in front of them.
To be continued...
