Personal experiences made the Jan. 24 March for Life in Washington, D.C., more meaningful for some people who went on the Worcester diocese’s trip.
“I myself was adopted, and I could’ve been one of the aborted babies,” Monika Hougham, a sophomore at Trivium School in Lancaster, told The Catholic Free Press Thursday before the send-off Mass at St. Paul Cathedral. She said she never met her birth mother, but abortion was an option for her.
How did that make Monika feel as she headed to the annual march, first held in protest a year after the Jan. 22, 1973 Roe v. Wade U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in all 50 states?
“It makes me feel very blessed, and I have a great family,” Monika said.
“I love how wild our school gets for pro-life – in a good way,” she said. “Last year was my first time [at the march] and I loved it.”
“This is my first time; we can’t go until we’re in ninth grade,” said her schoolmate Mary Dillon, a freshman. “I’m looking forward to supporting the thing that I love – babies and life.”
Trivium students and leaders filled one of the diocese’s buses going to the march and part of the other bus, according to Allison LeDoux, director of the Respect Life Office. She said more than 90 people rode those buses, including groups from Assumption University in Worcester and Boston Trinity Academy.
“It was such a wonderful experience to be surrounded by so many other young people with the same fiery desire to protect the lives of the unborn, and support all pro-life causes,” Alex Boligan, campus ministry graduate assistant at Assumption University, told The Catholic Free Press in an email.Photo courtesy of Alex Boligan Members of the Assumption University contingent get together for a picture at the March for Life.
“Being on the March has strengthened my desire to share the pro-life message with others who might not agree with that point of view, in order to show them the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death,” he continued. “It also means even more for me knowing that I have a child of my own on the way; having the opportunity to fight for the inalienable rights of my child was a very impactful experience for me.”
"I found my experience at this year's march to be particularly special,” commented Anna Murphy, an Assumption University senior, attending the march for the sixth time. “This past year I have been working at the Visitation House and have been able to see first-hand the beauty and joy the innocent lives of babies can bring to the world. This has further ignited my passion for the pro-life movement and given me a whole new outlook of why and who I am marching for." (Visitation House is a home for mothers with crisis pregnancies and their children.)
“It’s so easy, despite knowing your cause is right, to fall into doubt and despair, when you look around you and see such vitriol and hatred,” commented Lucas MacFee, an Assumption University freshman.
But, he said, at the March for Life, where young people are full of vigor for change, “that doubt turns into a cement foundation and despair turns into unceasing hope.”
Linda Streeter, 63, of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Norfolk, brought a scarf she was given when she went to the March for Life five years ago with another group. Thursday at St. Paul Cathedral she told The Catholic Free Press that she’d looked online, found that the Worcester Diocese had buses, and secured a seat.
Charles Dalsass, father of two Trivium students who went this year, and other children who’ve gone in the past, said this was his first time. He especially liked Friday morning’s pre-march Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.
“It was absolutely packed ... young people, all these young nuns ... wonderful singing,” he said.
Watching EWTN coverage of that Mass, Mrs. LeDoux saw Msgr. Reidy concelebrating. He had celebrated the send-off Mass the previous night at St. Paul Cathedral.
In his homily, he said that in Washington marchers could see the U.S. Constitution, which doesn’t mention abortion. But, he said, the U.S. Supreme Court appealed to it to decide that there was a constitutional right to abortion in the decision of Roe v. Wade.
Msgr. Reidy appealed to the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
Since the 1973 decision, there has been an estimated more than 65 million abortions in the United States. (In 2022, the court overturned that ruling and returned the authority to regulate abortion to the states.)
He said “we march as Americans, as Catholics” and as people of reason, to pray, witness to the sanctity of life, remind others of the injustice of abortion, and be a voice for the unborn.
He quoted from the Gospel read at the Mass, in which Jesus said, “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. … It is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost” (Matthew 18:10, 14). Msgr. Reidy said the basis of civil society and the common good is undermined by the mentality that “might makes right.”
Great causes take great commitment, faith and perseverance, he said, giving some history about work for civil rights.
“You can be a light to our nation,” he told marchers. “Thank you for your witness.” He expressed hope that they would be God’s instruments, through whom minds are changed and lives are saved.