March for Life makes impression on local pilgrims

Printer-friendly versionSend to friend

While heading toward the end of the March for Life Jan. 23, Michael Lampe, a first-year theology student at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in Shrewsbury, was still in awe at the turnout.

“There’s a lot of people here. It’s fantastic,” he said.

Lampe, from Epiphany Parish in south St. Louis, was a first-timer on the march.

He was impressed by the number and enthusiasm of the young people. “There was one group, I don’t remember which diocese they were from, but they had a bunch of chants and dances as they were marching.”

** If your web browser can not see the photo slideshow above please click here **

He met a number of other seminarians from around the country and was impressed by the National Prayer Vigil for Life at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington with many priests and bishops present.

“There’s a really large group of people,” Lampe said. “I encourage anyone to join the cause and see how many people are strong in their Catholic faith and strong for the pro-life movement.”

He noted that he and others observed how media outlets downplay the number of people attending the march and inflate the number of pro-abortion people standing up for abortion rights when that is “a very, very small group. It’s truly misrepresented in the media.”

Tony Vitale, an eighth-grader at St. Angela Merici School in Florissant and on his first trip to the March for Life, said he was struck with the number of people on the march.

He also appreciated being able to talk with a staff member of Sen. Clair McCaskill's office because "she has supported so many things I don't believe in, so many things that aren't right to me" regarding life issues.

The staff member talked about how in some places long ago people were executed without a trial, and Vitale said he responded to the staffer, saying, "Isn't that pretty much like now? Abortion is pretty much that."

St. Angela Merici was among a number of parishes that had groups attending the march, often including large numbers of students. The group from St. Angela included 58 people, all but four of them traveling by bus.

Kim Benz, a St. Angela parishioner, said the trip makes a big impact on the young people who accompany them. The mother of four children, she said next year she will bring her daughter, when she is 12. "The young people are the ones who will be making the choices in the future. ... They are the ones setting the example for their peers."

The St. Angela group makes the trip an annual trek. Benz said they make a point to ask the young people to turn around when they are at the top of the hill to see the large crowd. "They realize they are not alone and will be more comfortable in speaking to others about their pro-life position," Benz said.

Archbishop Robert J. Carlson celebrated Mass the morning of Jan. 23 attended by a group traveling with the Missouri Life Caravan and other St. Louis pilgrims and another attended by 1,600 teens before the March for Life. He urged them to be strong in defending the unborn and to work for the end of the arbitrary taking of a human life.

The Missouri Catholic Conference was represented at the march by two of its staff members, Melissa Varner and Tyler McClay. They travelled with other pilgrims from the Diocese of Jefferson City. Varner and McClay along with other staff members of the Catholic Conference urged people to show their support for the legal protection of human life at the earliest stages by calling for the overturn of the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion.

  Follow St. Louisans' experiences at the March for Life on Twitter: #catholicstl.