About 180 young people from Minnesota joined a crowd several hundred thousand strong for the 41st annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., Jan. 22.
“Kids were wowed by the numbers,” reported Bill Dill of the Office for Marriage, Family and Life of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, who accompanied the group to Washington.
Four busloads of youth and young adults made the trip, joining Archbishop John Nienstedt for Masses, conferences and other activities.
The 20-hour bus ride to the nation’s Capital offers an opportunity for pro-life education, Dill said, and that’s one of the lasting take-aways for especially the younger members of the group.
“They think they are pro-life, but they don’t know why,” Dill explained. “Afterward they understand why and they can articulate it.”
Marchers from around the country took part in rallies, Masses and a vigil for life before the march up Constitution Avenue to the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court Building on Capitol Hill.
Archbishop Nienstedt presided at Mass after the march and joined the group for “action” activities, Dill said, including adoration, reconciliation and writing postcards to members of congress to ask for an end to legal abortion.
The day following the march, the Minnesota group attended a conference to hear speakers from Students for Life of America.
The march and corresponding events recognized the 42nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion in all states.
