Sunday, February 08, 2009
Hundreds of pilgrims from East Tennessee attend the March for Life
By Dan McWilliams
More than 200 from the Diocese of Knoxville rode buses to the national March for Life in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 22. Many others made the trek by car.
Two buses left from Chattanooga, stopped in Knoxville and Johnson City, and continued to Washington with 102 riders. Three buses from Knoxville Catholic High School carried 135 students and chaperones.
Chattanoogans for Life pays for the buses leaving from Chattanooga, using funds from its annual Respect Life banquet, and the riders pay a fee to cover food and train tickets. The total number of riders this year was a record for the Chattanooga buses. The atmosphere on the trip was good, given the Obama administration’s pro-abortion position, said Chattanoogans for Life president Cindy Kedrowski of St. Augustine Parish in Signal Mountain.
“Surprisingly enough, a lot of people were positive, saying that we just really need to reach out to our new president and that reaching out to him meant a lot of prayer to change his heart,” she said. “People weren’t doom-and-gloom. [It was] great to be with that many people and that many youth who were so positive and just loved life.”
Mrs. Kedrowski said she thought at least a “couple hundred thousand people” took part in the march.
“It was just phenomenal, the numbers,” she said. “With the new administration, a lot of people said that they were going to have their voices heard. They were going to be amongst the numbers counted.”
This spring’s sixth annual Chattanoogans for Life banquet is set for 7 to 9 p.m. April 24 at the Chattanoogan hotel. Dr. Kelly Hollowell will be the speaker. Call Kitty Cross at 423-322-8356 or 290-7314 for details.
Donna Jones, Chattanooga Deanery coordinator of Youth Ministry and the youth minister at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Chattanooga, was in charge of registration for the Washington trip. Paul and Karen Schulz of St. Jude Parish in Chattanooga served as trip guides. Mrs. Jones called the spirit of the riders “awesome.”
“The kids were really excited. It always amazes me how much they care about the right to life,” she said. “I talked to somebody at the march who said he hadn’t been in 10 years. Years ago it used to be just older adults who really cared about the right to life and abortion issues, but he was amazed at how many youth were out there, college students and teenagers, by the thousands.”
The bus leaving from Chattanooga included at least two non-Catholics.
“We took a couple of college students from Covenant College. They were Presbyterian,” said Mrs. Jones. “They got to say their very first rosary, and they were very impressed. They talked to our college students.
“There was a lot of evangelizing going on,” she added with a laugh.
Mrs. Jones said “we’re constantly planting seeds every time we take the kids on this trip.”
Father Miguel Vélez of St. Jude in Chattanooga and Father Michael Cummins, the Catholic chaplain at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, served as spiritual guides on the trip. Father Tony Dickerson, campus minister at Notre Dame High School in Chattanooga, joined the group in Washington.
Father Cummins was making his seventh March for Life pilgrimage.
“I believe that the march is always a positive witness to the sanctity of life and the strength and the dedication of the pro-life movement,” he said. “I’ve also always found the march to be hope-filled. I did experience concern among the marchers this year about how the new administration would approach pro-life issues, but this concern did not override the hope of the march, nor did it override the respectful tone of the march. As one sign I saw put it: life is truth, and truth will not be denied.”
Deacon Patrick Murphy-Racey of Knoxville Catholic High School accompanied the students on the trip to the national march. Making his third trip, he said that “I know we would be there” whether the incumbent president was pro-life or not.
Deacon Murphy-Racey said two highlights of the trip for him were the 11 p.m. adoration service on the eve of the march and an all-night adoration chapel that was set up at Catholic University for the visitors.
"There were a lot of kids in the chapel,” he said. “I woke up early to try to get a shower at 5 o’clock in the morning and walked by, and there were probably 60 high school kids praying in front of the Blessed Sacrament. It was great to see their excitement about praying in front of the Real Presence of Christ.”
He said he enjoyed both seeing the kids “blown away” by the beauty of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and watching them as they took part in the Youth Rally and Mass for Life held at the Verizon Center on the morning of the march.
“How often do you get to go into a huge liturgy with an archbishop presiding, tons of bishops, seminarians, tons of priests, with 24,000 faithful all about the same age?” said Deacon Murphy-Racey. “The energy and the power from the liturgy at the Verizon Center is awesome, and it’s a great way to kick off the march.”
Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Knoxville’s former shepherd, and Monsignor Owen Campion, associate publisher of Our Sunday Visitor and a priest of the Diocese of Nashville, also attended.
Peggy English of Notre Dame Parish in Greeneville, the regional coordinator for East Tennessee for the Silent No More Awareness Campaign, traveled to Washington with her husband, Greg. Mrs. English spoke at last spring’s Chattanoogans for Life banquet of the years of suffering she experienced following an abortion.
Women and men from Silent No More spoke on the steps of the Supreme Court building during the march. Mrs. English was among more than 100 women and men who gave testimonies during the national march. She said she number of marchers was “incredible.”
“We gathered behind the big stage on the Washington Mall for the rally. As we looked down the length of the mall, it was a solid mass of people, clear past the Washington Monument,” she said.
Mrs. English said that participating in the rally and march as one who has had an abortion is “very emotional” for her.
“Had one person tried to talk me out of it, I might not have had the abortion. Had my husband at that time had a different attitude, I would not have had that abortion. And had I heard even one woman speak out about how abortion hurts women, about the physical, psychological, and spiritual pain it causes—the immediate pain, the immediate problems, and then the long haul years later—I would have made a different choice.”
Silent No More allows her to be that voice for others “that wasn’t there for me,” she said.
“The primary message that I speak is that there is healing and there is help, and that our Lord will take us back,” she said.
https://www.dioceseofknoxville.org/?news=3450&menu=1462&level=1