At the March for Life

It was late on a dark and cold Sunday evening as three intrepid members of WFL (Williams for Life) made their way to the Williams Inn en route to the March for Life. Illness and schoolwork had taken their toll on the Williams delegation and only Mariana Uribe, Kimberly Davis, and myself boarded the bus for Washington, D.C. along with members of the local chapter of MCFL (Mass. Citizens for Life). Arriving in the wee morning hours, we attended Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Afterwards, I saw John Martino (Williams '03, now a FOCUS missionary at George Mason) and Greg Weston of Holy Cross, whom I met on the Prince of Liechtenstein Fellowship last summer in Austria.

After a rosary and some quiet time in the side oratory of Mary Queen of Ireland, we took the Metro to Union Station and walked from there to the Ellipse near the Washington Monument where the March was assembling. A man with a megaphone was haranguing the passing multitudes, beginning in the tones of a televangelist and finishing in a rich Southern accent: "Come one, come all! Join the Army of God! And how do you know it's the Army of God? 'Cause they're for life!" Near him a group of teenagers assembled, dressed in goth and sporting fantastic spiked mohawks. Priests and religious mingled freely with college students and teenagers in "Rock for Life" sweatshirts. A diverse crowd, united by two things: a common willingness to stand up for the right to life, and a common desire to avoid contact with the wild-eyed man who was walking about with a sign that said "Abort the Bishops, not the Babies" and denouncing Vatican II to everyone in his path.

Among the Steubenville crowd we met Mike Sheehan (Williams '03), now "Brother Mike" among the FPO's (Franciscans of the Primitive Observance). We chatted for a while and then wandered on through the crowd. At long last the March was mobilized and we headed down Constitution Avenue towards the Capitol to the call of a hunting horn which some wise guy had brought along. You would have thought it was the Ride of the Rohirrim (sans horses, unless you count the mounted police.) Unfurling the WFL banner, we joined the throng. Further down the road we met up with Chris Vaughan and Grace Smith (both Williams '04) and Jonny Melton '05.

Occasionally we would be questioned about our place of origin, to which we would respond that Williams was a small liberal arts college in Massachusetts- to which most responded "Oh, near Boston?" But our presence was not entirely in vain. A man on the sidewalk shouted "Go Ephs!" A woman approached us who, as it turned out, was the mother of a girl from Kimberly's entry. Others came up just to express their appreciation, most unable to hide their astonishment that such a group as Williams for Life existed at all. At the end of the March we returned to the bus frozen and exhausted, but grateful to have played some small part in such a tremendous act of witness- a witness born of sorrow but full of hope. "They cannot conquer forever!" Our Lady of Guadalupe, Queen of the Americas, Patroness of the Unborn: ora pro nobis.