January 20, 2012 - Cardinal and nearly 500 Youth and Young Adults to Attend the Annual March for Lif

This Year marks the largest contingent of young people to attend from the Archdiocese of Boston

Braintree, MA – Cardinal Seán O’Malley and nearly 500 youth and young adults will attend the Annual March for Life this year in Washington DC.   This is the largest contingent of young people to attend from the Archdiocese of Boston.  More than 10 buses will leave from various locations in the Archdiocese of Boston this weekend for the pilgrimage which takes place in our Nation’s Capital culminating with the annual march this coming Monday, January 23rd.

In this week’s blog (www.cardinalseansblog.org), the Cardinal states that, “I will be one of the of hundreds of pilgrims from Boston — including almost 500 young people — traveling to Washington, D.C. to attend the March for Life. I have attended the March each year, and I encourage everyone to be a part of this very important annual event to witness to the dignity of human life.”

The pro-life themed pilgrimage will also provide different opportunities for the youth and young adults to experience daily Mass, daily Rosary and Chaplet of Divine Mercy, the National Basilica at Catholic University of America, the Holocaust Museum, the Lincoln Memorial, the War Memorials and Arlington National Cemetery.  On the Sunday night before the March, there will be a special concert with Matt Maher at a rally sponsored by the Diocese of Arlington, VA. 

On Monday, January 23rd, the actual day of the national March, there will be a special Liturgy with Cardinal Seán and the seminarians from St. John’s Seminary at the Shrine of the Sacred Heart in DC.

Every year the March for Life draws over 400,000 people and most who attend are youth and young adults.  As a collaborative event, 4 years ago the Office for the New Evangelization, the Vocation Office, and the Pro-Life Office began this pilgrimage in an effort to help teens by learning about, strengthening and building up their own peer witness to their faith and life issues in personal and public arenas.  

The pilgrimage has continued to grow each year in both the number of parish and school groups represented and the number of pilgrims attending.  There has also been the addition of a Young Adult College track and a Middle School Family track added to the original one designed for High School Youth.

The Cardinal also states in his blog this week that, “we realize that not everyone is able to attend the March. For this reason, four years ago, we established the Holy Hour for Life, in which the people of the archdiocese come together to pray in solidarity with the pilgrims in Washington, D.C.  This effort has now grown to include more than 200 parishes in the archdiocese, most of them holding the Holy Hour Sunday at either 3 or 7 p.m.  I encourage you to check the list of participating parishes (www.cardinalseansblog.org) and join us praying that all human life will be respected from the moment of conception until the moment of natural death.”

*The Cardinal’s blog will be updated this evening with his comments used in this press release