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Feature News | Friday, January 23, 2015

Faith and politics

Photography: ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC

WASHINGTON, D.C. | From prayer in a Senate office hallway to testimonies on the steps of the Supreme Court: The connection between faith and politics was palpable on the second day of the young adult pilgrimage for life.

The group organized by the Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry started the morning by visiting their Congressmen: Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart and Sen. Marco Rubio.

When they arrived at Rep. Diaz-Balart’s office, the Congressman had been called away to a committee meeting. But members of his staff welcomed them and spoke to them about the process of crafting legislation.

Coincidentally, one of those staff members is a graduate of St. Brendan High School in Miami: Communications director Katrina Valdes said she remembered Father Manny Alvarez, pilgrimage chaplain, from the days when “he didn’t have salt and pepper hair.”

Valdes offered to escort the group through the underground hallway that connects the various House and Senate office buildings. The wait for visitors’ badges and rejection at the security line turned into a blessing, however, as Rep. Diaz-Balart ran into the group on the way back to his office.

He greeted them warmly and reminded the young people that “I work for you. You’re paying for this.”

At their next stop, Sen. Rubio’s office, the group was told to wait in the hallway outside where the senator would come out and greet them. When he emerged from his office, so did a group of 12 seminarians from St. Vincent de Paul Seminary in Boynton Beach, escorted by their dean of men, Father Remek Blaszkowski and professor Carol Razza.

After myriad pictures and selfies with both groups, Sen. Rubio agreed to let the seminarians pray over him. And so there, in the hallway of the Russell Senate Office Building, the future priests encircled their representative and prayed for the Holy Spirit to enlighten him as he goes about his work.

“A growing number of Americans believe what we believe (about abortion),” Sen. Rubio had reassured both groups earlier. “And science is on our side.”

Another surprise: The young adults met two more alumni from Miami schools who work on Sen. Rubio’s staff in Washington: Alex Burgos, director of media affairs, is a graduate of Belen Jesuit Prep; Joanne Rodriguez, communications assistant, attended both Our Lady of the Lakes elementary and Lourdes Academy.

A planned meeting with House Speaker John Boehner was pre-empted by his interview with 60 Minutes.

But the lesson of the morning came through loud and clear as the House of Representatives set aside a scheduled vote on the “Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act,” which would ban most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy because that’s when the fetus is capable of feeling pain.

Reportedly, female legislators in the Republican Party feared the backlash from women voters.

“That’s how it is,” Rosemarie Banich, director of youth and young adult ministry, told the young adults afterward. Elected representatives “always have someone in their ear. You can’t assume they’re going to vote your way. Your voice has to be heard just as loud.”

In the afternoon, the young adults finally experienced the March for Life, joining thousands of others in the colorful procession from the National Mall to the steps of the Supreme Court.

Along the way they heard middle schoolers chanting, college students singing hymns and many others, including themselves, praying the rosary. As the group reached the steps of the Supreme Court, they stopped to listen to the testimonies of women who had abortions and have decided to be “silent no more.”

The young adults reflected on what they had seen and heard that evening, during Mass and adoration back at the hotel. Many of them also went to confession.

As #whywemarch was trending on social media, Banich asked them to reflect on why they had come on the pilgrimage. Several admitted that they hadn’t been really clear on what the March for Life was all about or had never really questioned the pro-choice view held by most of their peers.

Some offered very personal reasons as well:

“I was supposed to be an aborted baby twice, but the machine broke… So I marched for me,” said one.

If it weren’t for adoption “I wouldn’t have an older brother,” said another.

It was good “to not feel like the oddball Catholic” said one young woman who attends a public university.

Referring to her generation’s need for instant gratification, another young woman noted that “abortion is kind of the quick fix for a mistake. That’s why so many young adults are pro-choice.”

In his homily at the Mass, Father Manny Alvarez, the group’s chaplain, cited one of the chants they had heard as they marched: "We love babies!" One of the young adults in the group had pointed out that was not true. The truth is “We love life!”

Father Alvarez stressed that message: “It’s an obligation to all, to defend life from conception to natural death… We want the child to be born, yes, but what do we do after? Do we as a society take care of all of God’s children from birth to natural death?

“… In our country, no one should suffer malnutrition. No mother should have to beg for her child. If we really say we are pro-life, then we really have to embrace life in all its stages.”

He also told them: “Because you have experienced the March for Life, now you see what the young Church can do.”

And he posed a challenge: “If the youth of our archdiocese, from Key West to Broward — from all of our high schools, all of our parishes (stood up for life) — forget about 30 seats on Southwest. I want to start chartering planes. You go back and tell people what you saw.”

On tap for today, before flying home tonight: a visit to the Holocaust Memorial and Mass at the National Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. Catch live updates on Instagram (CatholicMiami) Twitter (@CatholicMiami) and Facebook (Archdiocese of Miami).

Miami Catholic school alumni represented in Washington

Catholic schools are well represented in Washington, especially in Sen. Marco Rubio's office where many of the staff members graduated from Catholic schools in South Florida. Some alumni and their schools include:

Comments from readers

M Lauzurique - 01/23/2015 03:13 PM
Thank you for sharing with us this amazing event in our nation's capital with the youth of our Church. You have helped those of us at home keep up daily with the events of the March for Life.

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