By Deacon James Dugard - St. Patrick Church
Photographer: COURTESY | Brittani Garcia
Nina Ortiz, Carlos San Jose, Christopher Caballero, Brittani Garcia, Christina Lujan and Katie Konza pose for a photo Jan. 21 before embarking on a self-guided tour of museums in Washington, D.C. The young adults from Immaculate Conception's Ablaze group were part of a group of 30 who traveled with the Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry. They visited the National Archives of the United States and the Smithsonian Air and Space Museums.
Photographer: COURTESY | Brittani Garcia
A group of 30 young adults from the Archdiocese of Miami preceded their participation in the March for Life Jan. 22 with a night tour of the national monuments, D.C. After Dark.
Photographer: COURTESY | Brittani Garcia
Before joining the March for Life Jan. 22, a group of 30 youths and young adults from the Archdiocese of Miami took part in the Youth Rally and Mass for Life at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. "The pope's representative was at this youth rally/Mass and we got a message from the pope!" said Brittani Garcia, a member of Immaculate Conception's Ablaze young adult group.
About 200 people from the Archdiocese of Miami are braving the cold in Washington, D.C., right now to participate in the annual March for Life. The groups include 120 Catholic high school students and their chaperones traveling with the Respect Life Office, 30 young people traveling with the Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry, groups of college students traveling with the University of Miami and FIU campus ministries, and a number of seminarians.
The March for Life will take place Friday, Jan. 22, with participants walking from the Washington Monument to the steps of the Supreme Court. They are walking, witnessing and praying for the overturning of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision which made abortion legal throughout the U.S. A major snowstorm is expected to hit the D.C. area that same day.
We’ll be keeping up with the pilgrims’ progress through pictures and social media (Facebook: ArchdioceseofMiami, Twitter and Instagram @CatholicMiami); and also through updates from Deacon James Dugard, a religion teacher at Christopher Columbus High School in Miami who is assigned to the Respect Life Ministry.
Here is his first blog:One-hundred twenty souls brave the unknown to defend those whom they may not see in this lifetime, to mourn those they have never met, inspired by a priest most never knew. In a nutshell, that is Father Kidwell's March for Life Pilgrimage.
I, along with Joan Crown, director of Respect Life for the Archdiocese of Miami, and Jeffrey Caballero, religion teacher at St. Brendan High School in Miami, are the coordinators of this pilgrimage; a pilgrimage initially started by Jesuit Father William Kidwell. His goal was to give high school students a glimpse of how vast the pro-life movement is in the United States.
Photographer: COURTESY PHOTO
The Eternal Flame is perpetually lit at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Archdiocesan high school students visit the memorial every year as their first stop on the March for Life pilgrimage.
On Jan. 13, 2008, Father Kidwell went home to the Lord, and Joan and I were entrusted with coordinating this amazing journey.
The students on this trip come from the Catholic high schools of the Archdiocese of Miami and generally are sophomores, juniors and seniors. They are willingly escorted by a cadre of chaperones from their schools.
Joining us are Father Michael Garcia, parochial vicar at St. Louis Parish in Pinecrest, and our chaplain for the pilgrimage; as well as Father Elvis Gonzalez, archdiocesan Vocations director; and Mark Witowski, youth minister at St. Louis and our night chaperone, without whom we would all lose sleep.
Our first day (Wednesday, Jan. 20) is packed with air travel from Miami, hotel check in and, for some of our students, a taste of the cold which they have never really had. The size of the group, 120, necessitated us dividing into two groups for air travel. The first group took off at 6:55 a.m. and the second after 9 a.m.
One can sense the anticipation of the students. Although we meet at 4:45 a.m. at Miami International Airport, the group is awake and excited to journey for those who cannot speak for themselves, the unborn of our country — the boys and girls who never have gotten or will ever get to see the light of day.
We also attend this pilgrimage to offer our prayers for the mothers and fathers who are either contemplating abortion or are living lives of painful regret and self-recrimination for making the choice to abort. In this Year of Mercy, we implore the mercy of God on all those who make money from the termination of pregnancy: the doctors, clinic staffs and corporations who profit at the expense of the unborn. May the God who created all life be a fountain of mercy and grace that ushers forth a river of life offering conversion to all who are open to God's grace.
After a somewhat turbulent flight, we arrived without fanfare in our nation’s capital. As I was leaving the plane, I found myself reflecting on the number of people who have no idea what the March for Life is. How many years have people flown to Washington D.C. to protest in the name of the unborn? I thought of 20 years ago when a young student, Andrew Chachon, traveled to the march. That young boy is now a man with sons of his own. He often speaks fondly of the impact Father Kidwell's pilgrimage made on his heart and soul.
This year, on our first day in D.C., we had a unique opportunity to visit the office of presidential candidate and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. Although he is campaigning with the hopes of being elected president of the United States, his office personnel were warm and welcoming. We were given a senatorial tour of the Capitol building — magnificent. I was reminded by our chaplain, Father Garcia, to look for the images of Christianity and how subtly it was displayed throughout the building. They even had a painting of a Mass being celebrated in early America.
After a quick lunch at Union Station, we set off for the Holocaust Memorial Museum. I’ll share more of our pilgrimage journey tomorrow.
You can also watch the livestream of the March for Life here: http://marchforlife.org/mfl-2016/livestream/
Photographer: ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC
Christina Lujan, left, and Brittani Garcia of Immaculate Conception's Ablaze youth group, hold up their pro-life signs during the 2015 March for Life in Washington, D.C. Young adults and high school students from the Archdiocese of Miami will once again brave the cold and snow in D.C. to take part in the march, going under the banner of Fr. Kidwell's March for Life Pilgrimage.
Corrected: The original story said the March for Life began at the National Mall. That was not true this year, when the starting point was the Washington Monument.
