Feb. 4, 2015 By Colleen Miner Three Youth Buses for Life departed the North Country on the evening of Jan. 21 traveling through the night, arriving in Washington, DC, in the morning to participate in the Youth Rally and Mass for Life at the Verizon Center. While this year’s pilgrimage shirts state #savethebabies #whywemarch, an additional hashtag emerged by the end of the pilgrimage #weareblessed. Yes #whywemarch is to #savethebabies through education and to raise awareness by our presence in our nation’s capitol (a small group who finished the March early were able to meet the newly elected youngest congresswoman, Elise Stefanik at her office) but as the days progressed, it became evident that #weareblessed. We made our way to and from DC safely and received tickets to the Verizon Center when many groups were turned away or offered an alternate venue. We were blessed to cheer for our Bishop LaValley as “Diocese of Ogdensburg” was announced in the stadium of 18,000 by Cardinal Wuerl, archbishop of Washington, main celebrant of the Mass. Bishop LaValley marched with us down Constitution Avenue to the Supreme Court steps where we listened to a mother who traveled with our group, share her Silent No More Awareness testimony as her daughter held a sign reading “I grieve my aborted sibling.” Later, a student told a chaperone that she was lucky to be alive because her mother was told to abort her due to anticipated medical issues. Friday, the Youth Buses for Life joined in a Mass with 5,000 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. The main celebrant was Bishop Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana. Six of our diocesan priests concelebrated: Fathers Douglas Decker, Mark Reilly, Thomas Higman, Scott Belina, Tojo Chacko and Justin Thomas. In the afternoon, we had reservations to the Smithsonian National Holocaust Memorial Museum. Each received a passport story of a Holocaust victim and was greeted by a museum worker before boarding an elevator where we watched a brief movie clip on our way to the third floor. As the tour began, all were silent as the first images of the Holocaust were displayed on huge poster-sized photos. A student whispered that his great-grandfather was in Dachau Concentration Camp. He survived but never spoke about it to anyone. Similarly, most don’t talk about abortion - it’s a hidden holocaust. Later that evening, members of The Culture Project (www.restoreculture.com) spoke to the students about human dignity. Saturday morning, despite a winter weather advisory, we visited many monuments including The Korean War, Lincoln, Vietnam and WWI Memorials. The trip home brought perhaps the greatest blessing, hearing student reflections on the pilgrimage. One student shared the hope that someday there would be an abortion memorial museum. This was a group of deep thinkers - so much so that one of the bus drivers, after hearing the student testimonies for years, felt moved to share his story. He said that if abortion was legal in the 1950s, he would probably not be here. Only his aunt knew about his mother’s pregnancy. When she began to show, she traveled from the Catskills to NYC to live with her sister. After he was born, he was in foster care for 11 months until his mother put him up for adoption. He was blessed to be adopted into a family who had already adopted a baby from Italy. He urged students to promote adoption. Saturday evening, Father Higman celebrated Mass for the Eastern Youth Bus. In his homily, he changed the words of the first reading (Jonah 3:1-5,10) to read: The word of the Lord came to the Youth (Jonah) saying: “Set out for the great city of DC (Ninevah) and announce to it the message that I will tell you.” So the youth made ready and went to Washington, according to the Lord’s bidding. Now Washington D.C., is enormously large city; it took three days to go through it. The youth began the journey through the city and had gone but a single day’s walk (March for Life)... So while we embarked on the pilgrimage to #savethebabies, we were reminded that #weareblessed and are called by the Lord to pass along that blessing to others. (Thank you to all who generously donate to the Respect Life collection, which makes the Youth Buses for Life pilgrimage possible.)
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