These head holes are rather ornate, therefore
the men are not wearing chasubles. QED
When a person believes in Divine Providence, or any sort of supernaturally ordered universe, ordinary events take on special meaning.
One day I was driving to Mass and, glancing at my clock, saw that it was virtually impossible to get there on time. And I hate being late, especially for Mass. But on this particular day I was really not looking forward to the walk of shame, having to traipse past the priest while scanning the crowd for the last empty pew. Some people don't seem to mind walking in late, and perhaps that's because they have good reasons. But I never have a good reason. I always could have set my alarm clock a few minutes earlier, or gotten dressed a little faster or forgone watching that obscure Youtube video a friend posted on Facebook. Anyway, I really hate being late.
So, yet again, I started calmly but purposefully praying that somehow things would work out in my favor so that I could get in before the priest. (No, I am not above asking God to free me from the consequences of my foibles.) I pulled into the parking lot and as I walked toward the church I saw the priest ahead of me and knew I was just a little bit too late--RATS!!--but then another man stopped him!! I looked long enough to see the man adjusting Father's unruly chasuble*, delaying him enough for me to sneak in first. So I was able to make it to a pew shortly before the dinner bell rang to signal everyone to stand up for the entrance antiphon. (The bell probably has a more official name, but they didn't teach us that in Jesus Class.)
And I was struck by how strange it is that, again and again, I arrive somewhere exactly on time. If I had been stopped at one more or one fewer traffic light I would not have been perfectly punctual. Now, until I have time to perform a rigorous statistical study, I'll go ahead and assume that this perceived punctuality is quite significant and surely indicates Divine Intervention. Is it not the American way to persist in one's assumptions for as long as convenient? At any rate, I'd like to thank God for disorderly chasubles!
*According to my laptop dictionary, a chasuble is "a sleeveless outer vestment worn by a Catholic or High Anglican priest when celebrating Mass, typically ornate and having a simple hole for the head." Note to self: the head hole is NOT ornate. It is simple.
Fr. Charles J. Canterna
photo by Clarence B.Garrett, 1978
from "Street Priest" by Dan Rodricks
in Marylanders of the Century
Father Chuck Canterna shares Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s beliefs of equality, non-violence and a deep faith in God with all his heart. To Father Chuck, who is a prison chaplain, everyone is equal in God’s eyes, even the worse (sic) criminals. He rejects violence in favor of love. His faith in God is the basis that helps him love everyone equally and to live non-violently, even in the most violent of places.
--Keegan Knox's submission, finalist in Baltimore's Champions of Courage
“I plant the seeds, God does the watering.” “The first three
I approach might reject me,” says Chuck. “And then the fourth, the fifth, the
sixth, the seventh, the eighth, the ninth. But then the 10th—that guy
might be open to God, open to the Spirit. He might respond. I might be able to
get him to go inside himself and find meaning and purpose to his life, and
maybe a light comes on and the guy finds the Spirit. I’m just there to help him
connect to the Spirit."
--"Street priest" by Dan Rodricks, Marylanders of the Century
Us Baltimore bridesmaids were talking with a new friend at
the rehearsal dinner and I was reminded of a post that I wanted to write for
Mother’s Day. Since I was actually home for Mother’s Day this year I missed
that deadline. But it’s still Mother’s Day month and the month specially
devoted to Our Blessed Mother Mary, so Happy Belated Mother’s Day! This post is
about how being a good mother is the greatest thing a woman can ever do.
These all continued with one accord in prayer and
supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his
brethren. “Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the time
that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of
John, unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to
be a witness with us of his resurrection.” Acts 1:14, 21-22
Women are capable of spiritually counseling others and,
although some might not believe it, many women are capable of keeping secrets.
Women can be very prayerful and, in today’s world, seem to be the more
naturally spiritual gender. (Silly, since every person is spiritual by nature.)
Women are obviously capable of saying the words that the Priest says during
consecration. If a woman is physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually
capable of doing what the Priest does then why can’t she be a Catholic Priest??
Because it’s not her role. It’s a special role that God gave
only to men.
The Twelve Apostles
Well that’s not fair. Everything I get to do at the Mass men
can do too (lectoring, distributing communion, cantoring, etc.) but I can’t do everything the men can do. So I’m taking a back seat. I’m stuck
in a subordinate role; subservient since the bishops are the teaching
authorities of the Church. So yeah…. see how the Catholic Church oppresses
women? Jesus may have ordained only men, but that was back when women were
property. We’ve been liberated and I want a Church that empowers women!
HOLD ON. Without getting into the theology of why the Catholic Priesthood is a male vocation (John Paul II gave a superficial explanation in
Odinatio Sacerdotalis), we can reasonably say “Ok, so if this is a gender
thing, then why don’t we women have our own special role in the Church??”
We do. And it’s a special role that God gave only to women.
Does anyone know what it is?
Our Lady of the Laundry
It’s called MOTHERHOOD!
Only a woman can conceive and give
birth to a child.
In a healthy family, the father takes a back seat to the mother, dutifully
assisting as life develops within her. Without mothers there would be no
priests. Without Mother Mary there would have been no Jesus.
This is why the Catholic Church venerates the Blessed Virgin
Mary, the most perfect of God’s creatures. With her free will she said yes to
God and became the Mother of the Savior. As a friend explained it, God
could have chosen any way to become incarnate in the world. (In fact, we might
have expected Him to fashion an adult body for Himself, from nothing.) And yet
he decided to be born. He chose a woman to be his gateway into this world, thereby elevating
Motherhood to the woman’s most important role. "When you became man to set us free you did not spurn theVirgin's womb."
Our Lady of the Eucharist
“If he had wanted simply to be seen, he
could indeed have taken another, and nobler, body. Instead, he took our body in
its reality. Within the Virgin he built himself a temple, that is, a body; he
made it his own instrument in which to dwell and to reveal himself. In this way
he received from mankind a body like our own, and, since all were subject to
the corruption of death, he delivered this body over to death for all, and with
supreme love offered it to the Father.” –St. Athanasius
To the orthodox Catholic, a woman being ordained to the
priesthood is as unnatural as a man being impregnated and giving birth to a
child. We may try to force God’s hand by “ordaining” women or developing
Junior-esque technology to impregnate a man, but that does not make it natural
or right.
But wait…. motherhood is great and all, but shouldn’t women
have a role in the Church?
One of the consequences of our human weakness is that we
separate our life into two categories: spiritual and non-spiritual. In the
spiritual box are my time at Church, my daily prayer, maybe some volunteer work
and a few other things. In my non-spiritual box are things like work,
recreation, chores, family time, etc. The problem is that everything should be in the spiritual box. “So whether you eat
or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” 1 Corinthians
10:31
The mystical Body of Christ, the Church, is a living
organism composed of many members. The living Church consists of every Baptized
member and the life of the Church extends into everything that we do. This is
why a Catholic business owner can’t just set aside his/her faith and provide
birth control to employees because it’s not happening within the church. It may
not be happening within a church but it is
happening within the Church.
The Church is the Bride of Christ. The two are of one flesh.
So to me, the role of Mother is tied with Priest for “most
important role” in the Church.
As a society we’ve become somewhat ungrateful toward mothers
and we often see motherhood as a burden. We want to relieve mothers from as
much mothering as we possibly can so that they are free to do other more
important things. I’m not against childcare, but there is a strange push for
mothers to gain ever greater independence from their children. Sometimes we
cynically scoff when a mother says that giving birth to her children was the
most important thing she has ever done. We scream about overpopulation and
abort and sterilize and contracept and ‘plan’ our parenthood down to
unsustainable birth rates below the population replacement level. We spend our
tax money on ‘preventative care’ to eliminate the threat of pregnancy. And we
are offended when our culture is referred to as a culture of death. But could
anyone call this a culture of life?
Youths oppress my people, women rule over them. My
people, your guides lead you astray; they turn you from the path. Isaiah 3:12
For the time will come when you will say, 'Blessed are
the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never
nursed!' Luke 23:29
These are warnings. When our Priests lead us astray, young
people are out of control, and women feel the need to take over there is
something wrong. When pregnancy becomes a curse and more and more women prefer to
remain childless we have problems. We don’t need men to mother children and
women to serve as Priests. We need strong, traditional male priests and
devoted, natural mothers.
It's not every day you get to have your picture taken with Jesus and a bunch of Vietnamese people!
All Baptized persons are part of the royal priesthood. My
mom didn’t have to be ordained to be my first priest. My mom taught me what
forgiveness looks like. And she taught me how to love. Thank you, mom, for
having the courage and hope to give me a chance when doctors advised you
to terminate the pregnancy. I’m alive because, whether you realized it or not,
you chose to leave things in God’s hands. Go mom!!
A Poem for the Third Sunday after Easter, by John Keble [A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is
come; but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no
more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.--St. John
xvi. 21.] Well may I guess and feel Why Autumn should be sad; But vernal airs should sorrow heal, Spring should be gay and glad: Yet as along this violet bank I rove, The languid sweetness seems to choke my breath, I sit me down beside the hazel grove, And sigh, and half could wish my weariness were death. Like a bright veering cloud Grey blossoms twinkle there, Warbles around a busy crowd Of larks in purest air. Shame on the heart that dreams of blessings gone, Or wakes the spectral forms of woe and crime, When nature sings of joy and hope alone, Reading her cheerful lesson in her own sweet time. Nor let the proud heart say, In her self-torturing hour, The travail pangs must have their way, The aching brow must lower. To us long since the glorious Child is born Our throes should be forgot, or only seem Like a sad vision told for joy at morn, For joy that we have waked and found it but a dream. Mysterious to all thought A mother’s prime of bliss, When to her eager lips is brought Her infant’s thrilling kiss. O never shall it set, the sacred light Which dawns that moment on her tender gaze, In the eternal distance blending bright Her darling’s hope and hers, for love and joy and praise. No need for her to weep Like Thracian wives of yore, Save when in rapture still and deep Her thankful heart runs o’er. They mourned to trust their treasure on the main, Sure of the storm, unknowing of their guide: Welcome to her the peril and the pain, For well she knows the bonus where they may safely hide. She joys that one is born Into a world forgiven, Her Father’s household to adorn, And dwell with her in Heaven. So have I seen, in Spring’s bewitching hour, When the glad Earth is offering all her best, Some gentle maid bend o’er a cherished flower, And wish it worthier on a Parent’s heart to rest.
It was fitting that we would meet up with Karin at the end of the March for Life, since she was also there for my first, much warmer
protest at the Stand Up for Religious Freedom rally in Baltimore on March 23,
2012.
Unlike
at the March for Life, the mood here was more
reactionary. Karin is in the back of this photo (from WBAL-TV\Tommy Culp)
with her pink sweater. As you can see, the group was somewhat
disgruntled.
We were pretty wimpy about our first protest. With the
vast majority of our coworkers salivating over the proposed HHS Mandate, we
felt uncomfortable going public with our intention of attending the protest—I guess because it’s easier to brave confrontation with strangers than
with close acquaintances whom we’ll see on an almost daily basis. But I had the
consolation of knowing that my supervisors care little to know how I spend
my vacation time. In the end, we conquered our fears and got the time off from
work. Step one complete!
We met FrC at his church and walked to the rally where he,
in his collar, was immediately swarmed by people and lost to the crowd. It was a
beautiful day with roughly 150 people gathered, and there were many familiar faces. We
listened to a handful of speakers from various faith backgrounds, including a Rabbi
who was concerned about future encroachments on religious freedom that might follow the upholding of a conscience-violating mandate. Then we shouted some
slogans and prayed some prayers and that was about it. For our first protest we
were actually a bit disappointed, having expected some type of march or other
activity.
A man from a tv station (I can’t remember which one.) asked
to interview us. He asked us why we came to the rally. As far as I remember our
answers went something like this: Karin explained that she is a Lay Missionary
of Charity and that it’s part of her vocation to live in accordance with her
faith, and that the ability to live her faith fully is under threat due to
the HHS contraceptives mandate. Then I explained that I am a recent convert to
Catholicism and I see that our American culture has progressed into a moral
liberalism and I would like to see the restoration of some good Christian orthodoxy. (Gasp!! Perhaps that was a little too honest.)
FrC finally made his way back to us, happy we were still there, as he felt it his duty to walk us back to the car. For whatever reason, he decided he would eat that day and insisted on buying us lunch at Subway. He had a Subway gift card, now that his family discovered that food cards are the one thing he won't immediately give away. He was excited and amused to hear that we had been interviewed and confessed that he had prepared for potential interviews, thinking they might be looking for priests. Since none of the three of us watch tv we have no way of knowing if it ever aired, but I suspect not, because the camera man never told us
where to look so I was shifty-eyed, trying to decide if I should look at the
camera or the man with the microphone. Maybe they used Karin’s part and cut me
out.
Fortunately, now I’m media trained and ready for the next
time some reporter wants my opinion on a highly controversial and incendiary
topic. Surely it's only a matter of time. ;o)
A lot of people have asked me, "What’s the deal with the
Pope?”
There seems to be an unlimited supply of conspiracy theories
and alleged scandals floating around the media—from the Pope fleeing both
assassination threats and warrants for his arrest to the Pope finally throwing
in the towel and caving to the never ending pederasty cover-up accusations. All
of the allegations are, of course, backed by definitive proofs! This goes
to show that when it comes to the Catholic Church, the National Enquirer is tied
for the most accurate secular news source. (See news stands for the hidden story behind the papal tumult as the Enquirer goes behind the scenes at the
Vatican in "Exclusive cover story: Pope Brain Cancer Bombshell.")
However, I’m inclined to believe what the man said. He is
old and feeble. He can’t travel around the world the way he used to—he has a
pacemaker and has been seen using a walker. And watch the poor man try to use
an iPad.
(See how he pushes the button and nothing happens?? Ugh. Now I feel like an 85
year old.)
However, I did read this article speculating that the
Blessed Virgin Mary asked Pope Benedict XVI to abdicate. (That sounds crazy.
But I assure you it’s not. ;o) She talks to both crazy people and sane people.) Early in his Papacy, Benedict asked for
prayers that he would not succumb to the ‘wolves’, which many feel referred to
certain Vatican officials who habitually opposed the Pope, partly due to aversion to
change. (Scheming bureaucrats hindering fruitful progress? We have those kinds
of wolves in North America too.) The author suggests that the time is right for
a new, invigorated Pope who will lay the smack down on the wolves and get them out of
there. I guess we’ll have to wait and see!
After talking with some coworkers I discovered they were
most confused about the matter of Papal Infallibility and how a person can go
from being fallible to (pretending to be) perfect and then back to fallible
again. I tried to explain that the Pope is infallible only in relation to faith
and morals, under very specific circumstances, so long as he is in agreement
with teachings that have been passed on for the last two millennia… and that
such infallible statements have almost never been proclaimed anyway. I told
them that the underlying belief is that the Holy Spirit is trusted to work
through the Pope (whether he’s good or evil) to ensure that the faith does not
become corrupted from what was passed on by the early Church. The infallibility
is not attached to the person but to the office. So the Holy Spirit uses
whoever happens to be in the office of Pope to maintain orthodoxy through
infallible statements, if necessary. Here's a cartoon illustration of how the Holy Spirit might prevent a stubborn Pope from 'infallibly' issuing a fallible statement:
The thing to remember is that the man in the Chair of Peter certainly does not have to be
perfect. And, in fact, in Galatians Chapter 2, St. Paul says that upon meeting
Peter he “opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.” In the end,
Peter conceded to Paul that Christians are allowed to eat bacon (among other
things). However, with respect to Papal Infallibility, we believe that if Peter
had felt the need to deliberate on the matter and pray about it and utter a
binding and infallible statement, the Holy Spirit would have led him to the
same conclusion, regardless of whether or not Paul called him out on it. Now
that Benedict XVI is no longer Pope, the matter of infallibility just doesn’t
apply to him anymore, although nothing has changed regarding his personal
degree of perfection.
The fact that a Pope hasn’t abdicated in so long
(centuries!) makes it surprising, but not scandalous. Now ensues the media
frenzy of trying to guess the next Pope. This is a hopeless task due to the
fact that those in conclave do (gasp!) pray about it, and through prayer may be
inclined to choose someone they would not have picked based on a list of pros and
cons. A friend of mine recently returned from Africa. She was there when Pope Benedict announced his intention to abdicate and the local Cardinal made the statement that "if an African is chosen as Pope it's not because it is 'our turn' but because of the Holy Spirit." Well said!
Since I only know the names of about four Cardinals (none of whom Sarah Jones
would elect as Pope), I can’t really join in the guessing. But fortunately, this
year there is an app to ‘adopt’ a Cardinal to pray for before and during the
conclave. Mine is 75 year old Audrys Juozas Bačkisof Lithuania. I had never heard of him before so I
don’t know how to pronounce his name, but I feel like we have a pretty good
chance of winning. ;o) He’s kind of a cute old guy AND he speaks English. “VOTE
FOR ANDRYS—WEREWOLF SLAYER!”
I won’t pretend to
understand how a conclave works. But if anybody is interested, here is an
imperfect, but close enough, cartoon explanation.
With his typical exuberance, Jeremy introduced us to several
other seminarians whose names I did not even try to remember in my state of
sensory overload. All of a sudden the crowd started shifting, ever so slowly,
and we speculated that the March had begun. We trudged forward, gently knocking
into each other like cattle in a pen. We were so crowded in that there was no
point in holding my all-purpose, neon-green “IHM PRAY 4 US” sign so I gave it
to Jeremy and made him hold it up over his head while we passed the EWTN
camera. I have no idea if we ended up on tv.
Conveniently passing the sign off to Jeremy (from Lita)
Jeremy told us all about the Vigil Mass and the event at the
Verizon Center and very excitedly introduced us to the Papal Nuncio (basically
the Vatican City diplomat to the USA). I have to say, it was exciting to shake
hands with this bewildered man who may have at some point been personally
acquainted with Pope John Paul II.
Most of the bishops, priests, and deacons (and Papal
Nuncios!) were unrecognizable from afar because they were also bundled up against
the cold. Not so for the Religious Orders with their habits proudly on display.
One miserable man wore sandals because last year at the March he saw a
barefooted Franciscan. Let that be a lesson: Never try to match a Franciscan in
asceticism!
Sisters warming up with some hot drinks. (from Lita)
Although perhaps we ought to have been more prayerful, we
spent most of our time pondering the origins of Catholic terms (including
Nuncio) and words that we pretend to understand (such as prodigal). The March went
from the National Mall to the Supreme Court but the slowness of our progress
and the vastness of the crowd had a disorienting effect. We sped up and made
our way through the crowds to catch up with the Mount St. Mary’s banner because
we had fallen behind. Then the seminarians and some other groups dropped out at
the bus stop a couple of blocks from the Supreme Court building.
Lita and I, perched on a curb in the snow (from Karin)
We hung around people-watching until we spotted the
Community of the Beatitudes, a Religious Order with which Lita was on pilgrimage
last summer. We had a nice chat with Fr. Anthony (if I remember his name
correctly) and he invited us for a beer afterward. It reminded me of a similar
invitation from the Dominicans after Fr. Justin’s ordination. (In The Seven
Storey Mountain, Thomas Merton wrote that one of the only things he remembered
from his first reading of the Rule of St. Benedict—the founder of
monasticism—was that Benedict seemed to lament the fact that he could not
convince the monks to live without wine.) Sadly, I had to use up my last 5 hours
of vacation time to attend the March and needed to get back for my 3 hours of
work.
Community of the Beatitudes (from Lita)
So eventually we lagged behind the Beatitudes, hoping to
find Lita’s high school friend’s seminary named after Pope John XXIII. And,
thanks be to God, we did find them! So I finally got to meet this Neven person
for whom I’d been praying for so long. I may have gotten hugged. My memory is cloudy
but, like FrC and Jeremy, Neven seemed like a hugger.
Neven and the Blessed John XXIII seminarians (from Lita)
But then these
seminarians were also gone, off finding their bus. So we entered back into the
crowd and made our way to the Supreme Court building where there were more
speakers. We stood up on a curb to get a better view and didn’t realize until
maybe half an hour later that we were not looking at the actual building but,
rather, a 2-D façade that had been hung in front of the building, which was
under construction.
We stood on that curb feeling frozen as snow started to
fall. Next to us was a sign congratulating President Obama for his second term.
The sign seemed awkwardly out of place in the midst of that crowd and the utter
strangeness drew laughter again and again from the protesting youngsters.
Seriously dude, who put that there??? (from Lita)
I
knew that Karin was there somewhere with her new fiancé Tim, and I really
wanted to meet him. I caught her by text message and tried to explain to them
where we were, which was difficult because my hands were so frozen they
couldn’t properly push the buttons on my old school phone. But in the end they
found us and stood by our curb and we happily took pictures together, although
I couldn’t smile properly because my lip was partly numb.
The cold but happy couple! (from Karin)
Although the March for Life obviously centers on the
abortion issue, it had the joyful quality of a celebration of life. The
Marchers exuded a gratefulness and love for life at all stages. One cannot
respect the inherent dignity of the human creature while supporting euthanasia,
death penalty, embryonic stem cell research, in vitro fertilization (in which
many fertilized eggs are left unused or destroyed), or any type of action that
quenches or prevents a life that would have otherwise come into being.
Even if the March does not succeed in the overturning of Roe
vs. Wade, based on the armies of young people I think it is achieving an important goal. It fosters a sense of community and a Culture of
Life. AND it's like a great big happy Catholic reunion!! :o)
Every time I act in a way that respects and cherishes life
it moves us closer to a Culture of Life. But every time I show a lack of
respect for human life I help strengthen the Culture of Death, the results of
which include bizarre manifestations of hubris such as can be found in the
infamous Casey Decision. It states that, “At the heart of liberty is the right
to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of
the mystery of human life.” (Maybe this is why each heliophysicist insists on defining
his/her own concept of magnetic reconnection!) As much as we love our
abortions (sarcasm alert), aren’t we disturbed that the government reserves the right to define
the mystery of human life? Even secular humanists find this kind of language
unsettling.
It’s important to remember that the sins of an individual are facilitated
by the sins of the community. As I was praying during the nine days leading up
to the March I was reminded of the Christian concept of communion, which the
Catechism of the Catholic Church describes thus:
Communion in charity.
In the sanctorum communio, "None of us lives to himself, and none of us
dies to himself." "If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one
member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and
individually members of it." "Charity does not insist on its own
way." In this solidarity with all men, living or dead, which is founded on
the communion of saints, the least of our acts done in charity redounds to the
profit of all. Every sin harms this communion.
We need to remember that even a small sin redounds to
the detriment of all. I may not be struggling with mortal sin and so a small
sin may not seem to have a large effect on my life. But someone else may be on
the verge of falling into grave sin and the very small effect of my sin is just
enough to push him over the edge. We fail to respect life in so many ways, but
one common offense is the frustrated lack of charity we often display when
stuck in traffic due to a car accident. Another example is jokingly making
comments such as “shoot me now”. I have been guilty of both of these offenses. (Next time I will have to remind myself of the sorrow of visiting our high
school friend while he was in a coma after a car accident. And I will remember the voice of the detainee who told me that he’s alive today because when he
pulled the trigger of the gun he was holding to his head several years ago it
wouldn’t fire.) Venial sin is still sin, and all sin is evil.
Sin is the reason that suffering and evil exist. But the
story has a happy ending. In the words of St. Augustine: “O happy fault that
merited such and so great a Redeemer.”
“On this mountain he will destroy the veil that veils all
peoples, the web that is woven over all nations; he will destroy death forever.
The Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces; the reproach of his
people he will remove from the whole earth; for the Lord has spoken.” [Isaiah 25:8]
Actually, the final estimate was 650,000--give or take a few tens of thousands.
After stumbling upon Fr. Justin and making a scene, Lita and I left the Dominicans and explored the other signs and
flags nearby, finding interesting groups such as Pro Gay Pro Life and Seculars
for Life and Hemophiliacs for Life. But the temperature was in the 20s and we
felt cold so we decided to enter into the hordes of people where we could leech
off their body heat and be out of the wind. As the emcees warmed up for the
rally by shouting out to various states and groups and projecting live video on
the Jumbotron we eventually realized that we were behind the stage! And walking
to the other side we saw a seemingly endless sea of more than half a million
people. I was amazed to see armies of jubilant high school and college aged
people, making up far more than half the population present. And they were all
so joyful. As Fr. Wells said during his homily at the Comcast Center: “Then He
sends us out to march joyfully, to protest prayerfully, to give evidence to the
world that life is good and we cannot deprive anyone of their God-given right
to live.” Far from the somber severity I had expected, the atmosphere was
filled with hope and joyful celebration of life and community. The sense of
community would increase right through to the end of the March.
Secular Pro-Life (from Lita)
The rally included oodles of live and
taped speakers including politicians, ex-abortionists, women who regret their
abortions, people who were conceived through rape, various religious leaders,
the new organizer of the March (The previous organizer, Nellie Gray, passed
away last year at age 88.), and a Tweet of encouragement from Pope Benedict
XVI!
Lita took an abandoned sign, after getting permission from a
pack of teenagers, but we hid it in a bush when we decided to go into the
Smithsonian Castle to warm up. I saw no signs of civil disobedience (certainly
nothing worse than our sign-hiding offense) but the DC natives made it clear
that they were not happy to see us (see what I mean?), from threats of confiscating property and
pre-scolding us for anticipated disobedience to blank looks in response to
innocent questions and an overall tone of unfriendliness. It certainly felt
like the staff at the Smithsonian Café would have refused service if they had
thought it would be legally permissible. But from so many years in grad school
I know how frustrating it can be to find oneself caught, even for a few
minutes, in the middle of a crowd of teenagers, no matter how well intentioned.
And maybe that explains how they became so exasperated. Anyway, after a few
humbling experiences, we managed to purchase hot tea and snacks. I ate my breakfast
of cheddar and sour cream potato chips while we had a nice chat about vocations
and Opus Dei and corporal mortifications and many other things.
Lita's "stolen" sign and proof that she definitely did not need a new hat.
By the time we
left the sign was gone but I had gotten instructions from Jeremy telling us the
whereabouts of the Mount St. Mary’s seminarians. So we set out on a confusing
trek through the crowd, frequently led astray by various miscommunications.
But, perhaps led by the Holy Spirit, we eventually found them toward what
seemed like it might be the front of the March, although we still couldn’t see
the leaders.
Stay tuned for the thrilling conclusion of this March for Life 2013 blog post series!
