Update from the March for Life

I feel like a big wimp.

I’m writing from the comfortable confines of my office at St. Dominic Chapel. It’s warm and I’m enjoying a cup of Haitian coffee. And why do I feel like such a wimp? At this very moment, Fr. Justin and the PC-for-Lifers are climbing the hill on Constitution Avenue on their way to the steps of the Supreme Court. Reached by phone moments ago, Fr. Justin had some un-Christian things to say about me as he and the students entered their fourth hour of braving the snow that’s blanketing our nation’s capital. But someone has to stay on campus, right?

It takes a special kind of man to pull off a hat like this. Sadly, Fr. Justin is not one of those men.

One of the students took the phone and enthusiastically declared, “It’s great to be here in solidarity with so many others to pray for the right for life.” When pressed for a comment on the Assistant to the Chaplain, she noted, “Fr. Justin is the worst chaperone ever. Have you seen the ugly hat he’s wearing?”

The day began for the students at the Youth Rally and Mass for Life at the Verizon Center in downtown DC. Thousands of young people gathered to hear Catholic recording artists, pray, go to Confession, and celebrate Mass with Donald Cardinal Wuerl and bishops and priests from all over the country.

Verizon Center filling up for the Youth Rally

After the Mass, the PC group made its way to the National Mall where they met up with groups from other Dominican communities: the House of Studies, parishes, other universities with Dominican chaplains, the sisters, etc. After enduring the long cold wait, they joinded the hundreds of thousands of others in the peaceful demonstration. And that’s where they are now.

I feel like a wimp for not being there. But man, this coffee is delicious . . .