Friday night was the best sleep I, and everyone else I’ve talked to, got. It was rare to get a full eight hours on this trip but it finally came.
The end of the experience culminated with a Mass at Holy Rosary Church, in downtown Washington, D.C., blocks away from Ford’s Theatre. Archbishop of Milwaukee Jerome E. Listecki celebrated the Mass. The church probably only holds a few hundred people and it was packed this morning, full of Wisconsinites who wanted to hear Archbishop Listecki.
He didn’t disappoint. I’ve heard several of his homilies since I began working for the Catholic Herald in Sept. 2011 – this was one of his best. He talked about friendship and the importance of the word “friend” meaning you have an intimate connection with a person. They’re not just a co-worker, or someone you met at a bar, they’re your friend.
“Yesterday,” he said. “You all had 400,000 friends.”
It goes without saying that many people were feeling the physical effects of marching. Just about everyone had at least one sore leg or back muscle.
“If you’re hurting,” he said. “You’re hurting for Jesus.”
After Mass people gathered to take pictures with Archbishop Listecki and to talk about what they saw at the march. Every person had a different story, but the most common theme among the pro-lifers was that they were shocked at the number of young people who attended the rally and marched to the U.S. Supreme Court building.
It seemed like many people felt that what they were doing was right and that they would eventually be victorious in making abortion illegal.
But there is still much work that needs to be done.
And after Mass and pictures, some people went to a Planned Parenthood, or “abortion mill” as they called it, to pray and do some sidewalk counseling. Others went to other rallies for life.
The work goes on, and there is much to be done. But these people are ready to do it.
