I'm afraid you have to register to get into the electronic pages of the National Catholic Register so I thought I'd give you some excerpts from a recent Joseph Pronechen story that appeared there. The story concerned the growth of the national pro-life movement as seen in the increased numbers attending major rallies and marches -- events that go unreported by our nation's biased and irresponsible media.Here are some of the highlights of Mr. Pronechen's article:
It wasn't just the mainstream media that ignored the March for Life - Internet media sources like the Drudge Report ignored it too. And it wasn't just the March for Life in Washington they ignored. Jan. 22 was the anniversary of the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion in all nine months of pregnancy. In what may be the great social movement of our time, pro-life Americans protested and attended Masses in cathedrals from coast to coast...
...While the March for Life Jan. 22 drew an estimated 200,000 to the National Mall in Washington, its ripples were being felt throughout the rest of the country. On a day that featured pounding rain in Dallas, 9-degree temperatures in Lincoln, Neb., and raw cold in the nation's capital, the numbers reflected that the pro-life movement is steadily growing.
In just three short years, Walk for Life West in San Francisco has grown to a sizable wave. In 2006, 15,000 people took to the streets on the Saturday before the annual Washington march that marks the anniversary of the legalization of abortion in the United States. According to Walk for Life West's Co-Chairwoman Eva Muntean, this year's event grew to between 20,000 and 25,000 people. Via Vigil, program coordinator for the social concerns office for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, which is a co-sponsor of the walk, pointed out that more younger people are attending, and buses are bringing participants from nearby states...
Back in Boston, a rally took place at Faneuil Hall, the 18th-century building where Son of Liberty Samuel Adams spoke out against the injustices the British inflicted on the colonies. Nearly 200 people came to hear speakers like Raymond Flynn, former mayor of Boston and U.S. ambassador to the Holy See. Massachusetts Citizens for Life Executive Director Marie Sturgis said the second annual Respect Life Mass in nearby Arlington on Sunday packed St. Agnes Church, which holds upwards of 700 people. "There was not a seat to be had," she said.
In Atlanta, another 700 people crowded downtown's Shrine of the Immaculate Conception for the Mass for the Unborn. Observed archdiocesan pro-life director Mary Boyert, "The church was filled and people were out the doors." After Mass, everyone joined the silent walk to the state Capitol nearby, swelling the ranks that included members of Georgia Right to Life to an estimated 4,000 people...
...The 20th annual ecumenical prayer service on the anniversary, sponsored through the St. Paul and Minneapolis Archdiocese's respect life office and led by Archbishop Harry Flynn at the Cathedral of St. Paul, attracted 2,800 pro-life supporters. The prayer service "set the tone for the day," said Sonya Flomo in the respect life office. The majority join the walk to the Capitol, "especially now that we have a lot of high school students who participate..."
...Cleveland Right to Life's Executive Director Molly Smith said this year's rally downtown drew less than the usual 500 participants because many decided to head to Washington. Still, she said, "we had over 100 students in the bitter cold," primarily from Catholic schools, but some Evangelical schools "and a fair number of home schoolers support us..."
...In the heartland of Nebraska in the Lincoln Diocese, Father Jeffrey Eickhoff, who heads the pro-life office, said numbers for the Nebraska Right to Life annual Walk for Life by the state Capitol usually reach several thousands, but this year snow and the 9-degree temperature held numbers down to 800...
(Thanks to John Finn for the story.)
