Caldwell University Students for Life Join Tens of Thousands at Annual March for Life

Caldwell University Students for Life stood up for the unborn at the March for Life in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 22. Members of the club and faculty and staff joined tens of thousands of people from the four corners of the U.S. at the 42^nd annual event, marching up Constitution Avenue to the Supreme Court steps to witness for the dignity of life.

Katelyn Hart, president of the Caldwell Students for Life club, was attending the march for her first time. “The best part for me was getting to the top of the hill, turning around, and seeing the sea of people” who were standing up for life, she said.

Christopher Chase, a senior, also attending the march for the first time, found it fulfilling to see the huge crowds of people, “especially young people, congregating to give a voice to the voiceless.”

Freshman Sharon Vargas, who attended the march while in high school, said it is a different experience every year and “even more moving … as you continue to go.”  She was struck by the number of people from different states and nations. It is uplifting to know that pro-life efforts are making a difference, that “we can help mothers” to decide to “keep the beautiful creation God has planted,” she said.

Caldwell Chaplain Father Al Berner said viewing the crowd coming up   Constitution Avenue was like watching wave after wave “of a sea of humanity.”

In explaining this year’s theme, “Every Life Is a Gift,” Jeanne Monahan-Mancini, president of the March for Life, said that every single year in the U.S. 1.1 million babies are lost to abortion, 19 percent abortion rate.  For  babies who receive a difficult prenatal diagnosis something like down syndrome, anencephaly, spina bifida, that rate goes up to 85 percent, “8 or 9 out of 10 babies that have a serious disability are aborted in our country,” she said.

“The truth of the matter is that every life is a gift … regardless of if we have a disability or not.  And let’s be honest. All of us have disabilities. Some of them are a little more obvious than others, but no one’s perfect,” she said.

Besides the life in womb, she told the crowd, “Your life is a gift….every single one of you out there—and there are a lot of you—every single one of you is a gift to our world.”

Also joining Caldwell Students for Life on the bus were representatives of the Hispanic community at St. Aloysius Church in Caldwell, Our Lady of the Mountains Council 3533 of the Knights of Columbus in Livingston, New Jersey, Montclair State University campus ministry students and the Apostolic Sisters of St. John.