8th Annual Walk for Life

When he spent time in the Birmingham Jail nearly half a century ago, civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote, “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

We live in a time and society where people have lost sight of this. Last year alone, we have seen dangerous decisions coming from our national capital. The Department of Health & Human Services is about to decide whether or not to force all Catholic institutions to provide contraception or face closure. The same department also denied a grant request from the USCCB that would have allowed the organisation to continue providing services to refugees and migrants just because Catholics refuse to use that money to provide contraception and abortion services to these refugees. There was also the execution of Troy Davis and dozens of others in the United States. The case of Troy Davis drew the criticism of many prominent world leaders, past and present, including Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former President Jimmy Carter, and Pope Benedict XVI.

However, we can also look at the other side of the coin and see that 2011 has also been a good year. The same department mentioned above issued a decision to not allow certain contraception that are abortifacient in nature (i.e. drugs that cause abortions, such as the morning-after-pill) to be sold to girls over-the-counter. 2011 also saw the official end to the decade-long War in Iraq, which both Blessed John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI have condemned on numerous occasions to both former President Bush and President Obama. Another sign of hope is that the number of executions carried out in one year in the United States for the first time has fallen to less than 100 people. Also, about a month ago, the governor of Oregon announced a halt on all future executions in the state and at the same time, there is a growing movement in California to completely outlaw executions in 2012.

Later this month, on Saturday, January 21, we have the opportunity once again to join other pro-lifers in San Francisco to peacefully pray for and reflect on a society that supports life from conception to natural death. It is our moral obligation as Catholic Christians as well as human beings to oppose all forms of violence that threaten to end God’s gift of life to humanity. This is a family-friendly event, so please feel free to invite your family and friends (they do not need to be Catholic) to join us this year at the Walk for Life!