Taking the pro-life message to the streets through witness and prayer

Patsy Pelton
Today’s Catholic

Both pastors from the Seguin parishes, Msgr. Dennis Darilek and Father David Tonary, MSF, joined the Life Chain held in Seguin on Nov. 4. Protestant churches united with Catholics for the event, which was marked by prayer, as seen in the quiet prayers of a participants.
Photo provided

    SAN ANTONIO • The U.S. bishops in 1998 ended their document, “Living the Gospel of Life” with this prayer to Mary, as patroness of America, “Open our hearts to the Gospel of life, protect our nation and make us witnesses to the truth.”

    Hundreds of people, including non-Catholics, many of them for the first time in the work of ‘pro-life,’ came together to be public witnesses to the sanctity of life in Life Chain rallies in San Antonio and in Castroville, Hondo, Uvalde and Seguin and in front of the abortuary clinic on Babcock Road as part of the “40 Days for Life” campaign.

    For 40 days, from Sept. 26 to Nov. 4, prayer warriors stood outside the Planned Parenthood Clinic for 960 hours straight, praying for an end to abortion. According to coordinator Amy Voorhees, approximately 500 to 600 people, many with their children, prayed outside the clinic.

    At the end of the 40 days, Voorhees reported at the wrap-up rally on Nov. 4, “On a national scale, Planned Parenthood is thinking we’re done. But we’re not going away. We are going to continue to train sidewalk counselors and schedule prayer warriors at all of the abortion clinics in San Antonio.” She continued, “We have a chance to change the way America sees abortion. As a result of our efforts, we are organizing a new local group called San Antonio Coalition for Life.”

    Another national campaign, “Life Chain,” offered a different witness to the sanctity of life at several different locations in October and November. Seguin coordinator Erica Hernandez reported a great turnout for the city’s Life Chain on Nov. 4 with several Protestant church communities joining with the Catholic churches in Seguin.

    Hernandez shared, “We received positive feedback from the motorists as they honked and gave thumbs up to us. Life Chain participants said they really were touched by how everyone was seriously in prayer during the event.”