venerdì 5 febbraio 2010

 

Second, the pro-life movement, like history’s other great protests, is a popular grassroots movement, easily the largest of our time. Thirty-six marches had taken place before this one, and the event has brought some 200,000 marchers (by some estimates) to Washington D.C. annually since 2003. Though other single protest marches have been larger, what other cause can boast such en masse consistency?

 

By and large it was a happy march. Clever and colorful banners marked civic groups and church groups from Kansas, California and Pennsylvania. A high proportion of teens and college students exuded the spirit of a youth rally. “Byzanteens for Life,” one group of Orthodox Christians called themselves. Many groups sang hymns; ours sang Notre Dame’s alma mater.

 

Inviting a better future

 

A third resemblance between the pro-life movement and previous great protests is vaguer but still important: it does not simply denounce injustice but also invites a better future. Just as Dr. King not only condemned racism but also raised the vision of a nation where “little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers,” the pro-life movement has followed Pope John Paul II in calling for a “culture of life” where even the least “useful” are valued and protected. Not one message at the march condemned women who had chosen abortion. Featured rather was the “Silent No More” campaign of women who spoke of the devastating impact of abortions on their lives. Thousands of marchers are involved in pregnancy centers that help pregnant women find viable alternatives to abortion.

 

Exceptions must be acknowledged. Some voices and some placards were bitter and vituperative. But these were a small minority. What I discovered at the March for Life was not the cause of the angry, the insular and the frightened but rather the cause of Saint Peter Claver, who defended the rights of the slaves in the New World in the 17th century; of William Wilberforce, the English evangelical who pleaded for the end of the slave trade year after year until finally achieving victory in the 19th century; of Gandhi and King and Dorothy Day and Mother Teresa; and indeed of the God who hears the cry of the poor.

 

First published in Notre Dame Magazine, University of Notre Dame, Indiana

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