How to join March for Life and why you should

Catholics are invited to pray “9 Days for Life,” an annual Respect Life novena, starting Tuesday, Jan. 16. Additionally, for the first time in three years, Archdiocese of Newark parishioners can attend the March for Life in Washington on Jan. 19 with a group.

The Archdiocese is offering three bus options to Washington to attend the march. The Respect Life Office of the Archdiocese of Newark and LifeNet, St. Paul the Apostle Church in Jersey City, and the Knights of Columbus Council 1711/ St Anne’s in Garwood are hosting buses for a fee.

The details of each trip are below:

The Respect Life Office and LifeNet’s bus trip

Following Mass in the Archdiocesan Center chapel at 7:30 a.m., the bus will depart at 8:15 a.m. and return at 8 p.m. The cost is $30 for transportation, breakfast, and lunch. Call 973-497-4520 for more information.

St. Paul the Apostle Church’s bus trip

The bus will leave from St. Paul the Apostle Church in Jersey City at 6:30 a.m. and return around 8 p.m. The cost is $60 and will include a bottle of water and bag of chips. There will be one stop on the way to Washington and one stop on the way back for attendees to get food. Call 201-433-8500 to register.

St. Anne’s Church’s bus trip

The bus will leave from St. Anne’s Church in Garwood following Mass at 6:30 a.m. The cost is $40 for adults and $20 for students and includes coffee/bagels in the morning and boxed lunches and beverages. There will be one stop on the way down and one stop on the way back.

The 51st-annual March for Life will take place from 1 – 4 p.m. The annual event occurs in support of continued legislative efforts to restrict abortion “until a culture of life is restored in the United States of America,” according to The March for Life website.

Pro-life demonstrators carry a banner past the U.S. Supreme Court during the annual March for Life in Washington Jan. 20, 2023, for the first time since the high court overturned its 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion decision June 24, 2022. The March for Life’s theme for the 2024 event will be “Pro-Life: With Every Woman, For Every Child,” the group’s president announced Nov. 14, 2023. (OSV News photo/Jonathan Ernst, Reuters)

This year’s speakers will include Benjamin Watson, former NFL tight end; Jim Daly, president and CEO of Focus on the Family; Pastor Greg Laurie of Harvest Christian Fellowship and his wife, Cathe; Antonio de Mello from the Community of Jesus in Brazil; Jean Marie Davis, executive director of Branches Pregnancy Resource Center; Aishia Taylor, author of “Navigating the ‘Impossible’: A Survival Guide for Single Moms From Pregnancy Through the First Year of Motherhood”; and Dominick Tolentino, a Penn State University senior and president of the Students for Life Club.

“For the past 51 years, the March for Life has powerfully witnessed the tragedy of abortion, while calling for stronger protections for women and the unborn. This year’s speakers will address the 2024 theme– Pro-life: With Every Woman, For Every Child, which is at the heart of the pro-life movement, in their remarks,” said Jeanne Mancini, president of March for Life Education and Defense Fund. “We are overjoyed to welcome these inspiring pro-life leaders at this year’s 51st March for Life.”

Christine Flaherty, executive director of LifeNet, said the day will be a celebration for the thousands of babies saved since the overturning of Roe vs. Wade in 2022. She also acknowledged that work — especially in New Jersey where access to abortion has not been stymied — is still needed.

Although a report published in December of last year by the New Jersey Family Planning League ranks New Jersey as the sixth highest in the number of abortions in the U.S., it identifies barriers to abortion services and advocates or state expansion to access to reproductive health care services.

“New Jersey is one of the worst states by its abortion rates. They are also tax-funded and available through nine months. Our work is not done,” Flaherty said.

But protesting abortion is not enough say pro-life advocates. Services for pregnant women and young mothers and fathers are also needed and should be advocated for.

Cheryl Riley, director of the Archdiocese of Newark’s Respect Life Office, will be attending the march for the first time since the pandemic to “stand up for the most vulnerable — the unborn— and also network and share about the resources we have in the Archdiocese of Newark.”

Those resources include The Mercy House, which supports pregnant women and mothers at its three locations within the Archdiocese of Newark.

“I would love if other dioceses would consider opening resource and referral centers such as these to help women that choose life,” Riley said. “The march is about being pro-life and not pro-choice, but we have to remember the moms, and dads, who want to have their children and need help to do so.”

The theme this year mirrors The Mercy House’s mission, which focuses on the need to care for both mother and child during the nine months of pregnancy and in the years after.

Mancini said the march will also honor those who support pregnant mothers and fathers. “We will also celebrate the heroic work of pregnancy care centers and maternity homes while offering a roadmap to how we will truly achieve a life-affirming culture that respects the inherent dignity of all human life,” Mancini said.

OTHER PRO-LIFE EVENTS

Other churches will hold Masses, and rosary and prayer sessions throughout the month.

On Saturday, Jan. 20, St. Aloysius Church in Caldwell will hold a “Holy Hour for the Unborn” from 2 to 3 p.m.

St. Cecilia’s Church in Rockaway will hold a Mass and small march on Saturday, Jan. 20, from 8 to 10:15 a.m. to “pray for the unborn, witness publicly for the culture of life, and educate others on the dignity and beauty of all human life.” The day will start with Mass, followed by a presentation with light breakfast fare served before leaving for Rockaway Park Lake for a march and rosary. Upon returning to St. Cecelia’s, all will gather for a prayer service and light fare.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Lyndhurst is holding a 12-hour Rosary for Life on Jan. 17 from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

The faithful are asked to wear royal blue to all pro-life events to show solidarity with the babies in the womb and their mothers and fathers.

JOIN THE NOVENA ON JAN. 16

In the Catholic Church, a ‘novena’ consists of prayers over nine successive days. This particular novena is an opportunity for prayer and reparation in observance of the annual Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children on Jan. 22.

Pope Saint John Paul II set aside the day of prayer for the unborn following the Jan. 22, 1973, Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion throughout the United States in its companion decisions Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton.

On June 24, 2022, the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision overturned Roe v. Wade.

“While God, in His mercy, ended the nearly 50-year nationwide regime of abortion on demand, right now state and federal laws, in many instances, are still hostile to pre-born children. So, great prayer and advocacy is very needed,” the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops said in a recent news release.

Participants may access the novena and also subscribe to receive the daily prayers by email or text message in English at 9daysforlife.com or in Spanish at respectlife.org/9-dias-por-la-vida.

Sponsored by the Committee on Pro-Life Activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the novena began in 2013 in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade—the Supreme Court decision that made abortion legal throughout the United States. Since the novena began, it has reached hundreds of thousands of people in over one hundred countries spanning six continents.