I've been on the go since 4:30 AM Friday.  I've attended most of the Marches for Life since 2000.  This was the easiest, smoothest, and most joyful.  Maybe it was partly due to the likelihood of Roe vs. Wade being overturned in June.  Maybe it was because we only had tens of thousands of people instead of hundreds of thousands.  Either way, I was very impressed by all the young people and their joy.

     I took the first two pictures when we reached our spot closer to the stage than I've ever been.  The EWTN cameras are just to the right of us.  The second picture is at the beginning of the rally with Jeanne Mancini, the president of the March for Life.  All the speeches were great and inspiring.  Kirk Cameron was the 2nd most famous speaker (see his speech).  The last speaker got the most applause, Fr. Mike Schmitz.  See his speech here.  He became really famous with The Bible in a Year podcast.

     Like many years, I lost my group when I saw people in the crowd I knew.  Then I tried to find my group, but I bumped into Fr. Dan Swift from St. Mary's in Medford.  You can see the banner for the Tabernacle Council Knights of Columbus in the third picture.  This is toward the end of the March looking back.  Even though this March for Life was much smaller than usual because of the pandemic, I still could not see the whole crowd all at once.

     For every March for Life since I became a priest, I work the bus.  That is, I just go around the bus and talk with people.  We usually talk about pro-life topics, Church teaching, and some non-religious topics like running.  I also talked with some strangers and friends during the March.  And I enjoyed talking with the Franciscan priests at St. Peter's for the 6:30 AM Mass before we departed.  I share all this because I just marveled at being with people.  Pandemic induced isolation has been real for all of us.  I learned more about the real experiences of a variety of people.

     I concelebrated a funeral at another church this morning for Fr. Ed Blanchett's father, Donald.  It was all the way up north at Immaculate Conception in Spotswood, the farthest north I've been since the lockdown.  Life is precious.  And even when a family experiences God's love, there's still sadness when a loved one has passed.

     On January 10th, NJ had the third highest rate of daily new cases among 53 states and territories at COVIDActNow.org.  Daily new cases have been plummeting since then.  After just 12 days, NJ is now in 46th place.  Daily new cases are still going down faster in NJ than any other state or territory.  However, we do have the 6th highest number of hospitalizations per 100K.  So, we still need to be protective of the most vulnerable.

     On the way home after dinner, we watched Nine Days That Changed the World.  It's a documentary about Pope Saint John Paul II, especially about his first trip to Poland as pope in June 1979.  JPII famously proclaimed in his first papal homily on October 22, 1978 to "Be not afraid" and to "open wide the doors to Christ."  I never appreciated before how fearful people in Poland were until I watched this documentary.  Similarly, we Americans were afraid of a nuclear World War III with the Soviet Union.  JPII's encouragement for us to "Be not afraid" resonated at that time and can so in our own time.  We have many fearful people because of the pandemic, government behavior, and media fear mongering.  We ought to continue to be careful and use our reason, but we should also be courageous.

     Let's pray for one another's intentions:

1)  For greater respect for all human life from conception until natural death.

2)  For greater courage as we emerge from the pandemic.

3)  For the supreme court justices as they deliberate Dobbs vs. Jackson Women's Health Organization.

4)  For the healing of all those currently sick with COVID-19 or its lingering effects.

5)  For a continued decline in the pandemic.

God love you,

Fr. Jim