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Pro-lifers gather outside abortion clinic for Good Friday rosary prayer
By Joyce Coronel, The Catholic Sun
April 3, 2008
In what has become a Good Friday tradition, Catholics from around the Valley joined Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted in praying the rosary for an end to abortion.
More than 300 faithful crowded the sidewalks in front of the Planned Parenthood clinic at Seventh Street and Montebello Avenue March 21. Many carried small children and infants, and some bore umbrellas to shield themselves from the noon sun.
Others carried signs and posters declaring “abortion stills a human heart” and “human life is sacred.” One group held up a statue of Mary while others passed out rosaries and leaflets.
“This is Calvary 2008,” the bishop said. “This is where an innocent person is killed and allowed to be killed by the government. So we’re here to remember where Christ is especially present today because He’s one with every innocent person who dies.”
Some 20 Knights of Columbus stood near the bishop, a few of them wearing their distinctive regalia. Priests from around the diocese, including Fr. Don Kline, Fr. Michael Goodyear and Fr. Kenneth Fryar, were on hand to help lead the decades.
A large group of parishioners from St. Catherine of Siena’s Guadalupana group held up a banner declaring their support for the sanctity of life. Hortencia and Ismael Alvarez, speaking in Spanish, said it was their first time praying the rosary at the clinic.
Ann Debates came to pray with her husband and five children. “We try to make it every Good Friday,” she said as her children sat fingering their rosaries.
Trevor Henry, 16, came with the Our Lady of Joy youth group and said the teens came “to pray the rosary with the bishop and show how much we love our faith and how much it means to us.”
“Be strong in hope,” the bishop exhorted the sidewalk crowd. “Christ has already won the victory over death and it’s just a matter of time before He and Our Lady decide to do that in our country.”
Impressed by the strong showing of Hispanics, the bishop led a final decade of the rosary in Spanish.
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