J.D. Long-Garía/CATHOLIC SUN

Fr. John Muir leads hundreds of young adults in a prayer for the unborn Jan. 22 atop “A” Mountain in Tempe. Below: Scores of local pro-life demonstrators take part in a procession from St. Francis Xavier Parish to a rally at Steele Indian School Park Jan. 24. (Andrew Junker/CATHOLIC SUN)

Pro-lifers rally in Tempe, Phoenix to change the culture

While a quarter of a million people marched on Washington, D.C., to commemorate Roe v. Wade Jan. 22, local pro-lifers gathered in Tempe and Phoenix to mark the infamous Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in 1973.

Over two days, thousands listened to speakers who encouraged them to build a new culture of life through both spiritual and political means.

“Be maladjusted to the main currents of society,” Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted said, quoting Martin Luther King Jr. to hundreds of youth and young adults at a Jan. 22 rally at Arizona State University in Tempe.

More photos from this event

The annual event includes music, speakers, a eucharistic procession up “A” Mountain, all night adoration and, in recent years, live drama. This year a diverse crowd of 500 turned out despite an imminent threat of rain.

“Be maladjusted to what is legal, but what is wrong. Be maladjusted to what is very popular, but false,” the bishop said. “Never let yourself adjust to whatever is destructive to any human being.”

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Moments earlier, the crowd saw depictions of  the raw emotion and complex problems that arise through abortion. No one portrayed in “The Vitae Monologues,” man or woman, young adult or first-time grandparent, was left unscarred by their abortion experience.

At one point, the drama focused on a couple’s abortion experience, related through intertwined monologues. An image of a clinic’s waiting room and later the operating table provided the backdrop.

“Little did I know that every baby, every child, every teen would mirror back to me the child I would never have. That was one of many things that those people at Planned Parenthood forgot to mention,” the main female character said. “Abortion can terminate a pregnancy, but it can never terminate your thoughts and your memories.”

“It was just so shocking,” Catherine Robb said about the performance. She attended the youth rally with several other teenagers from St. Benedict Parish.

After “The Vitae Monologues,” Bishop Olmsted gave the teens and young adults encouragement to remain countercultural.

“Don’t let intimidation or the media or common culture keep you silent about the things that really matter,” he said. “We will monologue and we will dialogue and we will kneel down and we will stand up to live and serve the Gospel of Life.”

The crowd then gathered outside ASU’s Memorial Union for a eucharistic procession led by Fr. John Muir, assistant director to the diocesan Office of Worship.

Some prayed the rosary along the muddy path up “A” Mountain. It rained while the group prayed for the unborn at the top of the mountain. Hundreds knelt in the wet gravel.

Junuee Castro said she prayed for all those who have been killed without having a chance to take their first breath on her way up the mountain. The St. Agnes young adult hoped that people left the rally with a desire to defend life.

“Our silence does not take us anywhere aside from selfishness and deprives us from what true liberty is in our soul,” Castro said.

The rally ended with all-night adoration at the All Saints Newman Center.

Four-and-a-half feet of snow in Flagstaff earlier that week did not deter students from marking the anniversary of Roe v. Wade at the Holy Trinity Newman Center at Northern Arizona University. Despite a cautionary weather alert, pro-life Masses, a rosary and 40 hours of Eucharistic adoration proceeded as scheduled Jan. 21-24.

Downtown Phoenix rally

Pro-life events continued on Jan. 24 with a Mass, march and rally all beginning at St. Francis Xavier Parish in Phoenix. A crowd more than 2,000 strong streamed out of the church and onto Central Avenue. They held placards declaring their support for life as they walked about a half-mile to Steele Indian School Park.

Organizer Melanie Pritchard said the crowd was the largest showing in more than four years.

“I think people are more invested this year,” she said. “People are at a turning point in our culture and state. There’s been this new realization that we have to stand up and get out of our comfort zones so we can make a difference.”

Sen. Jon Kyl, Gov. Jan Brewer, State Treasurer Dean Martin and Rep. Trent Franks were just a few of the politicians who made brief speeches to the crowd.

Pritchard attributed the high political turnout to the fact that 2010 is shaping up to be a competitive election year. But she also said rally organizers made an effort to invite them so the crowd could hear about the state of pro-life legislation straight from the legislators.

Sen. Kyl focused on health care reform, which is currently stalled in Congress. The bill passed by the House of Representatives, he said, poses no problems on the pro-life front.

The Senate bill, on the other hand, would provide government subsidies to health care plans that provide abortion, and it restricts conscience clauses, Sen. Kyl said.

The recent election of Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown to the Senate calls into question whether any form of health reform will be passed. Brown opposes the bill, and his election means the Democrats have lost their 60-seat supermajority needed to end a Republican filibuster.

At one point during the rally, local pro-life leader and attorney John Jakubczyk used Brown’s election — dubbed the “miracle in Massachusetts” — to show the crowd that anything can happen when citizens get involved in the political process.

Though Brown supports abortion rights, the crowd erupted in cheers when Jakubczyk mentioned him, presumably because of his opposition to the Senate health care bill.

Gov. Brewer said that 2009 was a banner year for pro-life legislation in Arizona.

She signed into law a number of bills that prohibited partial-birth abortion, banned non-physicians from performing abortions, bolstered informed consent and parental consent for minors seeking abortions, and protected conscience clauses for health care workers.

Bishop Olmsted delivered the homily at the Mass preceding the rally. His preaching focused more on a spiritual method for combating a culture that supports abortion and euthanasia.

He encouraged churchgoers to celebrate the culture of life, to set aside Sundays for worship and family time and to look upon God’s gifts and others with a sense of reverence.

Catherine E. Hanley in Flagstaff contributed to this story.