As summer vacations continue for most college students around the country, 50 young adults are ending their summer’s journey of walking to defend the unborn and the Eucharist.
The American Life League sponsored its second year of Crusade for Life. The Crusade are walks that are a chance for young people to spread the message that one cannot be both Catholic and pro-abortion.
Last year’s 12 Crusaders spent 10 weeks walking from Augusta, Maine, to Washington, D.C. Due to the tremendous response, three groups set out this summer from San Diego to Sacramento, CA; from St. Paul, MN, to Erie, PA; and the original route from last year.
“I felt God calling me to defend life and to step out of my comfort zone,” said Crusader Karen Mahowald, 19, of Lakeville, MN. “I know that through Christ all things are possible, and so even an average college student like myself has hopes to make a difference. Saving one child, comforting one mother, changing the heart of one individual is important enough to give up my summer to spread the Gospel of life.”
Another Great Lakes Crusader, Susannah Coyne Clarke, 18, of Grand Rapids, MI, added, “Believing in the Gospel of Christ means standing up for the Gospel of Life.”
During the 10-week trip, the young Catholics spoke at parishes along the way, met with bishops and elected officials, and prayed outside of dozens of abortion clinics.
Their message was fourfold: (1) to defend the sanctity of human life, (2) to defend the sanctity of the Eucharist, (3) to prevent the Church from the scandal of pro-abortion politicians who receive Communion, and (4) to reach out in love to politicians who do not embrace the Church’s teachings on life and to ask them, for their own good and that of the Church, to abstain from receiving Communion until they are willing to live up to her commandments.
“Abortion is not the problem of one country,” said California Crusader Francisco Lopez, 20, of Mexico City, Mexico. “It’s a problem of humanity. I want to end this holocaust everywhere I can.”
Every day was a new adventure for the Crusade walkers. The Crusaders say it was obvious that the Holy Spirit was at work, from the California Crusaders being confronted by more than 50 radical pro-abortion demonstrators in front of a San Francisco Planned Parenthood clinic and being able to converse one-on-one with some of them, to the Great Lakes Crusaders being approached by a middle-aged man in Cleveland who, with tears in his eyes, told them that they gave him hope for the future.
“Being on this Crusade has enabled me to experience the indescribable power of prayer that changes people’s lives,” said Corinne Mannella, a 19-year-old from Tobyanna, PN, who walked the Northeast route. “Amidst this fight for life it has been so easy to see God’s goodness in the beautiful people we’ve met along the way and in my 12 amazing fellow Crusaders who have become my family.”
People along the way inspired the young people by sharing their own pro-life stories, opening their homes to them and spending time walking with them. They were also encouraged by at least six babies whose lives were saved after their abortion-minded mothers met the Crusade walkers.
On St. Maria Goretti’s feast day, the Northeast Crusaders were holding the relic of the saint they carried with them while praying outside of a Connecticut abortion clinic. One of the mothers who was scheduled to have an abortion that morning changed her mind and chose life for her baby.
“With the save on her feast day it was like a thanksgiving for all of her prayers for us,” said Patrick Joseph Yungwirth, 20, of Hagerstown, MD. “She was working extra hard on her feast day because she cares for us so much.”
This year’s Crusade walkers said their efforts were worth the struggles and challenges that came their way.
“I would walk the 1,100 miles again and again just for one person who saw our shirts and thought about abortion,” said Allen Alexander, 19, of Muskegon, MI.
Northeast Crusader, Katie Bonse, 18, of Chandler, AZ, added, “I thought that after two months of nothing but pro-life work I would be burnt out. On the contrary, this summer has given me a new passion for pro-life work. I won’t stop fighting until abortion is ended.”
To find out more about the Crusade, or to see video journals chronicling the walk, please visit their website, www.CrusadeforLife2005.com .
(Emily Bissonnette is a student at the Franciscan University of Steubenville double majoring in theology and communication arts. )
