Young Soldiers in the Battle for Life

The battle for the culture of life is fierce; we need as many soldiers as possible engaging the enemy in the conflict. Armed with the spiritual weapon of choice, the rosary, students from Catholic schools in the Mobile area are joining the fight by praying for the unborn on Fridays during Lent at the Women’s Resource Center.

The young people are gathering each Friday to participate in the 40 Days for Life campaign being held across the country during the season of Lent. The campaign seeks to peacefully draw attention the evil of abortion through prayer and fasting, vigil, and community outreach.

Our daughters, along with several of their friends and classmates, made the sacrifice of getting out of bed at 5 a.m. this past Friday to be at the Center before sunrise to participate. Archbishop Thomas J. Rodi attended and spoke to the students, thanking them for their prayers and encouraging them to remember that, although there is darkness in the world, we are to be light to others.

“Abortion is darkness, the taking of a human life,” the Archbishop said. However, we are to “be light,” he added, and “eventually that light will overcome the darkness.”

The Friday morning rosary at the Women’s Resource Center began nine years ago when a small group of students and parents from St. Ignatius Catholic School in Mobile began praying for a pregnant mother whose family was pressuring her to have an abortion. Sugar Immell, a mother from St. Ignatius, shared the story with the students this Friday, explaining how that small group began to grow, and eventually they began meeting at the Center to pray for the unborn. Other schools became interested and began to join St. Ignatius for the rosary. Today, students from four schools have joined the fight and are praying for an end to abortion.

It is crucial that our young people be informed about the tragedy of abortion and encouraged to defend life, from conception to natural death, through prayer and action. We need also to teach our teenagers about the importance and beauty of abstinence. The secular culture is assaulting them with ideas that are contrary to God’s plan for love, marriage and family; therefore, we need to arm them with a true understanding about the gift of sexuality. They need to know that chastity preserves a person’s true dignity and is a fail-proof method of preventing the pain and difficulty that can come with an unplanned pregnancy.

Seeing the children make the sacrifice to participate in the rosary and stand for life is so inspiring. They understand the crisis and want to be on the front lines of the battle. Let’s continue to educate our young people about the perilous assault on the unborn that continues to be waged by proponents of abortion.