Salesian Vigil for Life
Nativity Parish,
Washington, DC

Youth Rally attracts 300
by Fr. Steve Ryan SDB

Every year thousands of people converge on Washington D.C. on January 22nd to protest the outrageous Roe. vs Wade decision that legalized abortion in this country. The Annual March for Life seems to get bigger each year . It also has gotten more youth oriented as the years have gone along. Because of this many parishes host high school and college youth on the night before the march. A morning youth rally with a mass at the Verizon Arena is now part of the annual venue.

For the past few years the Salesians have improved our youthful presence and attendance at the March for life. The community at Nativity in Washington D.C. have hosted a Salesian "Vigil for Life" that includes: prayer, confessions, adoration, workshops, mass and a goodnight. This year we had enthusiastic participation and the program was excellent and ran very smoothly. Fourteen groups attended from 2:00pm on Sunday, Jan 21st until 7:15 am on Monday Jan 22nd. The groups included: Don Bosco Prep (55), Holy Rosary Parish (24), Mary Help of Christians Parish (14), St. Petersburg Catholic High School (17), Savio (2), Salesian (2) and Archbishop Blenk High School (13) . Diocesan groups that brought their youth to the Salesian rally were: Allentown Catholic High School (45), St Matthew's Parish (50), and St. Philip's in Cincinnati (10). Ave Maria University from Naples, Florida brought sixty youth who were very helpful and good examples to their younger peers.

Mr. Joe Mele, a Salesian youth minister from East Stroudsburg PA, got the group started with some outrageous icebreakers. Br. Matt Degance gave the key-note address. Ninety Pizzas and 64 bottles of soda were consumed for dinner. Workshops were given by eight presenters including our three pre-novices. The topics for the workshops were : Living a Culture of Life, Quality of Life, Evangelizing to Life, Prayer, Vocation, Mary and a Look at Life Issues. Fr. Rich Alejunas presided at the Mass and confessors were kept busy until late in the night.

Music was essential to the evening. A band called Catholic FX led us and worked hard to provide music for worship and prayer. This group is composed of college students from DeSales University in Allentown, PA. They did an amazing job for such young musicians.

All good things must come to an end and at 7:15 AM on Monday morning the"Salesian Vigil" at Nativity was over. Groups left to go to the MCI Center and then onto the March. The organizers of our youth gathering from the Salesian Office of Youth Ministry: Liz Jarocki, Joe Mele and Fr. Steve Ryan were very satisfied with the event and look forward to next year.


Take Care and God Bless,

Fr. Steve Ryan, SDB