Notes from the Marches for Life

H/T: AOI

From Tulsa, OK...

(tulsaworld.com) - Local residents took to the streets of downtown Tulsa on Saturday to demonstrate their pro-life beliefs exactly 38 years after the U.S. Supreme Court's controversial abortion decision.

"Every life is sacred," said Kelly Cassidy of Skiatook. "That's why we're here."

Orthodox Christian led the March for Life in Tulsa, Oklahoma last Saturday.

The march began outside Holy Family Cathedral, 122 W. Eighth St., where a "Mass for Life" was led by Bishop Edward J. Slattery.

Slattery told those assembled that a "dark cloud" has enveloped the nation since the Roe v. Wade case was decided in 1973. He said an unborn child's right to life comes before anyone's freedom of choice.

Slattery vowed that the march will occur every year until this "terrible evil" has been erased in the United States.

The March for Life in Washington, D.C., is scheduled to take place on Monday - two days after the actual anniversary - while other events like the one Saturday in Tulsa are taking place nationwide throughout the weekend.

Bob Roe, 65, of Broken Arrow participated in Saturday's event in Tulsa and said it wasn't a protest march.

"It's an awareness march," he said.

The Rev. Rick Tabisz, pastor of King of Kings Lutheran Church in Glenpool, said it was an "incredibly, loving, peaceful and courteous" group that quietly marched about six blocks before ending up at the Chapman Centennial Green near Sixth Street and Boston Avenue, where a rally was subsequently held.

Tabisz said he thinks it's possible that the law will someday change.

He said "people are already waking up" to the ramifications of abortion.

Marcher Peggy Cogburn, 48, of Claremore said "we want people to realize that life begins at conception."

Cogburn said the results of November's elections strengthened her belief that the nation's abortion laws will change.

"We have hope," Cogburn said."There's work to do yet, though."

Clayton Whitson, 34, said it sometimes takes a long time for changes in the law to take place; but said he is "very optimistic" that it will happen on the subject of abortion.

While this is just the second year for the Tulsa event, the national March for Life in Washington dates all the way back to Jan. 22, 1974 - the first anniversary of Roe vs. Wade.

The first March for Life in Washington drew an estimated 20,000 supporters in attendance on the west steps of the U.S. Capitol.

Last year's event attracted an estimated 250,000 people.

Cassidy, who attends services at St. Therese Catholic Church in Collinsville, said there are some members of the church who will be attending the event in the nation's capital.

She said she was part of a group of about 10 from the church who appeared at the Tulsa event.

"It's peaceful, it's prayerful and it sets a good example for teens," she said.

Cassidy said such demonstrations "speak for people who can't speak for themselves."

Maria Whitson, 29, said she hopes the gathering will help point out that there are other options besides abortion - especially adoption - for those who find themselves confronted by an unexpected pregnancy.

From Washington, DC...

(thetimes-tribune.com) - An Orthodox priest from Jermyn will have a key role at Monday's annual March for Life in Washington, D.C.

Very Rev. Archpriest John Kowalczyk

The Very Rev. Archpriest John Kowalczyk, pastor of St. Michael's Orthodox Church in Jermyn and chancellor of the Diocese of Eastern Pennsylvania, will conduct the benediction preceding the anti-abortion march.

The Rev. Kowalczyk said Thursday he was humbled that organizer Nellie Gray asked him to participate and called it the "surprise of my life."

He will give the benediction - the final message before the march starts - on stage at the Ellipse facing the Washington Monument.

"I pray that whatever message is sent out there, that it will resonate into the hearts of people," he said.

The annual March for Life marks the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court case that legalized abortion. About 300,000 to 400,000 people are expected this year because the political climate has shifted to the conservative side, the Rev. Kowalczyk said.

The Rev. Kowalczyk considers himself an anti-abortion activist and has been involved with and attended the march for more than 25 years. He was in the seminary when Roe v. Wade was decided and wrote his dissertation on the Orthodox view of abortion.

"I couldn't understand how a nation that's really based on life principles ... cannot defend the most vulnerable," he said.

The Rev. Kowalczyk also will introduce the Orthodox delegation at the march, of which there will be many members from Northeast Pennsylvania. He said all students and staff at St. Tikhon's Orthodox Theological Seminary in South Canaan and other church members, including the Right Rev. Tikhon, bishop of the Diocese of Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania of the Orthodox Church in America, will attend as well.

The Orthodox church has a history of opposing abortion, the Rev. Kowalczyk said, "so for me to give the benediction is sort of like echoing not what Father Kowalczyk says but what the Eastern Orthodox Church has said throughout the centuries."