Students speak their minds

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- Twenty-two members of the Vincentian Marian Youth went to Washington, D.C., Jan. 18 to 23 to participate in the annual pro-life March for Life and a youth rally at the Verizon Center in the nation's capital.

Jan. 22 marked the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. Pro-life supporters mark that occasion every year with local prayer vigils in support of reversing that decision and by traveling by the busload to Washington, D.C., to march in support of life.

The VMY group was made up of 14 high school students from seven parishes in Southeast Missouri. The eight adults who accompanied them are youth coordinators from the Immaculate Conception Parish in Jackson, Ste. Genevieve parishes, St. Joseph/St. Maurus in Perryville and one Vincentian seminarian.

"It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life," said Christian Carron of Perryville. "Abortion is something that really needs to be changed, and if we stand together we can make that change."

While the group was there they also made sandwiches and distributed them to the homeless at the parks in downtown Washington, D.C.

"It was a great experience -- it helped deepen my faith," said Nicole Rottler of Ste. Genevieve. "Meeting the homeless people on the streets gave me a new view of life."

The group also spent an afternoon playing games with the children at St. Ann's Infant and Maternity Home.

News accounts from the anniversary date say that tens of thousands of pro-life supporters marched and rallied.

"I was really surprised at the number of young people who make up the march -- it really is almost all young people," said Allen Kirchner of Jackson.

President George W. Bush spoke to the marchers via remote from the White House, according to an Associated Press account.

Submitted photoAT TOP: Pro-life marchers rallied in Washington, D.C., in January for the annual March for Life.ABOVE: Members of the Vincentian Marian Youth group of Perryville, Mo., who attended the Jan. 16 to 23 rally and march for life in Washington, D.C., were, front row from left: Linda Wibbenmeyer, Grace Fox, Kathy Carron, Dillon Bittiker, Nicole Rottler, Christian Carron and Alina Fox; middle row: Angela Lintner, Cathy Peirick, Suin Oh, Zach Carron, Deb Fox, Lindsay Herzog, Kim Meyer and Brandon Trapp; back row: Shirley Klump, Toshio Sato, Kim Sellers, Josh Sellers, Allen Kircher, Tom Misplay and Taylor Thompson.

"We aspire to build a society where each one of us is welcomed in life and protected in law," Bush said. "We haven't arrived, but we are making progress."

The group also visited and toured St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Shrine and the Lourdes Grotto in Emmitsburg, Md., battlefields and the visitors center in Gettysburg, Pa., the National Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, and monuments and other sites in the capital.

On the way home they toured Franciscan University of Steubenville in Steubenville, Ohio.

lredeffer@semissourian.com

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