Not that you'd know this from the national press coverage, but two weeks ago over four hundred thousand Americans gathered on the Mall in Washington, D.C. for the annual March for Life. I was among the marchers again this year, and once again joined with over three hundred and fifty Notre Dame students who made the long bus trip from South Bend.
On Sunday evening, Fr. Jim Gallagher, Fr. Terry Ehrman and I concelebrated the Vigil for Life at the Basilica Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Last year, I was lucky enough to land a seat directly behind the Shrine's Rector and the concelebrating bishops. This year, I may have gotten an even better seat: we concelebrated from the first row of chairs on the top step of the high altar. This gave us an even better view of the thousands of young people that packed the Basilica for the Mass.
On Monday morning, after saying a morning Mass for Life for the students of Little Flower School (the pastor and associate pastor were at the Verizon Center for the jam-packed Archdiocesan Mass) I took the Metro from CUA to the Mall. As you can see, I was there a bit early . . .
. . . so I spent some time touring, and warming up inside, the Smithsonian Castle. Later on I met up with the Notre Dame and Holy Cross College contingents, and especially with the seminarians from Old College and Moreau Seminary. On a personal level, the real highlight of the weekend was having the chance to see so many brothers in Holy Cross, from the seminarians, to my classmate Fr. Jim, and my former rector Fr. Bill. Old Collegians Brian, John, Karl, and Karlo even made the trip out to Little Flower for Mass on Sunday morning. I was very proud to be able to introduce them to the parishioners here.
The award for the most interesting sign of the day goes to this banner, thanking the Holy Father for writing the document that will allow former Anglicans to come into full communion with the Church, while maintaining much of their liturgical tradition.
After the March Fr. Jim hung around D.C. for a few days to meet with several young men who are discerning a vocation to the Congregation of Holy Cross. I've had the privilege of meeting with many of them myself, this past semester, and they are a great bunch. Jim and I also had the chance to do some sightseeing together . . . more on that in a bit . . .
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