The sea is moving

...and moving up Constitution Avenue toward the Capital.

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They are legion

The 7th Street legions continued to pour into the Mall for another 30-45 minutes. Behind those I could see were an equal number...a body a mile of more in length! Now the Rally is winding down the March up. The congressmen present have affirmed their oath to life, the bishops & other clergy speakers have rallied the acolytes of life!. Everything is prepared. Soon we begin!

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From the Mall

Standing on the Mall and looking up 7th, one can see a streetful of people running for at least six blocks, curb to curb. No, it is not the March for Life! It is the sea sustained by supernatural life, coming from the Youth Mass at the Verizon Center. Soon they will join the equal, if not greater number, already gathered before the stage on the Mall - where the Rally has begun. It is already an enthusiastic crowd. In the words of John Paul Jones, "We have not yet begun to fight!"

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The Long March

In the 1860s St. John Bosco had a prophetic dream in which he saw a period of decline in the Church, depicted as a long march away from Rome, followed by a renewal led by the Pope, shown as a long march back to Rome. Upon arrival a glorious Te Deum (hymn of praise) is sung and peace reigns. It has been a long March for Life for prolifers and some may see recent political turns as the nadir of the movement with few hopes. Indeed, a few who voted for our new pro-abortion President have declared it essentially over. But as we gather on the Mall in a few hours we should will have real hope that a new generation of leaders will emerge who can turn the culture of death around. As for our captain? Ultimately it is the One who is always victorious, and who has already foreseen the victory and ordained it.

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Inauguration

The new President has been inaugurated, with hope. He calls people to work together, as Americans know how, across lines of ethnicity, race and religion to build a better future.

In that spirit a truly representative group of Americans will gather on the mall Thursday to work and pray for the most disenfranchised members of society, the unborn. Our first hope, I say "our" as I will be there among them, is that President Obama won't reverse the Mexico City Policy initiated by President Reagan. This policy prevents the United States from the population imperialism of promoting abortion and contraception against the wishes of a foreign nation's people. This is often done coercively, in return for financial aid. With the exception of the Clinton years, this has been the respectful foreign policy of almost three decades. It also protects the American people, who in poll after poll eschew the radical abortion agenda, from having to pay for abortions with their tax dollars.

Our second hope is that he will not encourage the re-submission of the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) in the new Congress. FOCA would essentially federalize abortion and make abortion on demand the law of the land. This would overturn state regulations that regulate clinics, require parental consent, or informed consent. Such a law he has previously promised the abortion radicals. Yet... it would not be governing from the center, and so we hope.

Our third hope is that he will not change the delicate balance forged by the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy in the military, by which homosexual service members who do not openly announce or act on their homosexual orientation may serve. This is not, as many argue, a civil rights issue. It is a unit cohesion issue, and the President should defer to the wisdom of the military leadership, and not the gay rights movement. This movement wishes to mainstream the homosexual lifestyle as morally legitimate, and to use the military as a vehicle to do so.

So, as the March begins for a new administration it also begins in the battle for life and family. Join us on the Mall, or in prayer, and watch this space for live blogging during the March for Life on Thursday 22 January.

St. Sebastian pray for us!

SPQR

Dictator non est

In ancient Rome whenever an emergency arose the Senate appointed a "Dictator" whose words (dicta) would be law for the duration of the alloted term, after which he would surrender his authority to the two Consuls who ordinarily governed the Republic.

On the eve of the Inauguration of a new President, the national economic emergency may seem like it calls for a dictator, or a savior, but fortunately for this Republic President-Elect Obama is not one. He will struggle as all presidents do to control his own party and to win over the opposition. He will do things that his countrymen will admire and others which they will disdain. We hope and pray that he will protect all human life from conception to natural death, though his legislative history and his appointments so far give us little such hope.

Yet, the office can change the man, and so as he begins his term we offer him our prayers, and our support in those things in which we can.

St. John Neumann, pray for him and for our land.

SPQR

Legions will "March for Life"

The Roman, Evangelical, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, atheist, and agnostic legions who agree on this one thing, that reason and science teach that Human Life begins at Conception, will be marching in Washington DC next Thursday in the annual March for Life.

As has occurred every year since the U.S. Supreme Court wrongly decided in Roe v. Wade that human life was subject to gradations of the right to life, prolife Americans will gather on the Mall for a Rally at Noon before the March. If you can't be there, then you can follow it on EWTN radio and television, including live streaming at ewtn.com. Since I will be there, I will be sharing my thoughts of the March in this blog throughout the day.

"Qui tacet consentire videtur" (St. Thomas More)

He who is silent is seen to consent

St. Thomas More, pray for us and for our country!