9 Days for Life: join the novena

Note: this post and its featured image refer to the 2023 9 Days for Life program. The program is renewed annually. The most current information is at respectlife.org.

Beginning today, you can join others in a focused nine-day program of prayer and reading for the protection of human life at all its stages. 9 Days for Life is about praying and reflecting together, even when we’re not gathered in one place.

I won’t be in Washington for this week’s March for Life, even though the march marks two significant events: the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, and last June’s Dobbs decision that overturned Roe. The bishop in my diocese decided some weeks ago not to sponsor buses to the 2023 march, despite having done so in earlier years, in order to underscore the Supreme Court’s decision to return abortion policy to the states.

Parishes are instead holding events of their own: specially-scheduled Masses, Eucharistic Adoration, life-issue films, and so forth. Our state march for life, held last weekend, was preceded by a Mass and followed by a reception and conference at the church hall. It’s safe to say that the local Catholics aren’t making the mistake of thinking that abortion is some kind of settled issue.

Still, there’s something missing as I skip this year’s trip to Washington: the overwhelming mutual support and combined voices of my sisters and brothers in faith from all over the country. The March for Life claims no religious affiliation, and all who come in peace are welcomed to it. All I have to do is look around the National Mall and the march route, though, to find students from Catholic colleges and parishioners from many states. I’ve been to pre-March Masses at different churches in D.C., packed with travelers fresh off their chartered buses. There’s a unity and common faith that overcomes – for awhile, anyway – the sense of dislocation that can go along with being pro-life in an abortion-friendly community.

9 Days for Life can remind us of that unity and faith. I don’t need to travel to Washington to participate.

I’ll miss the trip to D.C., the interesting company, even the Washington street vendors with their hot pretzels that have always sustained me on cold mornings before marches in past years. That’s okay. I can probably find hot pretzels here in New Hampshire if I put my mind to it.

A week of observances: honoring MLK Jr., recalling Roe, seeking justice

Today is a federal holiday, honoring Martin Luther King, Jr.

Later this week will be the 50th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision.

This is the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, an ecumenical project promoted by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The year’s theme is “Do Good; Seek Justice.” We included prayers for that intention at Mass at my parish over the weekend.

I perceive a common theme.

Dr. King strove for the recognition – not the creation, but recognition – of the inherent rights of all human beings. Whatever civil rights might mean to the politicians making speeches today, I can’t see that any rights make sense unless the right to life is recognized first.

I couldn’t look anyone in the eye and say that I support that human being’s right to vote but only after someone else allows that human being to live.

Honoring Dr. King, recalling Roe, seeking justice: defending the right to life does all three.

What’s a “niche” issue?

The most recent edition of the New Hampshire Sunday News featured an op-ed column from a gentleman well-known in New Hampshire political circles.  The headline cheerfully blared “Senate GOP puts NH families first”. The column went on to list the policy priorities announced by leaders of the New Hampshire Senate majority at a recent press conference.

Something was missing. In the words of the columnist, “Absent from their agenda are niche ideological issues and special interest appeals.” I assume that the columnist and the senators are relegating the right to life to one of those niches.

Tough luck, ladies and gentlemen. The minority party has already introduced legislation to lock abortion into the New Hampshire constitution and statutes. There’s also a bill to repeal the Fetal Life Protection Act altogether. The right to life is on your agenda whether you like it or not. If you think stressing the economy is going to get you past that fact, take a look at the last midterm election.

Read the rest of the post at Leaven for the Loaf.

Header image by Piro/Pixabay.