WASHINGTON — As a recently naturalized American citizen, Sister Emiliana Traversin said she felt even more of an “obligation, right, and duty” to participate and be a voice for the Church and the Diocese of Brooklyn at the 52nd National March for Life.
“I wanted to be a voice of the Church and of the Diocese of Brooklyn and to be loud and stand for life,” Sister Emiliana, a native of Italy and a member of the Koinonia John the Baptist religious community at Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish in Red Hook, told The Tablet.
“It’s very important for me and for the Church,” she said. “I’m excited to be here.”
Sister Emiliana was among 25 people on one of four Diocese of Brooklyn buses who traveled to Washington to join Bishop Robert Brennan, others from the diocese, and thousands of pro-lifers to participate in the March for Life. Three other diocesan buses filled with supporters departed from Our Lady of Sorrows Parish in Corona, Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish in Jamaica, and American Martyrs Church in Bayside.
The festivities began around noon with a pre-march rally attended by thousands. Toward the end of the rally, Vice President J.D. Vance addressed the crowd, telling them that President Donald Trump would be “the most pro-family, most pro-life American president of our lifetimes.”
“I want to be clear that this administration stands by you. We stand with you. And, most importantly, we stand with the most vulnerable and the basic principle that people exercising the right to protest on behalf of the most vulnerable should never have the government go after them ever again,” Vance said, in a reference to Trump’s Jan. 23 decision to pardon pro-life advocates convicted of blockading abortion clinic entrances.
Immediately before Vance’s speech, the crowd watched a pre-recorded video message from Trump where he told them, “We will again stand proudly for families and for life.”
Angela DiLalla, a parishioner of Blessed Trinity Catholic Parish in Rockaway Point, said she knew some of the pro-life advocates Trump pardoned, which made this year’s march even more significant than years past.
DiLalla has attended the March for Life on and off for the last 25 years. She said she keeps coming back because “everything comes down to issues of life.”
“If we don’t fight for pro-life issues, then everything else is lost,” DiLalla said.
Ramon Quinn Ramirez, a parishioner of Holy Innocents Parish in Prospect Park, said he attended the March for Life in honor of his 82-year-old mother, who explained the importance of life — from “cradle to crypt” — to all of her children growing up.
That, Ramirez said, includes advocacy not only for the unborn but for all people. He noted that many of the parishioners at his parish are immigrants who are hiding and scared because of the Trump administration’s mass deportation promises, and there is a need to advocate on their behalf, as well.
“This administration is wonderful on one end of pro-life, yes, but on the other end, there are other issues we have to address,” Ramirez said. “We’re marching for rights for the entirety of life, which is pro-life.”
Earlier in the day, Bishop Brennan celebrated and gave the homily at the closing Mass of the National Prayer Vigil for Life at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington.
Like Ramirez, Bishop Brennan stressed the importance of advocacy for the human dignity of all people. He noted, however, that to see the dignity in one another, people must first see the dignity of the unborn.
“How will we recognize the dignity in one another unless we see it in the child from the very first moment of his or her existence?” Bishop Brennan asked the more than 1,000 Catholics in the pews. “Without the right to life, every other right collapses.”
Bishop Brennan then called on Catholics “to be courageous, strong, and credible” in their witness to life and to persevere through any discouragement.
Before the Mass ended, Bishop Brennan thanked the young people in attendance and spoke of how much he learns from them every day. After the Mass, he spoke with The Tablet, highlighting the youth’s joy and authenticity.
“The young people at an event like this, you see in them a certain joy and authenticity,” Bishop Brennan said. “You can see it in the way they’re praying.
“I think we can learn from that, and I know for myself it kind of renews that sense of joy and that need for prayer very strongly.”