WASHINGTON — Despite a steady wet snowfall and temperatures hovering around freezing, Junior Nunez was awestruck by the scene and sea of people at his first March for Life rally, and said he hopes to attend many more in the years to come.
Nunez, a Diocese of Brooklyn deacon in formation, was one of many people from the diocese who braved the conditions to participate in the march. For him, the importance of the march boils down to the need to educate, especially young people.
“Everyone needs to realize that having the right to live is not a decision, it’s a right,” Nunez said. “I think that we should all follow this path, especially to educate our young kids today that abortion is not the right thing to do.”
Nunez was one of multiple Diocese of Brooklyn deacons in formation at this year’s march. They were there at the request of Deacon John Cantirino of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Brooklyn, who thought it was important for them to participate as part of their formation.
Otherwise, many of the Brooklyn and Queens participants were march veterans — with some having come to the march for more than 20 years. Once they arrived, they filled right in with the crowd gathered at the National Mall for the pre-march rally, holding a banner that read “Diocese of Brooklyn: Life Begins with Conception, PRO-LIFE love begins with You.”
They also held individual signs that read “Brooklyn for Life.”
Those from the diocese The Tablet spoke with about the importance of the march, emphasized that there is a lot of work left to get done even though Roe v. Wade was overturned.
It’s important for us as Catholics to support life, and to support what we believe in and that is that life begins at conception,” Dowill Garcia said.
Equally as important, some noted, is the New York presence at the national march.
“Unfortunately New York has enshrined abortion in its laws so we need to do everything possible to somehow overturn that, to obey the natural law of God, so it’s really important as New Yorkers that we tell the nation and the world that we are pro-life, that there are pro-lifers in New York and we need to just break this culture of death,” Angela DiLalla said.
Deacon Cantirino agreed that it’s important to show there are pro-lifers in New York.
“We’re the minority on the surface in New York,” Deacon Cantirino said. “New York is an extreme abortion state, but there are a lot of pro-life people and I think a lot of pro-life people in New York, especially in New York City, are in a sense intimidated because it’s so overwhelming, but it’s a huge issue and it’s very important to show even New York that not everybody accepts this.”
Auxiliary Bishop James Massa participated not only in the march but in the opening Mass of the National Prayer Vigil for Life at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington on Jan. 18.
Bishop Massa told The Tablet that his takeaway from the events is the need to heal the culture.
“The crisis of abortion in our society is not going to be resolved through merely political or judicial means,” Bishop Massa explained. “We need a healing of the culture.”