Diocese readies for 50th March for Life amid shift in focus

Ask Father Michael Rodak how many times he’s been to the national March for Life in Washington, D.C., and he’ll concede that his memories of the events have started to run together.

“Twenty-five. No, wait, it could be 26. Or 27.”

It’s easier for Father Rodak, pastor of St. Jude the Apostle parish in Hardyston, to recall the occasional bad weather at the march, the nation’s largest pro-life demonstration, and for many Catholics, regarded as a pilgrimage.

There was the year it snowed — it’s always very cold, but snow is rare — and the year the Paterson pilgrimage had just enough time to pray the rosary in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. And the difficulty in locating pilgrims who wandered off before cell phones provided instant contact.

On Jan. 20, for the 50th March for Life, the first since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the diocese will bring about 200 people — four busloads from parishes across the diocese. Father Rodak is the coordinator for the diocese.

The Paterson trip is nearly unique in its spareness. There are many march-related events, including the Vigil for Life at the Basilica of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception the night before, the Rose Dinner, a youth rally that morning, a fundraising breakfast with members of Congress, and the big rally on the National Mall with celebrity and political speakers. This year, the rally features actor Jonathan Roumie, who portrayed Jesus in “The Chosen,” and a closing prayer by evangelist Franklin Graham.

For the Paterson group, none of that. Instead, there’s noon Mass at St. Peter’s on Capitol Hill — Father Rodak will hear confessions — and, as always, joining the march about halfway down its route on Constitution Avenue. Then it’s back to the buses for the four-hour drive home.

Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney will be the Mass celebrant, his first there since being elevated to bishop in 2020.

And Father Rodak wouldn’t have it any other way.

“The point of the day is that the first priority is to give voice to the voiceless. And second, it is to be a day of prayer. And third, it is for us to be people of life.

“The rah-rah session is not what we’re down there for. We’re there to place our trust and prayers in God.”

There also are local marches held around the country that weekend. Among them is the Rockaway March for Life on Jan. 21 from 8 to 10:30 a.m. at St. Cecilia Church and Park Lake. Partici­pants will attend Mass at 8 a.m. and recite the Rosary along the path at Park Lake.

The national march this year had, as its original end point, the East Front of the Capitol, reflecting its new focus on legislation and a nationwide abortion ban. Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, has expressed her support for a ban after 15 weeks of gestation.

But for the third consecutive year, the march is buffeted by the after-effects of the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021.

Instead of going past the East Front — the site, in the march’s earliest years, of the rally — the route will veer off Constitution Avenue to go past the West Front, then up Independence Avenue to First Street, dispersing, as in years past, at the Supreme Court.

The reason is not because of any incipient threat from what is essentially a seldom-boisterous episcopal procession of Catholic students, parishioners, priests, and women religious escorted by volunteers from the Knights of Columbus.

Instead, there’s the impossibility of prohibiting, in a march with up to 100,000 participants, flags, banners, and the tripods used by livestreamers.

Flagpoles and tripods were used as weapons during the Jan. 6 violence. U.S. Capitol Police have banned them on the Capitol grounds.

As a result, the March for Life will look pretty much as it always has after Mancini, years ago, turned it into an actual march and not a stroll around the Capitol, as had been done by the founder, Nellie Gray.

Organizers never attempt to give an annual attendance figure, and the National Park Service stopped making estimates for any Mall event in 1993. The peak, however, is believed to have occurred in 2020 with a rally speech by President Donald Trump, with at least 100,000 at both the rally and march.

Last year the march was delayed for an hour when a group of white supremacists calling themselves Patriot Front attempted to lead it. Police removed the group without incident.

Two years ago, following the Capitol violence and with the COVID pandemic still raging, Mancini led a small invited masked group of 80 on a meandering route from the Museum of the Bible to the Supreme Court.