Pro-life rally educates teens

DENVILLE  Patrick Smart, a junior at Delbarton School in Morristown, seemed most fascinated to learn about the stages of development of an unborn baby: a heartbeat by three weeks; arms legs and mouth by four weeks; brain waves by six weeks; and all his or her organs by eight weeks.

Like many of the 300 Catholic high-school students, who attended a pro-life rally on Oct. 25 at Morris Catholic High School here, Smart, 16, knew that they would be praying for life — unborn and born — and be reminded that all human life is sacred, because all are made in the image and likeness of God. That day, Smart and the rest of the teens experienced those things but they also were educated about how to mount a reasoned pro-life defense to others. This requires them to know the scientific facts about life and abortion, including the stages of a baby’s development in the womb, said speakers at the rally.

“Faith is an important part of the pro-life movement but we also need science: information that we need to respond in a loving and caring way to an increasingly secular and pro-abortion society,” said Smart, a member of Delbarton’s pro-life club, Wave-4-Life. Members have volunteered at Covenant House in Newark and a home for mothers and also have given respectful burials to the remains of unclaimed people. “This rally showed me where my values are and that there are so many other high school students from all around, who have the same values. I want to make a difference,” he said.

From 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on that Friday, Morris Catholic hosted its first pro-life rally, open to other schools in the area. Accompanied by some of their faculty members, students of the following schools joined the Morris Catholic junior class: Delbarton; DePaul Catholic High School, Wayne; and Pope John XXIII Regional Catholic High School in Sparta. Assisting with the event were: the Rockaway-Denville Pro-Life Ministry; Fiat Ventures, which supports Catholic parishes and programs with ministry and media solutions; LifeNet, a Newark-based non-profit educational organization that reaches New Jersey communities with the facts about the humanity of the unborn child, abortion and other bio-ethical issues; and Morris Catholic’s Pro-Life Club.

“With this pro-life rally, we want the students to focus on the educational piece of life issues,” said Father Peter Clarke, Morris Catholic’s president and principal. Until this year, Morris Catholic held a pro-life rally for juniors but decided to invite students from other schools this year. Father Clarke said that he hopes to welcome so many more schools to the annual rally in coming years that Morris Catholic will have to find a larger venue in which to hold it. “This year, we want students to walk away with a witness to Christ and desire to advocate for pro-life,” the priest said.

One of the speakers at the rally to give students “the facts” was David Hajduk, director of mission and ministry and a theology teacher at Delbarton. He gave an energetic talk in the Morris Catholic auditorium about how to give an impassioned defense of life — always with a “gentle and loving heart.”

“But you should never say ‘I’m sorry’ for being pro-life,” said Hajduk, a married father of 11, who borrowed some of his strategies from Scott Klusendorf of the Life Training Institute.

Pro-abortion advocates, Hajduk said, claim that the baby in the womb is nothing more than non-human tissue. Pro-lifers need to challenge them, emphasizing that “a lot about a person is determined genetically at conception, from hair color to susceptibility to diseases” — proof that he or she is, in fact, a baby, Hajduk said.

Also among the arguments, pro-abortion advocates also claim that an unborn baby is not human, because he or she lives in the womb and not outside of it like person after birth. Nevertheless, pro-lifers can counter that fallacy by saying that because the unborn are in a different place, that does not make them any less human. In Jeremiah, God tells us, “Before you were in your mother’s womb, I knew you,” Hajduk said.

Hajduk pointed to the image of a baby sucking his or her thumb in the womb on a poster at a LifeNet booth on one side of the auditorium. Photos like that pack a powerful punch, underscoring that “abortion is not about intellectual arguments; it’s about the killing of babies,” he said.

“Know your stuff, know what’s happening in the news, follow pro-life groups on social media and have a character that is beyond reproach,” Hajduk told the students. “Pray, hope and don’t worry, as St. Padre Pio said. God is pro-life. This world is his creation. God will give you the words [in defense of life],” he said.

The rally started in the auditorium with a Mass, concelebrated by Father Clarke; Father Brian Ditullio, a Morris Catholic chaplain and teacher; and Father Carmen Buono, a retired diocesan priest, who serves as a part-time Morris Catholic chaplain. In his homily, Father Ditullio urged students to pray for people who are facing life issues. He also told a touching story about how, early in their marriage, his parents faced an unexpected pregnancy but chose life and had the baby — the priest was that baby.

After Hajduk’s talk, students rotated through three 20-minute sessions on life topics, set up around the Morris Catholic building. In the library, Holly Wright of LifeNet, also director of Casa Guadalupe House of Discernment in Clifton, spoke about “Authentic Love and Sexual Integrity.” In the cafeteria, another LifeNet speaker talked about “Building a Culture of Life.” In the gym, Morris Catholic’s Pro-Life Club focused on “Fingerprints of God,” playing contemporary Christian music, having small-group discussions and leading an art project.

Another rally participant was Sarah McTighe, a Morris Catholic freshman and a Pro-Life Club member, who said she was fascinated by the unborn baby’s stages of development.

“I’ve always been pro-life. Abortion is murder: the killing of a baby. People should seek other options, such as adoption,” McTighe said. “Knowing an unborn baby’s stages of development has reinforced for me that abortion should be illegal,” she said.