Portland Vigil Brings out New Pro-lifers

By Christina
My parish, Holy Rosary Church in Portland, Oregon, is a fairly large parish with many wonderful large families and so many awesome young people. I realized though, that we all needed to be more activily involved in pro-life work as a parish, so after I finished my high school studies in January this year, I began to look at what I could do about this.

I was eager to get a pro-life youth group started there, but I soon saw that I needed to just get started in doing pro-life activities, and then form a group once people began to join me in these. So I set a date, July 5th, Saturday, for some pro-life activities at one of the big abortion mills in Portland, LoveJoy Surgicenter. I decided that we would hold a couple very beautiful, educational pro-life signs; pray the rosary; and hand out literature to passersby. This would all be a great start for the people of Holy Rosary.

A month before July 5th, I began personally inviting all kinds of parishioners to join me for this day at the abortion mill. Everyone was very supportive and eager to be a part of this, and said that they would try to make it over. The pastor of Holy Rosary, Fr. Anthony Patalano, was also wonderfully supportive and helpful! A week before the event, he announced it after all the Masses on Sunday for me! I'm very gratefull for his assistance and look forward to working with him more in pro-life activism.

I had never organized and lead a pro-life activity before, and I'll admit that besides being quite excited about it, I was a little nervous! I knew, however, that I just needed to jump in and get started, and that soon it would all be old hat!

Well, July 5th went very well! It was a perfect day, weatherwise, for this kind of thing, and everyone who came was wonderfully inspiring! The abortion mill was closed, since it was the day after Independence Day, but we were able to reach many people with signs and literature.

Most of us standing out there were young people, and I don't know if I've ever had such a great time doing pro-life work! They were so enthusiastic and inspiring in their zeal for what they were doing, and we were laughing almost the entire time! When it was time to leave, they wanted to stay, since they were having such a great time. And they were even setting the date for the next pro-life activity; I didn't have to! There were also several very awesome and fun-loving parents standing with us.

I am totally thrilled that this pro-life activity went so wonderfully, and am eager to do more of this with the parishioners of Holy Rosary. I was amazed at how, once they had someone to organize the event for them, they were all too eager to show up for it! And I am all excited to be a leader in the pro-life movement!