For the first time in over 3 decades, OLSH Campus Ministry will not be taking a group of students and faculty to a pilgrimage to the March for Life in Washington, D.C. The planning committee of the March for Life 2021 made the decision in early January to encourage participants to stay home for a virtual rally and March to be live streamed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

According to a press release from the March for Life, the small group of pro-life leaders in attendance “will represent pro-life Americans everywhere who, each in their own unique ways, work to make abortion unthinkable and build a culture where every human life is valued and protected.”

The OLSH community is representing the pro-life movement in the same way from home in Coraopolis. On Thursday January 28, OLSH Chaplain Fr. Bill Dorner lead the student body in a Pro-Life Prayer Service that was streamed to the classrooms via Zoom from the OLSH chapel. 

“The point of our prayer service was to show that while we cannot be present in Washington, D.C. at the March, we can still stand up for the gift of human life as a school,” Fr. Bill said. “Hopefully the students have learned that we can be pro-life every day of the year and not just the day of the March for Life.” 

In his prayer service homily, Fr. Bill emphasized the importance of the preeminent life issue of abortion plaguing the United States. He also reminded students that being pro-life is about more than abortion alone - it is about standing up for crimes against human dignity at all stages of life. 

The prayer service included hymns, two readings, a Psalmody, and ended with praying a litany against abortion.

Students will be watching live coverage of the virtual rally, mass, and March in their Theology classes on Friday. 

“It’s disappointing that the March for Life is virtual this year, but I am so glad we can gather together as a school,” Campus Minister Caitlin Snatchko said. “Even if we can't be there physically, we are still there spiritually.