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LIFE-YOUTHS Jan-23-2008 (770 words) With photos posted Jan. 22. xxxn
Youths fill Washington sports arena for pro-life rally, Mass
By Meredith Black
Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A sea of color met the eye at the Verizon Center sports arena in Washington Jan. 22 as more than 20,000 young people from around the country filled all the seats for the annual Rally for Life and Youth Mass, celebrated by Washington Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl.
Numerous cardinals, bishops, rectors and priests from near and far also concelebrated the Mass, standing on the platform -- set up like a stage -- on the floor of the Verizon Center.
Occupying the center seats were rows of seminarians dressed in black.
In addition to the traditional rally and Mass, youths attending this year received a special surprise: a personal message from Pope Benedict XVI, read by the apostolic nuncio to the United States, Archbishop Pietro Sambi.
In the message, the pope expressed his gratitude for the youths' commitment to life and said he looked forward to his visit to the United States. He will be in Washington April 15-17 and in New York April 18-20.
The message also said, "The Holy Father sees a radiant sign of hope for the future in this yearly witness to the Gospel of life."
Looking down from a seat high up in the Verizon Center, one could see a steady stream of white moving down the center aisle toward the platform for the opening procession. These were the concelebrating priests.
At the start of the Mass, Archbishop Wuerl said the thousands and thousands of young people were gathered there to celebrate "the great gift of life." He acknowledged each of the bishops on the platform and, as he did so, people in the crowd from that bishop's diocese cheered.
Father Scott Woods, chaplain of Our Lady of Mattaponi Youth Retreat and Conference Center and administrator of Assumption Parish in Washington, gave the homily.
He said people must not only work to change laws to protect human life in all its stages, but they also must work to change "the hearts of our brothers and sisters."
Oftentimes women who have unwanted pregnancies "seem to find themselves in a cell," he said.
However, abortion does not bring freedom. It is "trading one cell for another cell," he added.
Father Woods said, "The church needs messengers of hope."
He noted that alone "we can do nothing." However, "with God all things are possible," he said. "He will give us what we need if we hold on in trust."
He told the young people present that "we are called to be the hands of Christ in our world today."
Noting that Jesus staked the credibility of his message on his works, Father Woods said, "We must do the same."
"We must do it by volunteering ... out of the places that are safe," including pregnancy aid centers, and by visiting the elderly, he said.
To their political leaders, people must say, "The most important defense our country needs is the defense of human life," Father Woods said.
Catholics must "take that light (of faith) to all the dark places that exist in our nation," he said, later adding that "we have only today."
Among those in attendance were about 350 students from Our Lady of Good Counsel High School in Olney, Md. They filled seven buses. The rest of Good Counsel's 1,200 students attended pro-life class sessions at the school during the day.
"I think it's cool to see how many people come ... from around the country," Bridget McNamara, a junior at Good Counsel, told the Catholic Standard, newspaper of the Washington Archdiocese.
Good Counsel freshman Danny Pacious said what he liked most was "the togetherness."
"Everybody (is) coming together for the one reason," he said, adding that it was exciting to see everyone rejoicing.
A group of 40 students who are peer ministers at Archbishop Carroll High School in Washington attended the rally and Mass.
One student said she knew abortion was wrong because she learned in her social justice class last year that at 21 days' gestation the heart of an unborn child starts beating.
Archbishop Carroll senior Cherrona Minott said abortion is wrong because "you're killing life. ... (It's) somebody's future ... the next generation."
An eighth-grader from Holy Redeemer in Kensington, Md., Molly Sullivan said she has attended the Mass since the third grade.
"I don't think they should be able to kill little babies. They don't have a choice to live," she said.
Seventeen-year-old Katie Beinstein from Sacred Heart Parish in Glyndon, Md., said, "I like to feel like I'm making a difference in the world."
END
Copyright (c) 2008 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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