High school, college students urged to be pro-life movement leaders

Published: 2006-01-24

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- College and high school students attending a morning Mass Jan. 23 prior to the annual March for Life in Washington were urged to "shepherd a new generation." "God is calling you to heal divisions," said Jesuit Father Steve Spahn, associate pastor of Holy Trinity Parish in Washington, to the crowd of a few hundred students from Jesuit high schools and colleges across the country. As the students shuffled into St. Aloysius Church in Washington, they placed their backpacks, and the occasional sleeping bag and pillow, on the floor in the back of the church. Many wore sweatshirts with their school name or a pro-life message. In his homily, Father Spahn spoke to the young congregation about inconsistencies in today's modern world, where a death-row inmate can be given special care just moments before receiving a fatal injection or when doctors who take oaths to do no harm perform abortions or promote euthanasia. "What gives me hope is you," he told the youths, telling them that they have the "feeling for life" even if they might not always be able to articulate it.

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