Thursday, 02 February 2012 14:34

By Christopher M. Riggs
The weather in Washington, D.C., may have been unfriendly but the conditions in Topeka were warm and inviting Monday, Jan. 23, for the hundreds of pilgrims who attended a rally at Kansas’ capital.
Bishop Michael O. Jackels urged those at a Mass celebrated at Topeka’s Ramada hotel to commit to prayer and penance throughout the year for the pro-life cause. He also urged everyone to write to their senators and representatives and send a simple message, “That’s not fair!”
The Bishop said the administration upholds the Roe v. Wade decision so that people will have “freedom of choice.” But the government issued a ruling Friday, Jan. 20, that those who offer health insurance to employees must provide contraception coverage.
“Some people get their consciences protected, but not us! That’s not fair!” he said.
Bishop Jackels also asked those attending to learn “how to stand on your head and walk on your hands.”
“To make a difference in the world – where all life is protected – you must learn how to stand on your head and walk on your hands. The way we live in the kingdom of God is upside down to the way we live in the world,” he said. “Your body is on loan from God to be served for God’s purposes. If we live on our heads, we would have a very different world.”

After returning from the bus trip to Washington, D.C., Bonnie Toombs, director of the diocesan Respect Life and Social Justice Office, said the mainstream media doesn’t show a lot of the March for Life on their news but it is great news that hundreds of thousands of youth and adults converge on Washington, D.C., to take a stand and be a voice for the voiceless.
“It was cold and rainy, but our spirits were not dampened one bit!” she said. “Throughout the March, I weaved through the crowds looking to catch our groups. Father Bernie Gorges’ group was leading the rosary as they walked, another group of youthful voices were singing about the love of Jesus, and many of our youth were just taking in all the sights and sounds around them – perhaps amazed by the huge group of diverse people surrounding them.”
Everyone had a common purpose, Toombs said, to say: “Enough is enough! Abortion hurts women and kills God’s children!”
At a morning breakout session at the Ramada in Topeka, Father John Lanzrath reflected on the topic of “What is Truth?”
“The debate continues in earnest some 39 years later,” he said referring to the Jan. 23, 1973, U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. “As Christians we believe the ultimate truth is not a what but a Who.”
We understand that natural law prohibits us from killing a human being and that the law of God is a law of love. “We have been created in the image of the divine.”
Father John Lanzrath reflected on the 1991 Summer of Mercy when he had been ordained just three years. When he and other priests stood in front of a Wichita abortion clinic and refused to move, they were arrested.
“The political landscape changed that summer,” he said. “Bishop Gerber said, ’Standing at the abortion clinic in prayer amidst the crowd gathered was as close to Calvary as I have ever experienced in my life.’”
On the other side of the banquet room divider, the youth speaker, Jose Gonzalez, a religion teacher at Bishop Carroll High School, Wichita, talked about the culture of death and how to promote a culture of life. He told a story about one of his best friends whose mother was pulled out of an abortion clinic by her mother while the daughter was being prepped for the abortion. “I would not have had my best friend in college if she had had that abortion.”
He also talked about the history of contraception, Margaret Sanger, and Planned Parenthood. “It’s all about having a contraception mentality,” he said. “Now it’s more than changing the law, it’s about changing the mentality.”
Gonzales called on Catholics to follow the gospel dictate of populating the earth. He reminded those listening about the predictions of the encyclical Humanae Vitae which said that contraception would increase the divorce rate, lower moral standards, and result in the exploitation of women and governmental control through abortion and contraception.
The Most Rev. John Brungardt, bishop of the Diocese of Dodge City, asked those attending to listen to the Lord’s call in their hearts and to elect men and women who are pro-life.
Father Jim Weldon, pastor of the Church of the Resurrection, Wichita, talked about his first baptism, a boy born as the result of a rape, and the beauty of the boy’s life and the support of the family.
“God will support you when you need to help your friend say yes to life,” he said. “No woman wants to choose abortion, they’re afraid and think that it is the only way out.”