Crossroads walkers take steps
to save lives across America
By Mary Ann Wyand
“Taking steps to save lives” is the theme of the 11th annual Crossroads Pro-Life Walk across the United States this summer.
Young adults participating in one of three Crossroads walks from California to Washington, D.C., said during their visit to Indianapolis on July 15-17 that they are encouraged about the future because so many Americans are working and praying for an end to abortion.
Other Crossroads walkers are hiking through the northern and southern states on their way to the nation’s capital, where they will gather in mid-August on the steps of the Supreme Court building on Capitol Hill to promote respect for the sanctity and dignity of life.
Some of the Crossroads walkers also will speak during a pro-life program at World Youth Day in Cologne, Germany, in August.
Jeff Newland of Valentine, Neb., a senior at Chadron State College in Chadron Neb., majoring in art and psychology, said he decided to walk across America this year after meeting a group of Crossroads walkers during their journey two years ago.
Newland said the pro-life walk and opportunity to get to know the other walkers have given him a new appreciation for the power of prayer.
“We pray six or seven rosaries a day while we are walking,” he said. “I love the Memorare, and had never prayed it before I came on the walk.”
Newland said their cross-country walk has been a great opportunity to share pro-life messages with countless people.
“We feel like everybody we meet is walking with us,” he said. “Everybody’s prayers go with us and our prayers are for them. It’s a group effort.”
Newland joined the walkers in Nebraska and has walked for four weeks.
“We met a young woman who told us she had been raped and chose life for her baby,” he said. “She congratulated us for what we were doing and gave us hugs. That was the first personal experience I had.”
Newland said he had never prayed in front of an abortion clinic before joining the national Crossroads effort.
“At the end of the first week when we were in Lincoln, Neb., that was the first time I had ever prayed in front of an abortion clinic,” he said. “I was amazed at how emotional an experience it was for me. It was really hard to see all the people going inside [the clinic]. We were standing out there praying a rosary, but that was all we could do.”
Angela Beaver, who graduated from the University of Missouri in St. Louis last year, said she is discerning whether to attend graduate school to study theology and is open to God’s will so also is considering religious life.
“I feel like praying is the most important part of the walk for me,” she said, “especially when we’re out there walking miles and miles and miles. I know that sacrificing like that is making a difference. I just trust in God. I know that he is hearing our prayers and that little by little we are definitely making a difference.
“Every human life has the same dignity,” she said. “We all have the same intrinsic value in God’s eyes so we’re not just fighting for the unborn. We’re fighting for life all across the board.”
Miles Foley, a junior at Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio, lives in Sacramento, Calif., and joined the walk in San Francisco.
“I went home for five days in May,” he said. “I talked to the people at St. Rose of Lima Parish and raised money so I could go on the walk.
“When we were in Sacramento, we talked at two parishes after Mass,” Foley said. “One of the women we met at Holy Family Parish was inspired and started a weekly pro-life rosary. They’ve had 50 people pray the rosary there every week.”
The cross-country walk has been a great experience, he said. “We’ve had many, many other highlights. I’m sure there are spiritual fruits all across the country because of the walk. We just walk and never know if someone in a car that passes by us has a change of heart. We’re out here to change hearts and change minds one at a time. If one life is changed, if one life is touched, then everything we do—giving up the summer, walking every day, the blisters, the soreness, the tiredness, living in an RV [recreational vehicle] with 12 people—is all worth it for that one changed heart.”
Foley said after he completes the national walk next month he will join some of the other Crossroads walkers at World Youth Day.
“About a third of us are flying to Europe on Aug. 8 and are going to do a mini-walk for about 10 days across Germany then we’re going to be at World Youth Day in support of our Holy Father,” he said. “The rumor is that we’re going to be one of three groups speaking at a pro-life talk there.”
Father Robert Robeson, director of the archdiocesan Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry, presided at the Helpers of God’s Precious Infants monthly pro-life Mass on July 16 at St. Michael the Archangel Church in Indianapolis then led the rosary with pro-life supporters in front of the Clinic for Women on West 16th Street in Indianapolis.
“It is easy to ignore the many ways in which our culture devalues the awesome gift of human life,” Father Robeson said in his homily. “… Think for a moment about our own tendency to value some lives over others without recognizing the fundamental value of every human life. … The life of a convicted serial murderer is just as valuable as the life of the pope. …
“God became human and so our humanity became sacred,” he said. “The value of human life is sacred, and every person’s right to live that life with dignity is absolute.”
Citing the need to work for an end to abortion, poverty, capital punishment and “other offenses against the dignity of human life,” Father Robeson reminded the gathering that, “To be pro-life is to see the dignity of Christ in everyone. To be pro-life is to recognize our own imperfect tendency to value some lives more than others … then to do something to change that.” †
