Back to Dallas

Last night, we were able to commandeer the coveted "common room" for a sleeping space - coveted for its carpet and working thermostat.  We did not, however, have the foresight to realize that the case of a bronze eagle, Gonzaga's mascot, would remain to stay lit the entire night! 

Nothing a few towels couldn’t fix though. 

My alarm once again went off at 6 a.m., except this morning instead of going back to sleep with the rest of the group, I walked to Union Station to meet my eldest brother Jim for tea. He lives in Baltimore but works in D.C. and commutes though every morning. It was weird really to think that I had been watching nameless commuters for a couple of days now and to think that my own brother is one of them. We talked but time dictated that he go to be in time for work, so we split ways and I walked back to Gonzaga.

There was no other place in the world that I would rather be at that moment. It was almost magical as the sun rose and the early commuters boarded the first trains and buses to their respective destinations.  Life went on, just like any other day.

We went to an early mass at Gonzaga then as a group got breakfast. You can imagine the look on everyone's faces as we walked into Au Bon Pain as they sarcastically said “oh grea!”'. To our credit, we didn't slow business and we all ate in a semi-orderly fashion, trying as hard as we could to stay out of the regulars’ ways.

Our destination was the National Holocaust Museum and we wanted to secure a spot in line before it opened at 10 so we could get through quickly in order to be on time for our flight. At promptly 9:10 we sat in the cold with our backs against the museum wishing there was some way to stay warm. Once inside though, we quickly realized that our wait was well worth.  I had been once before, but I don’t ever think that I will ever become bored with that museum. If you haven't been.. go, and if you have... go again.  As I said in my speech to the school, the visit to the museum put the trip in perspective for me last year and this year it did the same for the other 14 students from Jesuit Dallas.

Still caught in thought and awe, we collected our bags back from the school and departed our beloved Gonzaga College High School for another one year sabbatical. Our adventure in DCA could have been in a movie. Imagine with me, if you can, this scenario... 15 students and 3 chaperones, luggage, walking paths, exit fares for the train, and lines. I hope not much more is needed to be said, well maybe I will just add that the group was growing weary of, how shall I put it, building community. We were all pretty ready to get out of the cold and back to Texas. Nevertheless, we all passed security and boarded the plane headed for home. I don't think there was an open eye out of the group during the flight. Our lack of sleep and filled days caught up with us. We landed and were met by our loved ones, ready to finish our chopped up nap started on the plane. I basically got home and went to bed.  It was 7 o'clock.

I have to give a huge than you to Chris Considine, a senior on the trip who helped me tremendously on this.  I think ya'll should be thanking him too because without him, this would be really boring. Thanks Chris!

March for Life is Today

Last night, the gym kept warm and we all ended up getting a pretty good night's sleep, despite the amount of time we actually got to sleep. The Gonzaga baseball team took over the gym promptly at 6:30 a.m. so we packed up, put our gear away and left for breakfast. While sitting at Corner Bakery, we once again were able to use Union Station as a window to another world. Today, however, a couple of the other guys and I observed the commuting culture rather than the Inauguration culture. Coming from a city with poor public transportation and a huge metroplex, the idea of getting to work via train was an entirely new concept. We sat for a good hour and watched businesspeople, public workers and students passed us by.

We returned to Gonzaga in order to prepare for the Mass for Life happening in just an hour. In our efforts to give back to Gonzaga, we helped put on the mass: six in the choir and four as ushers. Mass began and Fr.  Thomas Smolich, President of the Jesuit Conference, greeted all of us marchers. He also invited us to introduce ourselves group by group so that we could become aware of the other Jesuit institutions present. I am sorry to say that I was so intent on hearing all of the groups I completely forgot to take a count, but I do know that our numbers as Jesuit students were not lacking. During mass, I felt an unforeseen solidarity with all of my Jesuit brothers and sisters filling St. Aloysius Church. However, the length of the previous day did get to a certain (and purposefully excluded) number of the group during the homily. After mass, everyone posed outside for a group picture bound to be seen in or on the next Company magazine. We reassembled in our groups and purposefully walked to the mass.

Once there, our six pieces of PVC and rolled-up banner became a cause for us to collect ourselves under. A nearby stranger agreed to take our picture with the capital behind, then we met up with more Ignatian intuitions on the South-East corner of 4th and Madison. Waiting for the march to begin we mingled with Jesuits and non-Jesuits alike swapping stories as to what called us to meet at this very special moment. I was happy to catch up with S.J.'s I had met in previous trips to England, World Youth Day and last year's march. One among these was Fr. David Brown , S.J. now working at the Vatican Observatory outside of Rome whom I had meet while visiting Oxford two summers ago. He intrigued many of the guys in the group both because of his unique vocation in the Jesuits and his gold, form fitting, perfect circular glasses. Caught up in all of this talk, we almost forgot about the walk.That was until the crowd began to move and with a mighty 5-4-3-2-1 from our group leader, Mr. Tesvich S.J. we joined the ranks to make our voices heard and our presence known to all of those in Washington.

Our march on Constitution (street that is) provoked many different thoughts because of the extremely varied ways to proclaim 'Pro-Life'. Graphic images of aborted people invoked a sense of anger and disgust for those who perform abortions. Endless chants and hymns displayed the over bearing sense of community, enthusiasm and youthfulness also associated with the movement. Respectful clergy walked side by side with their parishioners or pupils keeping their peaceful demeanor. Climbing a hill, we looked back and saw the magnitude of our work, the magnitude of the cause and the magnitude of the movement. 

Reaching the Supreme Court, we took our rest in a small, grassy area still engaged in the walk, but ready to plan our next meal. We found a great pizza place in Chinatown using the UrbanSpoon App on the iPhone with a personal endorsement of Zach Harris, one of our members who had been there before. What would a Jesuit student be without their handy gadgets paired with knowledge?

After our four large pizzas for each group of six, we were... content. Upon arrival back at Gonzaga, we re-set up our bedding and crossed the mosaic floor to the chapel. I just got back from that session and I have no words for you, my readers, to help you understand what insights and impressions came out of the session. I will just say that any Ignatian theology teacher would have been proud if present.

Yet again I meet my ultimate restraint, time.  It is 10 o'clock. Usually, I am just getting started with homework but on this night this one is ready to pack it in and dream of the potential that has come from this day.

My pictures from the March for Life Mass and the March for Life can be found here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jesuitconference/sets/72157612829283389/

We Made It to Washington!

National Prayer Vigil for Life at 

the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

My alarm woke me up at 5:30 this morning and I wanted to press the snooze until I realized that today was not just a normal school day, today I was leaving for the March for Life. I grabbed my last-minute-packed bags, two breakfast burritos and I kiss from my mom and was off to the airport. After a small gate change and dozens of phone calls, the entire group was on Flight 670 from Dallas to Washington’s Regan National Airport.

We arrived at the airport in Washington only to find the terminals packed with Inauguration-goers wanting to leave the city. Literally the first thing I saw was a life-size poser of our new President, Barack Obama. I was, but really shouldn't have been, surprised to see his face on our Metro tickets too, taking us into the city to our stop Union Station. We arrived not prepared for what awaited us: the sounds of sirens, the smell of wet, cold trash, a frigid face-reddening wind and of course more reminders of the previous day's inauguration (street vendors, trash, blockades and dirty water). We bolded the cold, meandered in the streets and took a left into Gonzaga College High School. With its stone walls, manicured lawns and prominent location it looked more a college than a high School to us Texans. We got inside and realized that Jesuit high schools are essentially the same - lounging students, helpful faculty and advertisements for the next Kairos retreat. 

At lunch my friend Chris Considine and I realized that Union Station was just as it is named, the union of many people from many different places here in Washington D.C. for many different reasons. Pro-Life groups could easily be spotted by their matching scarves or beanies, in our case a navy blue beanie with "Pro-Life" embroidered in a bold yellow. The looks from the every-day commuters let us know that they were locals.

We boarded bus D6 headed to Georgetown University for the Cardinal O’Connor Conference on Life and arrived a little over an hour later. The city traffic, worsened by hundreds of barricades, made many of the regular routes run late. We caught the end of Dr. Robert George's speech, but stayed around to talk to him after. I asked him why it was important for him to take time out of his teaching schedule at Princeton to come talk to us and his answer, simply elegant "because of the urgency of the matter". With a new, urgent step to our walk, we headed to the campus of Catholic University for the opening mass of the National Prayer Vigil for Life at Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

Although we arrived more than two hours early, we could not secure any coveted pew-space. We settled for an aisle and said a rosary to prepare our hearts. I realized, while watching this aisle, that if I sat there long enough I would have a good chance of seeing the entire Catholic population of the United Stated pass by, and maybe even the Pope! No but really, Chris and I did realize that it is easy to think that being one in thousands is insignificant until you are that one.    

Being at the mass I got a feeling, that I had forgotten about since World Youth Day in Sydney, the feeling that as a young Catholic, I was in the right place and that my mission tied me into something much larger than myself. Cardinal Justin Rigali, Archbishop of Philadelphia, urged us to fight for a new change in the nation, from advocacy to a culture that respects life from conception to natural death, saying "this is a change we need and one we can believe in."           

We walked back to the Metro with an extra step in our tread due to the refreshingly cool breeze after a very stuffy two and a half hour mass, while becoming very 'close' friends with our fellow Pro-Lifers. The group grabbed a bite to eat and rushed back to our surprisingly warm gym at Gonzaga College HS.

Its 12:30 now, and I'm tired.  Oh I almost forgot Gonzaga has school tomorrow, so wake up at 6AM!

Original Fight For Life

The Jesuit Pro-Life club started off the week with a solemn reminder of what we are fighting for.

Today, we joined over 2,000 Pro-Life advocates filling the pews at the Cathedral Shrine of the Virgin Guadalupe for a mass, rally and march to mark the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. 

After the mass, we marched through downtown to the Earle Cabell Federal Building, where on the eighth floor Roe v. Wade began. Senior Zach Harris said that the experience was "simply amazing". Zach has been to the march before but said that this year there was a significant increase in attendance, even Pro-Lifers from other Christian denomination joined in to stand in solidarity with the unborn. 

As a group, we are very excited for the march and can't wait to have our message heard on a national level. This year, we began our crusade for life where the original struggle began.

My Speech on Last Year's March

I'm the President of the Pro-Life club at my school - Jesuit College Preparatory in Dallas, Texas. Below is a speech that I gave to my fellow students after I returned from last year's March for Life in Washington, D.C.

This January marked the thirty fifth anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that made abortion legal throughout the United States. This January also marked the first year that students from Dallas Jesuit attended the thirty fourth March for Life. Two other Jesuit students, two Jesuit Scholastics and myself traveled to Washington D.C. and stood in solidarity with the powerless, those who cannot represent themselves, the unborn.

The profile of the graduate at graduation states that a Jesuit student has been able to recognize that basic human needs and rights have been denied to certain peoples. Maybe this explains why at the march we joined over six hundred Jesuit students from high schools and Universities across the Nation. We slept in the gym of Gonzaga High School. We attended a conference on life at Georgetown University. And we marched in the cold rain alongside our brothers from Jesuit New Orleans, Regis Denver, Strake Jesuit and other Jesuit High Schools. They recognized that as students who are committed to working for social justice they have the responsibility to stand up against abortion. I learned in Washington D.C. that abortion is not only the social justice issue of our time but also an issue inherently tied into the fabric of Jesuit.

As part of our trip, we visited the National Holocaust Museum. If you ever get the chance to go, take it because it will change your perspective on everything. For me, it came when we were walking out of the museum and I noticed a sign on the side of the museum that said “whenever you hear about genocide, whenever you hear about injustice, think about what you saw here today”. The entire trip, why I was there, and our mission became so clear.

The Pro-Life movement is based on love. Love for all human life. Love for women who have had abortions and Love for even those who perform them. Pope John Paul the Second said “in firmly rejecting ‘pro-choice’ it is necessary to become courageously ‘prowoman”. Explaining that Pro-Life is a choice that is truly in the woman’s favor. Or as the official leadership of the Jesuits in America, The Jesuit Conference says it, “To be pro-life is to be pro-woman. Because we support women, we oppose abortion. ” As Pro-Lifers, we do not wish to convince, but to inform. We hope and pray that with time those who cannot defend themselves will be granted their right to life. Our common calling is to stand in solidarity with the unborn, the “least of our brothers and sisters”, through prayer and political activism.

Mahatma Gandhi famously said “be the change you want to see in the world”. So I challenge you, Jesuit, to join us, join your Jesuit brothers, join the Jesuit community this January in Washington D.C. Come with us, stand with us, and march with us for life.

March for Life 2009

On Thursday, January 22, 2009, once again ProLife citizens will take to the frigid streets of our nation's capital in Washington, D.C. to bring the message of protection for the unborn and gather under the banner of the sanctity of life. Marchers for Life will gather on the Mall and make their voices heard and their numbers count.

I'm going to be there with them. My name is Topher and I'm a senior at Jesuit College Preparatory School in Dallas, Texas. Last year, I lead a group of students to Washington for the March for Life and we're headed back this year with even more students to stand in solidarity with the unborn.

This year, I'm keeping this blog to share my experiences at the March, to discuss what marching for life means to me and to share how my Jesuit education has shaped and formed my viewpoint on life issues. I'm also going to be writing a news article on the March for Life for National Jesuit News/NJN and I'm going to be twittering before, after and during the March itself. Join me as we march for life!