“You carry the hope of the future in your hands,” he told the youth.
He referenced his own transformation — from a model to a Catholic motivational speaker — to explain that the world doesn’t need more models of the kind he used to be, but “models of a culture of life.”
During the march, these “models” were seen on the streets hoisting signs and banners and chanting for an end to abortion, perhaps with even more conviction when confronted with the pro-choice cries of counter-protesters.
St. Francis was also the keynote speaker at the youth banquet, held on the evening of May 12 following the march. Taylor also performed at the dinner.
The youth banquet, however, was not the end of the march for many of the young people in attendance. About 1,000 students attended a youth conference on May 13, a workshop that featured a variety of speakers.
Among the group attending the conference was Parmis Goudarzi, 17, from St. Joseph’s Morrow Park Catholic Secondary School in Toronto.
Goudarzi attended last year’s March for Life and returned again this year because of the atmosphere.
“The environment you’re in encourages you,” she said, adding that it’s uplifting to see so many other young people who share her pro-life beliefs.
“I don’t think there’s enough information out there,” she said, explaining why she thinks it’s important that young people attend the march. “People don’t really understand abortion.”
The youth conference specifically targeted that lack of knowledge. Its goal is to arm young people with the knowledge and communication strategies to defend the pro-life message and tackle the culture of death when they return to their communities.
Goudarzi and the others from her school also had the chance to attend the eucharistic adoration on May 11 — the night they arrived — as well as Mass on the morning of the march. Toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins celebrated an English-language Mass, while there were also Protestant, inter-denominational and French-language services.
As Goudarzi pointed out, the pro-life message transcends Catholic and even Christian faith.
“Everyone deserves life, religious or not.”
Marching for life in Ottawa
By Luc Rinaldi, Catholic Register SpecialOTTAWA - Whether it was the national anthem, the music echoing from Parliament Hill or the chants erupting in the streets of Ottawa, the voice of the 2011 March for Life was a youthful one.
That voice first belonged to 16-year-old singer Carly Taylor, who began the May 12 pro-life march by singing of O Canada. But she was quickly joined by the estimated crowd of 15,000, including thousands of youth and young people from more than 70 schools, chaplaincies and youth groups from across Ontario.
“You’re the landlords here,” MP Royal Galipeau of Ottawa-Orléans told the young people gathered in front of Parliament Hill. “People like me are just the tenants.”
Galipeau was one of more than a dozen speakers and witnesses to take the podium. That list also included Mario St. Francis, a former model and actor who came to the march from Washington.
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