- Feb 5, 2002
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More than 5,000 students, families, and other pro-life Catholics packed into the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., for a vigil service Thursday on the evening before the national March for Life.
Attendees filled the pews in the upper church, which is designed to hold about 3,500 people. They crammed into the various Marian shrines along both sides of the basilica to worship at the vigil Mass during the National Prayer Vigil for Life. Hundreds more flowed into the basilica’s crypt, which is similarly adorned with shrines to the Blessed Mother.
Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, was the primary celebrant and homilist for the Mass. Four cardinals and 21 bishops concelebrated the Mass with Naumann, and 50 deacons and 300 seminarians were also in attendance.
“When we march tomorrow, we march as pilgrims of hope,” Naumann said during the homily after the Gospel reading, which was part of the first chapter of the Gospel of John.
Continued below.
www.catholicnewsagency.com
Attendees filled the pews in the upper church, which is designed to hold about 3,500 people. They crammed into the various Marian shrines along both sides of the basilica to worship at the vigil Mass during the National Prayer Vigil for Life. Hundreds more flowed into the basilica’s crypt, which is similarly adorned with shrines to the Blessed Mother.
Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, was the primary celebrant and homilist for the Mass. Four cardinals and 21 bishops concelebrated the Mass with Naumann, and 50 deacons and 300 seminarians were also in attendance.
“When we march tomorrow, we march as pilgrims of hope,” Naumann said during the homily after the Gospel reading, which was part of the first chapter of the Gospel of John.
Continued below.
Thousands fill National Shrine for 2025 March for Life vigil
“My good young people here, you’re called to be witnesses to your peers, you’re called to help them to come to know what brought you here tonight,” Archbishop Naumann said.
www.catholicnewsagency.com
