ND Right to Life students marched this year with posters featuring Marian apparitions from around the world and this drawing by Annie Iovino, ND Right to Life’s Digital Art Commissioner.
Introduction
In this bulletin we publish an account by Kylie Gallegos (’24), president of Notre Dame Right to Life, of the participation by hundreds of Notre Dame students in the January March for Life in Washington, which marked the 51st anniversary of the Supreme Court Roe v. Wade decision.
As you will see, this is a very encouraging sign of the continued vitality of the pro-life forces at Notre Dame.
But there is a darker side to the Roe v. Wade anniversary that involved Notre Dame in different ways, and accordingly we mark them briefly in this preface to Ms. Gallegos’ report.
The first was the “Statement from President Joe Biden on the 51st Anniversary of Roe v. Wade” in which this Notre Dame honoree proclaimed his dedication to the pro-abortion cause.
The nation’s bishops had designated January 22 as a “Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children,” but Biden would have none of that. Instead, he called on Congress “to restore the protections of Roe in federal law once and for all” and outlined his administration’s plans to increase access to surgical and chemical abortion and contraceptives.
“On this day and every day,” he trumpeted, “Vice President Harris and I are fighting to protect women’s reproductive freedom.”
This from “our first anti-Catholic ‘Catholic’ president” who is, bizarrely, a recipient of Notre Dame’s Laetare Medal for “outstanding service to the Catholic Church and society.”
The second noteworthy aspect of the March was the absence of Father Jenkins.
The history of Father’s participation in the March is instructive. He did not participate during the first four years of his tenure. Then came the honoring of pro-abortion President Barack Obama as commencement speaker in 2009. The campus erupted in protest and, led by Notre Dame’s then bishop the Most Rev. John M. D’Arcy, 83 cardinals, archbishops and bishops condemned Father Jenkins’s action.
Jenkins appointed a faculty committee to deal with the public relations debacle, and it recommended he attend the March. Which he did, with attendant publicity, until three years ago, when he stopped.
He offered no explanation, and there was no evident cause other than, perhaps, fading memories of the Obama calamity.
While it is doubtless true, as Ms. Gallegos observes, that the smaller than usual number of students at the March was due in substantial measure to the shift of attention to the states in the wake of the overruling of Roe v. Wade, it is also true, we suggest, that when the school’s leader decides the March is no longer worth his time, many students will follow suit.
We turn now to Kylie Gallegos’s report.
To Go or Not to Go
By Kylie Gallegos, ’24, Notre Dame Right to Life President | February 15, 2024
“To go or not to go,” asked pro-life leadership on campus.
Aside from barriers like pandemics and weather, Notre Dame Right to Life had attended the March for Life for as long as anyone could remember. However, the landscape of abortion rights has undergone a seismic shift in the past year and a half. Last year marked a celebration for the overturning of Roe v. Wade, but did the National March continue to merit our presence since the issue now belonged to the states?
After much deliberation, it was decided: Notre Dame is going back to the March.
The reasoning was multifaceted. Firstly, from the first week of the school year, freshmen and graduate students eagerly approached our table at the club fair, asking if our club took students to the March for Life. “Yes!” we said, and they immediately joined our club. Secondly, I noticed throughout the year how many friendships were formed as a result of the March. NDRtL’s Director of Design, Jackie Nguyen, said, “Finding friends who not only cared about upholding the life and dignity of every human person but who also sought to glorify the Lord in everything they did was a game-changer. The March for Life became more than just an annual trip to fight for life but blossomed friendships that would last for life.”
Furthermore, no event—no matter the speaker, fun, or enticing food—draws the entire club together like the March. Our best events of the semester consistently draw around 90 students, which, although a lot, does not come near our membership numbers. The March allows our members to see the massive numbers of the club and draw inspiration from their peers who also devote their weekend to marching for the unborn.
Lastly, because the trip is a pilgrimage, it solidifies the pro-life convictions of the students. If you are willing to ride a total of 24 hours on a bus, spend the night on a gym floor, march in the D.C. winter, and collectively lose 2-3 days’ worth of sleep, all for the sake of the unborn, then you are certainly more likely to stand up for the unborn within friendships or in the classroom. Each of these points couldn’t be achieved by driving down the road to downtown South Bend or even to neighboring states like Michigan or Illinois.
Rallying the Troops
Once the decision was made, the next order of business was finding a theme to rally students and a message we’d be presenting as Notre Dame to all those at the March. After much brainstorming and mediocre ideas, it hit us: “Under Her Mantle, We March for Life.”
This theme communicated many facets of what we wanted. Firstly, it emphasized the Catholic identity of Notre Dame. We are Notre Dame, and we take seriously the patronage of our Mother and namesake. Secondly, the March is a pilgrimage, and it kept the importance of prayer and the intercession of Our Lady at the forefront of everyone’s mind.
Building on this, we attended the Sisters of Life/Knights of Columbus “Life Fest” before the March, where we participated in Mass and adoration, unfortunately missing the bulk of the programming due to weather delays. On Saturday, Notre Dame hosted a Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception for students and alumni.
Notre Dame, our Mother, was with us each step of the way, and not just students but also bystanders at the march were made aware of this. Annie Iovino—ND Right to Life’s Digital Art Commissioner—and I hand drew 23 Marian apparitions from around the world to print on our signs, and Annie’s original drawing of ND Right to Life members under Mary’s mantle graced the back of each of them. As the ~350 Notre Dame students marched down the streets of D.C., Marian images followed us all the way, calling her to “pray for us and for the unborn!”
Representing Notre Dame
After Mass at the National Shrine, a few dozen Notre Dame students headed over to Georgetown for the annual Cardinal O’Connor Conference on Life. The O’Connor Conference is the largest student-led pro-life conference, and it provides an “intellectually rigorous discourse on the sanctity of human life” in the spirit of Georgetown alumn Cardinal John O’Connor.
Following the keynote address, I was pleased to accept, on behalf of Notre Dame Right to Life, the Rev. Thomas King, S.J. Award from the President of Georgetown University. The Rev. Thomas King, S.J. Award is given yearly to an outstanding collegiate pro-life club, along with a prize of $1,000. It was a wonderful validation of all the hard work the Right to Life Executive Board and commissioners have put in over the past few months to make all of our events, prayer services, volunteer work, social media outreach, and community building a success.
Furthermore, I was proud to represent Notre Dame on a panel of pro-life student group leaders from various schools around the nation representing different pro-life campus cultures. I was joined by students from the University of Chicago, Grove City College, and Georgetown University.
The pro-life presence at the University of Chicago was predictably sparse. With news from the student “Chicago Thinker” about the University’s Ryan Center advertising for abortion services “up to a threshold of 23 weeks 6 days,” it’s hard to imagine how radically different their student group’s fight is from ours. Georgetown also experiences a similar anti-life culture, although not as drastic due to supporters of Catholic identity holding on for dear life. Lastly, Grove City College was chosen to represent a campus climate where almost every single student is pro-life. Interestingly, their club has extremely low engagement, only bringing two students to the March for Life.
Notre Dame was asked to represent a thriving pro-life club on this panel. I shared our membership of over 700 students, our support from academic departments and centers on campus, our event attendance of 50-90 students, and the amazing culture that has developed on campus where it isn’t uncommon or crazy for students to be pro-life. We strive to build community and pro-life friendships that continually build each other up in sharing and living the gospel of life. We educate our members about how to talk about the issue. We pray weekly together, especially for the intercession of Our Lady. And, we have an amazing group of alumni who continue to support us both monetarily and with prayers that allow us to do the work we do and continue to grow the pro-life community at Notre Dame year after year.
Heading Home
As the sunset on D.C. and students boarded the seven buses headed back to Notre Dame, I was extremely proud of what we had all accomplished.
While the numbers weren’t quite as high as they used to be, doubtless due to the shift in focus from the nation’s capital to the several states, this shouldn’t take away from the marvel that ~350 students were willing to be cold, uncomfortable, and sleepless for an entire weekend, all for the sake of the unborn.
These students had represented Notre Dame well, holding Our Lady’s name high in the air. They had prayed hard, marched with enthusiasm, and said a resounding yes to life, which is a witness to their peers and the future generation of Domers marching alongside us somewhere in the crowd.
Will Notre Dame continue to go to the national March? I don’t know, but I do know that what we have here under the eyes of Our Lady is something very special, something very rare, and something we should never take for granted. Notre Dame Right to Life should be a cause of hope for all.
Notre Dame, Our Mother, pray for us and for the unborn!
Let us know what you think in the comment section below.
Kylie Gallegos, '24
Kylie Gallegos is a senior at the University of Notre Dame studying theology and honors track American Studies. She is the President of Notre Dame Right to Life and has worked in various capacities for EWTN Pro-Life Weekly, the Sisters of Life, National Right to Life, and Oklahomans for Life. She was previously the President of Students for Child-Oriented Policy and a recipient of the Sycamore Trust's Michael L. And Nancy A. Hansen Student Award.
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O God our Father, Eternal Wisdom and Love, You have created us in Your own image and likeness, and called us to live in humble obedience to You and according to the order which You have established to govern the universe. You sent Your Son, Wisdom Incarnate, to save us from sin and to reconcile us to You and to one another. He established the Church to be a saving witness of Wisdom and Love, Goodness and Truth to a rebellious world. We implore You to dispel the darkness that surrounds us. May all who have rejected the truths of creation, seeking to replace Your design for the human race with one of their own, be awakened to the destructive folly which passes for wisdom in this age. Enlighten us all by the Truth which sets us free and grant that we may courageously embrace the scorn and contempt of the wise of the world so that we may joyfully share in the Wisdom of God. Through the intercession of Notre Dame, our Mother, we make our prayer in the Name of Jesus, Your Son, Who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever. Amen.
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7 Responses
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5499222/
Personhood status of the human zygote, embryo, fetus – PMC
God, The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity, Through The Unity Of The Holy Ghost, Is The Author Of Love, Of Life, And Of Marriage, not Caesar, King John, or John Locke.
“Render onto Caesar, what belongs to Caesar, and to God, what belongs to God.”- Jesus The Christ
The relationship between The Spirit Of The Law and The Spirit Of The Constitution in regards to The Sanctity and Dignity of human life from the moment of conception to natural death, affirms that the intentional destruction of an innocent beloved son or daughter residing in their mother’s womb, which is never a “victimless “ crime , and in fact, establishes “a risk of harm”, to all future generations, stands in direct conflict with both The Spirit Of The Law and The Spirit Of The Constitution in regards to first and foremost, securing our inherent, unalienable Right to Life, upon which our inherent Right to Liberty and The Pursuit of Happiness depends, and upon which “forming a more perfect Union, establishing Justice, insuring domestic Tranquility, providing for the common defense, promoting the general Welfare, and securing the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity”, is necessary to secure, in every State of The United States Of America, and on every point in Time and Space in The Universe that God Created.
Woe to us; you and I have been you and I from the moment of our conception. It is simply not possible for the son or daughter of human persons to not be, in essence, a human person.
I have seen Fr. Jenkins marching with the ND students on a number of Right to Life marches and , frankly, I was impressed and I still am. I may disagree with him on many issues, but he made the trip, marched to no fanfare, and represented ND well. I don’t know how many other catholic university presidents did the same but I suspect very few, if any.
Good job on the report of ND’s participation in the Washington March for Right to Life. What is the position of the new Holy Cross priest named as President to replace John Jenkins on attending the next Washington March and supporting Right to Life issues on campus?
So far as we know, Father Dowd has not said whether or not he will attend the March. I would not expect him to say anything while Father Jenkins is still president.
I am so proud of all the Pro-Life ND students.
God Bless You.
I’m also interested in the Pro-Life Art.
So proud of our young people. I’d like to know if the pro life art depicted on the posters is available for purchase or download?
John Jenkin’s absence from the March was consistent with his apparent alignment with famously pro-abortion Joe Biden. The only times Father Jenkins attended the March were for strictly PR reasons. And Biden’s vacation of any Catholic principles is strictly for vote-getting reasons. Jenkins and Biden row the same boat.