Will You Stand Up for Life?

Details: 27 January 2012

As I’m writing this column, the March for Life in Washington, D.C. is about to get started. Prior to the March, tens of thousands of young people are attending youth rallies and Masses around Washington before heading down to the Mall where they will join hundreds of thousands for the March.

The March for Life has been around for nearly 40 years, beginning in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s abortion rulings of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton. The March is part of a long tradition in our country of marching in the streets to protest and draw attention to the violation of basic human and civil rights.

By itself, a march is limited in its ability to right the wrongs of our culture of death. But as a part of a larger initiative or program to build a culture of life and love, a march can get our society’s attention and shake it from its complacency or ignorance.

The Bishops’ Pastoral Plan for Pro Life Activities, the U.S. Bishops formal pro-life program, provides this larger initiative to guide us. The Pastoral Plan has four components: Prayer and Worship, Public Information and Education, Pastoral Care and Public Policy. The March for Life in D.C. and similar state-level marches are an important part of our public information and education efforts.

I’m very pleased that Nebraska is being well represented at the March for Life in D.C. Participating in the March are six bus loads of high school students from the Archdiocese of Omaha, two bus loads from the dioceses of Lincoln and Grand Island and two bus loads of college students from the Newman Center at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln (UNL). And there are dozens of adults from Nebraska participating as well.

This Saturday, Jan. 28, there is another opportunity for Nebraskans to stand up and march for life at the annual Walk for Life in Lincoln. The Walk is sponsored by Nebraska Right to Life and begins at 10 a.m. with a march from the west steps of our Capitol building to the student union on the UNL campus.

The Walk for Life also features a keynote speaker at the student union following the march. This year’s speaker is Ryan Bomberger. According to his bio, Mr. Bomberger was conceived in rape and adopted into a bi-racial family.

Bomberger started the billboard campaign, Too Many Aborted, aimed at attacking Planned Parenthood’s targeting of minority babies for abortion. And, along with his wife Bethany, Bomberger founded The Radiance Foundation to work on pro-life issues.

Preceding the Walk for Life, a pro-life Mass will be held at St. Mary Church (just across the street from the Capitol at 14th and K streets) beginning at 9 a.m. Most Reverend William J. Dendinger, Bishop of Grand Island, will be the main celebrant for this Mass. Father Sid Bruggeman will be the homilist.

Father Bruggeman is a life-long native of Nebraska and a former ordained Protestant minister. He began formation for the priesthood in 2005 and was ordained for the Diocese of Grand Island in 2009. Father now serves the St. Libory Catholic parish in St. Libory, Nebr., and is the Catholic chaplain of the Veteran’s Administration Medical Center in Grand Island.

This Mass and Walk for Life provide a great opportunity to pray and walk for unborn children, their mothers and fathers, and our entire nation, that the injustice and violence of abortion will end soon. Please make every effort to come to Lincoln this Saturday and join me and thousands of other Nebraskans in standing up for human life.

You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.