HUNTLEY—Catholics from several locations came together Jan. 22 for a pro-life Mass celebrated by Bishop David Malloy and a handful of priests from the diocese.

 

St. Mary Church can welcome more than 300 people and still meet pandemic guidelines for social distancing, and the Mass was “sold out” on this quiet and cold evening.

 

Bishop Malloy explained his sadness at needing to miss the usual Mass at the National Basilica of the Immaculate Conception followed by the Washington, D.C., annual March for Life, both of which were cancelled this year due to the pandemic and, for the march, security concerns.

 

In place of that inspiring, always-packed Mass, the bishop decided to hold a diocesan Mass for the anniversary of Roe v Wade and in remembrance of about 60 million preborn lives lost to abortion since 1973.

 

“How grateful I am on an evening like this to be sharing this opportunity for Mass, prayer and common commitment with so many of you,” Bishop Malloy said in welcome.

 

“This year, if my math is right, would be the 48th anniversary” of the Roe v Wade decision that legalized abortion in the United States, he said, and he compared those who have been aborted with the Holy Innocents who were killed as Herod’s soldiers searched for the Christ Child.

 

“There is something mysterious of those holy innocents at that young age, with the shedding of their blood being recognized by the Church in their witness to Christ,” the bishop said. “That same witness I would suggest applies in our own time ... somehow in the mystery of the love of God and their witness to Christ, (aborted children also) bear off the palm of victory.”

 

In order not to “get overwhelmed by such a figure (60 million) with so many zeroes,” he recommended first to be astonished at the cost of abortion, and then to have that astonishment be infused with grace, saying, “In our sadness, we must keep a purity of heart.

 

“We must seek the end of this terrible practice, but do so without hatred, without bitterness.  We must turn to Christ’s love even for those who engage in, or promote and even for those who vote for abortion. We must witness to life by showing that we love; we do not hate.”

 

Calling the March for Life, “the most unreported protest and story of the year,” Bishop Malloy noted the joyful and positive witness it gives, particularly with the thousands of young people participating. 

 

He asked, “Is there anything that could be more convincing, give more courage and more hope to a (woman expecting a baby) than a throng of young people singing, chanting, praying and, yes, putting up with the snow and the cold ... in order to say that the life of every child is a deeply good thing.