Next week, in Washington, D.C., an annual event will take place that you may not hear or read about. Typically, the national media gives it minimal or even no coverage at all. And yet, it is hugely important. It is the annual March for Life.

Sadly, on Jan. 22, 1973, the Supreme Court of our country ruled that abortion is legal under our Constitution. This disgraceful decision suggested that our founding fathers and the signers of the Constitution would have approved of the direct taking of innocent life. That decision invalidated the laws in every state that protected the right to life of those alive but not yet born.

Each year since 1973, on Jan. 22, the anniversary of the ruling, a march has taken place in Washington to remind the nation of the shameful legal decision. That march has grown to become one of the biggest annual pro-life gatherings in the world.

It now serves to remind us that since 1973 in the United States, which we celebrate as the greatest country in the world, the land of the free and the home of the brave, more than 55 million of us are not with us because they were legally terminated.

The march begins with a rally at the Washington monument. Each year, it attracts not just a small crowd of rabble rousers, but hundreds of thousands. After the rally, the crowd peacefully moves through the streets of Washington to the Supreme Court building to remind the justices and the nation of the legal travesty of the 1973 decision that is known as Roe v. Wade.

The march is notable for a number of reasons of interest to us. First, while it is not Catholic in its organization, the Catholic participation is notable and unmistakable.

We can be proud that since 1973, as a conviction of faith and of justice for the human rights of the unborn, the Catholic faithful in the United States have been a major voice for the respect for life. Catholics, along with others of faith and good will, have pushed for laws to respect unborn life.

In addition, centers and personal outreach have provided hope, supplies and alternatives for women, often single and uncertain, as they face the decision to abort or to respect the life they carry.

A second point of great interest is that of the hundreds of thousands who march each year, an overwhelming number are young people. Far from being a rally of aging diehards, the march exudes the energy of young people. It is often said that our youth sense a disconnect between what they feel, experience and understand about preborn life, and our laws that allow it to be taken.

The Diocese of Rockford has been an annual participant in the March for Life. And thanks be to God, once more this year that will be the case.

On Tuesday evening, Jan. 20, at 7 p.m. at St. John Neumann Church in St. Charles, I will join our young people for a Mass before they embark upon an overnight bus ride to Washington.

Why not consider coming to the Mass as your own contribution of prayer and support for life? More than 250 of our diocesan young people are expected to make the trip.

On Wednesday evening, I will join other bishops and our young people for the huge Mass for Life at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. After a night of resting and prayer, we will gather once more for Mass on Thursday morning at the Washington. D.C., Armory prior to heading over to the march itself.

As you can tell, this whole effort has a sense of being a pilgrimage, a prayer, a youth rally and witness to the world that we stand for life.

In keeping with the calls of Pope Francis, this is a means for our youth to be faithful, to testify joyfully, and to “make noise” as the Pope called for in his first trip abroad to Brazil.

Please watch the news on Wednesday and Thursday to see any reports on the March for Life. But most of all, please pray for the safe travel, the joyful witness, and the deepening of faith among our Catholic young people, especially those journeying to Washington.

The gift of life is God’s great gift to each of us. I am especially proud of all of those throughout the Diocese of Rockford who work to support that gift. The March for Life is one clear example of that joyful witness.