Marking the 42nd anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v Wade and Doe v Bolton decisions that legalized abortion in the United States for any reason throughout all nine months of pregnancy, Fr. Fahnestock blessed residents from Phelan, Hesperia, and Apple Valley as they embarked on a March for Life on January 17.
Led by a Knights of Columbus Color Corps, the marchers extended for blocks, from the Victorville City Hall to Palmdale Road, near the largest Planned Parenthood facility in San Bernardino County.
In recent years, thousands of High Desert Catholics had attended local government meetings to peacefully protest the Planned Parenthood facility in Victorville.
The day culminated in a Diocesan Mass in Thanksgiving for the Gift of Life at Holy Innocents Parish concelebrated by Father Romeo Seleccion, MS, Episcopal Vicar for the San Bernardino Pastoral Region and parish pastor, Father Patrick Travers. Throughout the Mass the faithful were recognized for offering assistance to families in crisis pregnancies, providing compassion and healing to those hurt by abortion, sharing the good news of Natural Family Planning with couples, holding local, state and national leaders accountable, as well as raising their voices for the vulnerable: for the unborn, elderly, sick and disabled.
At the conclusion of the Mass Fr. Seleccion asked the congregation to rise and began his blessing of them.
“Your efforts on behalf of Life have been a privileged period of grace given to you by God,” he said “May you live up to the vocation God has given you: to be a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people God claims for his own, everywhere proclaiming with charity, courage and conviction the inherent dignity and incomparable worth of every human life from conception until natural death. You have chosen Life. You have chosen Christ!”
Marie Widmann is the Director of Pro Life Catholic Ministries for the Diocese of San Bernardino.