Hundreds turn out to support ‘40 Days for Life’ prayer rally

St. Mary parishioner Roberto Aguayo of Indianapolis carries a large wooden crucifix and leads pro-life supporters along West 86th Street in Indianapolis on Sept. 23 while his wife, Patricia, in the ninth month of her pregnancy, walks beside him with their children, Roberto, Andrea and Ricardo. The Aguayos’ baby, Rolando, was born on Sept. 29. Dozens of pro-life supporters prayed the rosary for an end to abortion during the two-mile march to the Planned Parenthood center for a prayer vigil.

By Mary Ann Wyand

Forty days of prayer and fasting to end abortion began on Sept. 26 in 89 cities in 33 states.

The first national “40 Days for Life” ecumenical prayer campaign mobilizes pro-life supporters to pray outside abortion centers as well as at perpetual adoration chapels, churches and in their homes every day through Nov. 4 to save unborn babies whose lives are at risk.

In the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, Catholics are asked to pray for at-risk babies and for the conversion of minds and hearts of abortion-minded women and men as well as abortion providers.

The archdiocesan pro-life campaign specifically targets the largest Planned Parenthood abortion center in the state, located at 8590 Georgetown Road in Indianapolis, with peaceful prayer vigils there for 40 days.

During a campaign prayer rally on Sept. 23 at the St. Augustine Home for the Aged Chapel in Indianapolis, Father Shaun Whittington challenged pro-life supporters to be prayer warriors every day whether they are praying and fasting on the front lines outside an abortion center, with the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament or in the privacy of their own homes.

Father Whittington was the associate pastor of St. Monica Parish in Indianapolis two years ago when Planned Parenthood of Indiana began work on a new abortion center on Georgetown Road, which is within the parish boundaries.

“Knowing what Planned Parenthood does—the lies they perpetrate, the evil they cause and the lives they destroy—I could not sit idly by while this building was built,” Father Whittington said, because “souls would be put at risk.”

He organized a prayer vigil at the construction site on Saturdays, and about 40 people joined him to pray on that first morning in December 2005 even though it was 10 degrees and snow covered the ground.

“In some ways perhaps, our early launch of prayers before the clinic even opened was a failure because it opened,” Father Whittington said, “but I’ve heard from pro-life sidewalk counselors that against incredible odds—a fortress of a building, a parking lot enclosed by a ­

chain-link fence and no sidewalk to meet the women before they go in—there are more saves of babies from that clinic than they ever expected.”

Father Whittington now serves as administrator of St. John the Baptist Parish in Osgood and St. Magdalen Parish in New Marion. He is also chaplain at Father Michael Shawe Memorial Jr./Sr. High School in Madison.

He drove from southern Indiana to Indianapolis to speak at the prayer service because he “wouldn’t want to be anywhere else,” and wanted to thank several hundred pro-life supporters at the rally for loving and helping at-risk mothers and babies.

“You’re here because you believe in the great dignity that God has given to every single human life,” Father Whittington said. “Human life begins when it is conceived in the mind of God.”

Women don’t decide to have an abortion because they are exercising their choice, he said. “I believe women get abortions because they feel as though they have no choice.”

Abortion destroys the life of the child as well as motherhood, fatherhood and society, he said, but pro-life responses address the evil of abortion and the loneliness of women with love and support for the child, the mother and the father.

“I am so happy that you are willing to take a stand,” he said, “and to proclaim that life is a gift from God.”

After the rally, dozens of pro-life supporters prayed the rosary for an end to abortion while walking two miles along West 86th Street in 90-degree heat for a prayer vigil in front of the Planned Parenthood center.

(For more information about “40 Days for Life,” call 317-213-4778, log on to www.40DaysforLifeIndy.com or send an e-mail to 40daysforlifeindy@sbcglobal.net.) †