By Jacek Orzechowski, OFM | January 24, 2020

I have been participating in the March for Life for years.  I do it because I believe in the sanctity of human life.  As a Franciscan friar, I have preached and pastorally counseled women who dealt with pregnancies in very challenging circumstances and who struggled to choose life.  I have participated in the March for Life because I have been awed by the beauty of God’s amazing grace shining through numerous people I cherish whose existence once came so close to being eliminated in the womb.  During the March for Life, I hold in my prayers the women and men who have wrestled with the decisions they have made and who came to know the power of God’s healing mercy and new life.

I participate in the March for Life as a Catholic whose thoughts and actions have been shaped by the Bible, the church’s rich tradition of Social Doctrine, and certainly, by the Franciscan worldview that reminds us that everything is deeply interconnected.  One of the large banners I held up at the March read: “Choose Life.” Underneath these words, crossed out, were listed: Abortion, Destruction of Earth’s Ecosystems, Injustice, Nuclear Weapons, Pandering to Fear, Racism, Social Inequality, Torture.  I have no doubt that my countryman, Saint Pope John Paul II, looking down from heaven, is proud of my bearing witness to his call to an all-embracing vision of a “Civilization of Love.”

This is why I have found President Trump’s presence as the main speaker at the 2020 March for Life morally offensive.  He is not a pro-life champion.  Many of his policies are antithetical to the Gospel values and to the best of what our country stands for.  His racist policies scapegoat and attack the poor and vulnerable in our communities, denying them justice while catering to the richest of the rich.  President Trump attacks democracy and our cherished institutions, lavishes praises on dictators, and denigrates diplomacy.  His administration has attacked basic climate science and rolled back basic environmental regulations protecting our health.