WASHINGTON – More than 100 students from the diocese’s Catholic schools gathered in the nation’s capital on Thursday, Jan. 22 for a Mass celebrated by Bishop Earl Fernandes at the Saint John Paul II National Shrine ahead of the annual March for Life.
Students from eight diocesan high schools and a grade school were represented, including Columbus Bishop Hartley, Bishop Ready, Bishop Watterson, Cristo Rey Columbus, St. Charles Preparatory, St. Francis DeSales, Lancaster Fisher Catholic and Newark Catholic high schools and Worthington St. Michael the Archangel School.
Staff from Zanesville Bishop Rosecrans High School and Bishop Fenwick School were also present in anticipation of bringing students next year.
The bishop celebrated an early afternoon Mass for members of the diocese who traveled to Washington for the March for Life, set for Friday, Jan. 23.
He was joined by Fathers Bill Ferguson, a diocesan priest serving at the Saint John Paul II National Shrine; David Johnstone, chaplain at St. Francis DeSales; Michal Wojciak, chaplain at St. Charles Preparatory; Sesu Maria Crescensis Panguraj, parochial vicar at Westerville St. Paul the Apostle Church; and Bob Penhallurick, director of the diocesan Office of Pro-Life Activities.
“It’s important for … us to be together as a diocese to offer Mass for the forgiveness of sins, of reparation for sin, but also to build up the Body of Christ and to strengthen young people with sacramental grace, so that they know that they can actually be witnesses,” the bishop said.
“If you’re a young person, you see a grave injustice, you want to do something about it, but you think, ‘I’m alone; I’m the only one who thinks this way,’ and so, to be in Washington, D.C. with tens of thousands of young people from around the country also bolsters young people.”
Mass at the Saint John Paul II Shrine, celebrated on the Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of the Unborn, coincided with the 53rd anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade (1973) decision that declared a constitutional right to abortion.
Although later overturned by the high court in 2022, abortion remains legal in most of the country’s 50 states. Busloads of students, staff and faithful from the Columbus diocese made a pilgrimage to show their support for human life and the dignity of each person.
“As a Catholic school, we’re coming to represent what actually the Catholic Church teaches, and I think it’s a good way to grow community, especially within our school, and represent that we should be upholding life instead of destroying it,” said Grant Bently, 14, a freshman at Columbus Bishop Watterson High School.
Kicking off the march with Mass the day before at the national shrine honoring Pope St. John Paul II was fitting.
The late pope (1920-2005), Bishop Fernandes noted, “was such a champion of life, not only of the unborn, but of the most vulnerable members of our society.
“It’s important to awaken, in young people, their consciences to the reality of what happens to unborn children, to mothers – how they’re both harmed by abortion,” he added, “and to begin to build the culture of life and the civilization of love.”
After Mass, many of the diocese’s Catholic school students spent time exploring the Saint John Paul II National Shrine. The shrine offers a history of the Polish pope’s life and pontificate, including relics, artifacts and video feed.
Benny Myers, a middle school religion teacher at Bishop Fenwick, was eager to attend the March for Life after converting to Catholicism in 2019.
He traveled from Zanesville to Washington to represent the grade school, hoping to bring several students with him next year.
“I teach my students the importance of human dignity, and I think this is one of the greatest ways that we can do that,” he said of the impending march. “All life is valuable and has dignity and is valuable to God. This is the perfect opportunity.”
