Jim Graves covers the Walk for Life West Coast! Excerpt:
The 18th annual Walk for Life West Coast in San Francisco will be held Saturday, January 22, 2022, 49 years after the U.S. Supreme Court announced its Roe v. Wade decision, striking down the nation’s anti-abortion laws. The event features a 12:30 p.m. rally at San Francisco’s Civic Center Plaza, followed by a peaceful, 1.8-mile walk from the Civic Center Plaza to the Embarcadero Plaza. Event organizers seek “to change the perceptions of a society that thinks abortion is an answer,” and “to be a vocal and visual message that people of the West Coast stand for life.”
The day includes a Silent No More Awareness Campaign 10:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. led by Georgette Forney and Fr. Frank Pavone from Priests for Life. Through testimonials, people involved with past abortions will share the harm it has done to their lives.
Other related events on January 22 include a pro-life Mass at St. Mary’s Cathedral, 1111 Gough Street, in San Francisco at 10:30 a.m. and an All Night Adoration for Life at Star of the Sea Parish, 4420 Geary Street in San Francisco at 5 p.m. Related events on January 21 include a Standing Up 4 Life Walk in the nearby City of Oakland with Walter Hoye, noon to 2 p.m.
While the pandemic lockdowns in January 2021 led to the cancelling of pro-life walks across the nation, organizer Eva Muntean said, the Walk for Life West Coast 2021 went ahead without any advertising or promotion. Fr. Joseph Fessio and Reverend Clenard Childress, the only speakers, addressed a crowd of 5,000 from the bed of a pick-up truck. “I was shocked we got as many as we did,” Muntean says, “and many people thanked us for not cancelling.”