Florida Catholic | March For Life

DAY ONE | 01.19.08

Joy of snow, sadness of Holocaust

The first day is filled with contrasting emotions for south Florida teens taking part in the March for Life.

Published: 01.21.08

The group of high school students from Miami are known as Fr. Kidwell’s group in honor of the Jesuit priest, Father William Kidwell, who had organized the trips for nearly two decades. He died at 83 the week before the 2008 March for Life.
ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC

The snow flurries came the first night, eliciting shouts of joy from the Miami high school students attending the 2008 March for Life in Washington, D.C.

Given the brevity of the downpour, it was fortunate that the teens were outside, bundled up against the 30-degree temperatures while touring the monuments of our nation’s capital — monuments that seem all the more dazzling and magnificent when shining against the night sky.

The fact that the flurries might qualify as snow only in Miami — they fell for less than 15 minutes and melted before hitting the ground — did not dampen the enthusiasm of the 100-strong Miami contingent, composed of students from seven of the archdiocese’s high schools plus their adult chaperones.

Going by the name “Father Kidwell’s March for Life, Archdiocese of Miami” the students represent Our Lady of Lourdes Academy, Christopher Columbus High School, Belen Jesuit Prep, St. Brendan High School, Archbishop McCarthy High School, St. Thomas Aquinas High School and Chaminade-Madonna College Prep.

Their group moniker is a tribute to the priest, Father William Kidwell, who started taking south Florida teens to the march more than 20 years ago, a Jesuit who died Jan. 13 at age 83.

“He respected life at all levels, from the unborn to the elderly to the diseased and unwanted of society,” recalled Father Richard Mullen, the Augustinian Friar from St. Augustine Parish in Coral Gables who is serving as chaplain for this year’s trip.

Father Mullen spoke to the students during a Mass held before the nighttime tour of the monuments and after their tour of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

During a Mass celebrated the first day of the trip, Augustinian Friar Father Richard Mullen addresses high school students from Miami taking part in this year's March for Life in Washington, D.C.
ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC

“We don’t want to be myopic about respect life,” explained Jim Dugard, the Columbus High religion chair and campus ministry director who helped organize this year’s trip. “As Catholics, it’s more than just abortion for us.”

But Father Mullen stressed the parallels between both slaughters, using as an anecdote the true story of a woman in the Bronx, N.Y., who was raped, stabbed and killed as neighbors watched from their apartment windows.

“They were witnessing what was happening down there. Yet no one picked up the phone to call a policeman. They all thought everyone else was doing it,” Father Mullen said.

The Holocaust happened for the same reason: “People didn’t do anything. People didn’t stand up to Hitler and take a stand against this evil and this hatred and this racism.”

Father Mullen called the young people who are attending the march “prophets” who are “denouncing evil and announcing hope” to older generations.

“There has never been a longer period of protest against a law in this country’s history,” Father Mullen said, alluding to the fact that this is the 35th annual March for Life.

“There is reason to hope.”

Students and teachers from Chaminade–Madonna College Prep in Hollywood pose outside the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. From left, seniors Jordana Bilardello, Mary Soto, Megan Finnerty, Jennifer Bachmann, Matt DeWall and theology teachers Jeffrey Caballero and Rosemary Sierra-Cohen.
ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC

Shoes and names

It was the shoes that got to him.

“The hair, the shoes, the clothes,” said senior Alexander Ruiz of St. Brendan High School in Miami, recalling his visit to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Alexander had never been to Washington, D.C., and had never seen the museum. He did not expect to see actual artifacts from that time period, everything from concentration camp uniforms to a floor filled with dusty leather shoes left behind by those who died.

“I thought it was really sad,” he said. “It was sad reading all the names on the glass. I found some people with my name.”

Alexander said he came to the March for Life this year because he has been convinced since his freshman year that abortion is wrong. “I’m very against it.”

After seeing first-hand the horrors of the Holocaust, he insisted, “It’s not right to kill someone. It’s not.”

A flame lights the Hall of Remembrance at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. The museum’s architecture is designed to bring out people’s emotions. After stepping inside two of the rooms, visitors get the impression of having walked into an oven. The rooms contain wall–to-wall pictures of the Jews who lived in a village in Europe, most of whom died in concentration camps or gas chambers.
ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC

Students from Miami contemplate the Iwo Jima monument during the nighttime tour which concluded the first day of their March for Life trip.
ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC

Visit the PHOTO GALLERY FOR additional photos from the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center.

DAY TWO | DAY THREE | DAY FOUR

Joy of snow, sadness of Holocaust

Shoes and names

On The March