2008 March For Life Photo Gallery

FATHER KIDWELL'S GROUP
The group of high school students from Miami were 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.
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HOLOCAUST MUSEUM
This quote from former President Jimmy Carter adorns one of the outside walls of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. The museum was dedicated in 1993 and averages about two million visitors a year.
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HOLOCAUST MUSEUM
A flame lights the Hall of Remembrance at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. 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.
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HOLOCAUST MUSEUM
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.
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SATURDAY MASS
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.
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LINCOLN MEMORIAL
Our Lady of Lourdes Academy students, from left, Lauren Diaz, Elizabeth Rasco and Nicole Rasco stop to chat at the Lincoln Memorial during a nighttime tour of Washington's monuments. The three are part of a 100-strong contingent from Miami made up of students from seven archdiocesan high schools.
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IWO JIMA MONUMENT
Students from Miami contemplate the Iwo Jima monument during the nighttime tour which concluded the first day of their March for Life trip.
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PLAYING WITH SNOW
Veronica Cedeño, left, and Alia Kouri play with snow outside the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center near the campus of the Catholic University of America.
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YOUNGEST WALKER
Isabel Penin, three-and-a-half, is the youngest Miami representative at the pro-life march, and a veteran. This is her fourth trip to Washington. The Penins are part of the Miami contingent of 100 high school students and their chaperones.
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PEACE IN EVERY LANGUAGE
Members of the group from the Archdiocese of Miami take the “peace walk”, one of the interactive exhibits at the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center on the campus of the Catholic University of America. A motion-activated system allows the words “Peace be with you” to ring out in myriad languages as people walk through. From left, David Dugard, 14, a freshman at Christopher Columbus High School in Miami; Katie Dugard, 16, a freshman at St. Brendan High School next door; Daniel De Leo (rear) and Joey Insua, both Columbus graduates now in their first year at the University of Florida; and Victoria Cacicedo, 17, a senior at Our Lady of Lourdes Academy in Miami.
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HANDS OF PEACE
Kaitlin Culmo, a sophomore at Our Lady of Lourdes Academy in Miami, compares her hand to that of a Canadian lumberjack, part of the “Hands of Peace” interactive exhibit at the Pope John Paul II Cultural Institute on the campus of the Catholic University of America.
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MESSAGE FOR THE POPE
Carolina Dominguez, a junior at Our Lady of Lourdes Academy in Miami, records a video message for Pope Benedict XVI during a visit to the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington, D.C. The center is collecting messages to give to the pope when he visits there in April of this year.
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MESSAGE FOR THE POPE
Andrew Southby, a sophomore at Christopher Columbus High School in Miami, and Gabriela Portela, a sophomore at Our Lady of Lourdes Academy in Miami, scrawl a message for Pope Benedict XVI during a visit to the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington, D.C. The center has put up a huge white banner for people to leave messages that will be given to the pope when he visits there in April of this year.
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MESSAGE FOR THE POPE
Megan Finnerty and Jennifer Bachmann, seniors at Chaminade-Madonna College Prep in Hollywood, point to their message for Pope Benedict XVI during a visit to the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington, D.C.
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SUNDAY MASS
St. Thomas Aquinas senior Nick Wengrenovich prays during Sunday Mass Jan. 20. Nick and Caroline Spitzer, another senior from St. Thomas, came as part of the 100-strong high school contingent from the Archdiocese of Miami.
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SUNDAY MASS
Young adults from the Archdiocese of Miami led the singing at the Jan. 20 Sunday Mass celebrated by the archdiocesan high school group taking part in this year’s March for Life. From left, Natasha Perez of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish’s youth and young adult group; Sister Maria Jose Socías, of the archdiocesan respect life office; and Linda Lathroum, of the University of Miami campus ministry and St. Augustine Parish’s young adult group.
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MARCH DIRECTOR
Jean Gilfoil, Director of the March for Life organizing group, speaks to archdiocesan high school students Jan. 20. “Since 1982, your group has been coming up,” she told them. “This is why I want you at the head of the march. You’re carrying the banner.”
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SUPREME (COURT) PRAYERS
Teenagers and young adults from south Florida braved temperatures in the teens to spend a moment in prayer Sunday night outside the Supreme Court building where the Roe v. Wade decision which legalized abortion was made in 1973.
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SUPREME (COURT) PRAYERS
Led by Sister Maria Jose Socías, left, a member of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary who works in the archdiocesan respect life office, teenagers and young adults from south Florida braved temperatures in the teens to spend a moment in prayer Sunday night outside the Supreme Court building where the Roe v. Wade decision which legalized abortion was made in 1973.
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SUPREME (COURT) PRAYERS
Jim Dugard, religion chair and campus ministry director at Christopher Columbus High School in Miami, speaks to teenagers and young adults from south Florida who braved temperatures in the teens to spend a moment in prayer Sunday night outside the Supreme Court building where the Roe v. Wade decision which legalized abortion was made in 1973.
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22 CHAIRS AND A CIRCLE
One of the activities at the mini retreat which the Miami high school students took part in Jan. 20 involved putting 22 chairs in a circle and having the youths sit sideways on each chair. Then they were told to lean back and place their shoulders on the legs of the person behind them. One by one, the chairs were removed. To everyone’s amazement, including that of the adult leaders, no one fell. The lesson: “Look what you can do when you support each other. You can do incredible things.”
Courtesy Photo | Mary Soto

POLITICS OF LIFE
New Jersey Congressman Chris Smith (Rep.) spoke Jan. 21 to the Miami high school students who went to the March for Life in Washington, D.C.
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SIX HOURS EARLY
Gregory Cutrone, 18, came with 25 other young people and chaperones from St. Luke the Evangelist Parish in the St. Petersburg Diocese. They arrived at 1 p.m. for the Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., and got great seats in the middle aisle, up front. By 5 p.m., the basilica was filled to standing room only. The Mass began at 7 p.m. and ended at 9:30 p.m.
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SEMINARIANS
Two seminarians from the Miami archdiocese -- Deacon Richard Vigoa, left, and Deacon Cesar Peña -- made the right connections at an earlier event and found two people who saved seats for them near the front of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, where the annual Vigil for Life begins with a Mass concelebrated by hundreds of priests, along with bishops and cardinals from throughout the United States.
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CLOSE-UP
A group of 26 youngsters and chaperones from St. Luke the Evangelist Parish in the Diocese of St. Petersburg arrived 6 hours early for 7:00 p.m. Mass and were rewarded with a close-up view of the Mass for life at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Seated at the end of one of their three rows was Deacon Cesar Peña, a seminarian from the Archdiocese of Miami.
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SIT-IN
Finding no room anywhere else, high school students from the Archdiocese of Miami appropriated a back wall from which to hear – literally, because they could not see – the annual Mass for life celebrated at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Waiting for the Mass to start, from left, in the rear, Jennifer Bachmann, Matt DeWall and Mary Soto, all seniors at Chaminade-Madonna College Prep in Hollywood; and Harrison Delgado, a senior at Christopher Columbus High School in Miami.
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GOING HOME
Participants at the annual Mass for life leave the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception at the end of the three–hour ceremony. The basilica was filled wall-to-wall with people, most of them teenagers and college students.
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MARCH FOR LIFE
St. Thomas Aquinas seniors Caroline Spitzer and Nick Wengrenovich went to the March for Life as “independents”, since the Fort Lauderdale school did not send a group this year.
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MARCH FOR LIFE
Waiting for the march to start, from left, Jim Dugard, campus ministry director and chair of the religion department at Christopher Columbus High School in Miami; Jean Gilfoil, director of the March for Life, who chose the Miami group to carry the lead banner this year; and Joan Crown, director of respect life for the archdiocese.
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MARCH FOR LIFE
Nick Wengrenovich, a senior at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Fort Lauderdale, wanted to let everyone know his position on abortion, and he found a way to do it without using his hands -- by stuffing the poles of the signs between the layers of clothing on his back.
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MARCH FOR LIFE
Jessie Cuadros, front left, with other members of the University of Central Florida’s Students for Life group.
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FLAG BEARERS
Two students from each of the Miami high schools, plus representatives from the young adult and campus ministry groups and two members of St. Louis Parish in Pinecrest, were selected to carry the flags that follow the lead banner in the March for Life. Pictured here are, from left, Mark Preciados, a University of Miami alumnus, and Ben Schuster, a freshman at UM, representing St. Augustine Parish’s young adult group and the UM Catholic Student Union.
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MARCH FOR LIFE
Cardinal Sean O’Malley, of Boston, and Bishop Thomas Wenski and Sister Elizabeth Worley, SSJ, of Orlando, walk in the March for Life.
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MARCH FOR LIFE
High school students carrying the official flags of the March for Life said they were surprised and moved to tears when they saw women bearing “I Regret My Abortion” signs walking ahead of them.
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MARCH FOR LIFE
Jewish religious leaders made their own pro-life statement at the March for Life.
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LEADING THE WAY
St. Brendan High School student Samantha Portela captures a memory as students from the Archdiocese of Miami carry the lead banner at Tuesday’s March For Life in Washington, DC. Archdiocesan youths were honored with the privilege due to their active participation in the annual march since 1982. Other students pictured include, Ivan Gomez, at left, from St. Maximilian Parish, Johanna Bayona, Portela, Katrina Torres and Alexander Ruiz from St. Brendan High School. Daily coverage of the March For Life begins here.
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