North country youth participate in national March for Life

OGDENSBURG — Sixteen years ago, Colleen Miner, co-director of the Respect Life Office of the Diocese of Ogdensburg, loaded up two minivans to attend the National March for Life in Washington, D.C. This year, she needed five buses to carry her contingent to the demonstration.

On a cold, rainy Monday in January, 146 north country high school students joined a throng of more than 400,000 at the nation’s capital to protest Roe v. Wade, the seminal 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that affirmed a woman’s right to an abortion.

Mrs. Miner said the marchers’ numbers are swelled by ranks of youth from around the country.

“If you have ever been to the march, the majority of the marchers are the youth,” she said. “It is their generation that is being wiped out, their friends, their relatives and their neighbors that are not in their classrooms, and they know it is wrong.”

They went to advocate against abortion, but they left with lessons on faith, dedication and history.

“Oftentimes you hear people say that the young people are the future,” said Deacon Brian T. Dwyer, who leads the diocesan youth ministry. “I certainly believe that the future is right here right now. They are witnesses to this social justice issue.”

Mrs. Miner said this was the diocese’s largest contingent to the protest to date.

“This is the first year we’ve had three youth buses,” she said. “One left from Watertown, one left from Massena and made stops in Canton and Gouverneur, and one left from Albany. All three buses were full.”

The students were joined by two buses of adults and passenger vans of college students.

In addition to attending the march, the group toured several of Washington’s museums.

A highlight of the trip was when they attended Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, the largest Catholic church in the United States.