Tens of thousands of walkers turned out for the 22nd annual Walk for Life West Coast held in the streets of downtown San Francisco on Jan. 24 to call for an end to legalized abortion. 

Although open to all, the annual event is organized and heavily attended by Catholics and its participants include many Catholic religious and clergy, including the San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone. 

 

After the March for Life in Washington, D.C. — which took place the day before on Jan. 23 — it is the second-largest pro-life walk of its kind in the country.

The main event began at 10:45 a.m. with a Silent No More Awareness Campaign led by Georgette Forney and Frank Pavone of Priests for Life, in which those harmed by abortion shared their stories. 

A rally began at 12:30 p.m. and featured short presentations by speakers active in the pro-life cause. Among the speakers was Jason Jones, a pro-life filmmaker and head of the Vulnerable People Projects. 

Other speakers included Glendie Loranger, who leads a pregnancy medical center in Spokane; Elizabeth Barrett, a former pro-choice agnostic turned Christian pro-life advocate; and Protestant pastor Clenard Childress, who has been especially active in advocating the pro-life message in the black community.

Following the rally, participants walked nearly two miles down Market Street to the Embarcadero Plaza, many singing hymns and praying the rosary and Divine Mercy chaplet. 

Among those praying were a group of a dozen students from Santa Clara University who led the walk, including the president of the school's pro-life club, Flavio Olivieri. He was attending his third walk.

“The walk is always awesome, well-run, and its participants have great enthusiasm,” he said. “I especially love seeing all the pro-life signs, like one I recall today: ‘We need to support women to choose life.’”

His fellow Santa Clara student, Andrew Pattarelli, said the event was "very prayerful; we prayed the Divine Mercy Chaplet over and over. It really helps with the walking.”

He noted that he loved the “camaraderie” of the walk, and he said he "really felt like we were making a positive pro-life statement.” 

Father Tamson Nguyen of the Legionaries of Christ is chaplain and Latin teacher at Canyon Heights Academy in Campbell. He and his superior led a group of 15 students and parents from the school. 

They, too, were among the leaders in the walk, carrying a school banner. It was the priest's sixth walk.

“I think it’s important to turn out every year to show our support for the pro-life cause," he said.

He made a point of walking in his cassock, he said. He noted that “many people like seeing the presence of a priest.”

He added that there was a small contingent of counter-demonstrators at the beginning of the walk this year, including a speaker with a microphone “talking about political issues like immigration and the Epstein files.”

“But what does that have to do with us? We’re not interested in partisan politics, we’re out here standing up for the right to life for the unborn," he said.

Another religious participating in the walk was Sister Lumen Gloriae of the Sisters of Life in Phoenix. 

Gloriae came with four other members of the community and participated in a Walk for Life Mass with Archbishop Cordileone at St. Mary’s Cathedral in the morning.

The sisters go annually to share the pro-life message with those along the route and hand out prayer cards and pro-life stickers.

“It is such a blessing and very edifying to see so many people turn out for life. For us, we feel so revived and rejuvenated when we come. We’re excited that people are willing to share their faith publicly in this way," Gloriae said.

She added that she was grateful to Archbishop Cordileone for helping lead the event, and added that his pro-life message to those in attendance was “phenomenal.”

Father Elias Guadalupe Ford is a newly ordained Dominican priest in residence at St. Dominic’s Parish in San Francisco. Fifty Dominican brothers from five communities in the San Francisco Bay area turned out, he said, as well as eight Dominican sisters and a few hundred lay Dominicans.

"It was a day filled with singing, prayer and overall positivity," he said.

He has been going to the walk for decades, he said, and noted a large turnout of Orthodox Christians this year as well as a significant number of Latinos. 

“It’s a fun event. It’s a mix between fighting for the unborn — defending innocent human life is a central tenet of our faith — as well as an opportunity to reunite with other Catholics and enjoy one another’s company," he said.

He concelebrated the St. Mary’s Cathedral Mass and also lauded the archbishop’s message.

“People say Catholics are obsessed with the pro-life issue. But it’s a basic principle of what we believe: Love thy neighbor, which includes protecting the lives of the innocent," he said.

Mother and daughter Katharine and Elle Ornido are lay Dominicans who participated in the walk, enjoying the “glorious” warm weather, Katharine said, and impressed at the many young adults who turned out at the event.

“It makes me hopeful to see so many young adults walking, as they’re our future,” said Katharine.

She noted that the walk is “a very Catholic event” and believes that “the 40 or so protestors we saw this year are really protesting Christianity.”

Elle, a young adult, noted that she’d been attending the walk since age 12, motivated “after I learned about the horror of abortion. My personal mission since has been supporting this cause.”

This year she found the event especially “joyous,” and, like Katharine, remarked on its strong Catholic nature. "While we were walking, there were three different rosaries going on around us," she said.

Katharine hopes that amid all the turmoil in the world the abortion issue gets the attention it deserves, as “we want to make sure we keep the momentum going.”

Among the largest school participants was a group of 250 students from Thomas Aquinas College. Student Patrick Daly said the most “striking” thing to him about the walk was “its peacefulness." 

He said, "We all engaged in a lot of prayer."