By Julie Asher, OSV News
WASHINGTON (OSV News) — In a basilica “adorned with beautiful mosaic art,” the “most impressive” mosaic was “the gathering of people from so many different places coming together to stand for life and to be a light in our culture,” Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, said Jan. 23.
The archbishop was the main celebrant and homilist at the opening Mass for the National Prayer Vigil for Life at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. A congregation of 5,500 filled the Great Upper Church. The annual vigil precedes the March for Life.
Four cardinals were among the concelebrants: Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory, now retired as Washington’s archbishop, and his newly named successor, Cardinal Robert W. McElroy, formerly the bishop of San Diego; Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley, retired archbishop of Boston; and Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States.
Among the 22 bishops concelebrating was the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services. Fifty deacons and 300 seminarians were also at the altar.
A National Holy Hour for Life followed the Mass. The morning of Jan. 24, a Mass was celebrated in the Great Upper Church to close the vigil, serving as a send-off for those heading across town to the National Mall for the March for Life. Bishop Robert J. Brennan of Brooklyn, New York, was the main celebrant of the closing liturgy.
During both Masses, a second collection was taken to benefit the victims of the Los Angeles wildfires, with the donations to be sent to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
In his homily, Archbishop Naumann had a special message for young people, recalling that St. John Paul II’s custom almost everywhere he went in the world was to meet with young people. “He challenged them to be light as only young people can be light. … The Lord has this particular love for the young to be his instruments of grace in the world,” Archbishop Naumann said.
“My good young people, say not that you are too young to be a light in our culture and society,” the archbishop said. He pointed to many young saints in the life of the church, such as St. Agnes, an early Christian martyred for her faith when she was 12 or 13, and Blessed Carlo Acutis, who will be canonized in April. Widely regarded as a computer whiz, Blessed Carlo catalogued true stories of Eucharistic miracles before his death at age 15 from leukemia in 2006.
Archbishop Naumann called on young people “to be witnesses to your peers. You’re called to help them to come to know what brought you here tonight.”
Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade and returned the issue to lawmakers, a victory for the pro-life movement, there have been “many disappointments” with the outcome of state referendums, “beginning with my state of Kansas,” where nearly 60% voted to uphold legal abortion access.
Much of that victory was due to young voters who have “grown up in a culture where they’ve never known anything but legalized abortion,” the archbishop said. He acknowledged that “my generation has failed to protect them.”
“These defeats have been sober reminders that we need to re-intensify our efforts” to build a culture of life, he said. “If we’re gonna follow (Jesus), we have to follow him all the way to Calvary. We have to be prepared to take up the cross to transform our culture.”
Archbishop Naumann said he was “encouraged to hear” that earlier in the day President Donald Trump had pardoned 23 pro-life activists convicted of violating the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, or FACE Act, that afternoon. He also prayed for Trump and Vice President JD Vance “that they will have wisdom to be good leaders for our nation.”
The archbishop is a past chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities and has served seven terms as a member of the committee. He was filling in as main celebrant and homilist for the current chairman, Bishop Daniel E. Thomas of Toledo, Ohio, who was not able to attend due to a death in the family. The wife of his late brother, who was his only sibling, died unexpectedly, and he had to be with family in Philadelphia, Archbishop Naumann said. He asked for a moment of silent prayer for the bishop and his family.
The archbishop shared notes from Bishop Thomas on the homily he would have given. His overall theme was “light and life.”
With the March for Life and the National Prayer Vigil for Life that precedes it, Bishop Thomas wrote, “we take the time to give voice to our praise and thanksgiving for the gift of Christ, who is our life and light, to praise and thank him for the gift of human life in all its forms and at every stage, for the gift of life and light he has given each of us. (We’re) called to witness to his life and light, in particular for the preborn, who may not have the opportunity to be born into this world and who may never see the light of day.”
In concluding his homily, Archbishop Naumann said, “We ask Jesus — this word made flesh who humbled himself to be an embryo,” carried to term by Mary, “and humbles himself again to be present to us in the Eucharist — to give us food for the journey. Let us take up the banner to be pilgrims of hope intent on building a culture of life and civilization of love.”
Like Archbishop Naumann, Bishop Brennan at the vigil’s closing Mass the next day delivered his homily from the shrine’s pulpit high above the congregation and remarked on what he observed from that perch.
“I wish you could see what I see now. You are amazing, you really are amazing. Thank you for being in such fervent prayer, in earnest prayer,” Bishop Brennan said. “We gather here friends in our nation’s capital to join with people from all around the country with people of different faith traditions and witness to the dignity of the life of every human life. … The church is on her knees quite literally these past hours in earnest prayer begging the Lord’s guidance, his help and mercy.”
“We see the roots of human dignity expressed very profoundly at the beginning of the Bible, don’t we? In the beginning God made them in his own image and likeness, male and female he created them, in his own image he created them. … Looking deep into the eye of every human person we find the spark of divine life that is true of every person at every stage from conception to natural death.”
But sadly, he said, “too many scourges … undermine human dignity in the world today.” He pointed to racism, antisemitism, human trafficking and “abuse of any kind,” saying all must be rejected. “These crimes against human dignity are direct assaults against God himself, because dignity, human dignity, comes from God himself.”
The fact that every human person is created in “the image and likeness of God,” he said, must inform “our care for … victims of violence and wars abroad or crime at home, for the immigrant and the refugee.”
“But how will we recognize the dignity in one another,” he asked, “unless we see it in the child from the very first moment of his or her existence?”
“Without the right to life, without the right to be born, every other right collapses,” he added.
At the beginning of the National Prayer Vigil for Life, Cardinal Pierre read a message from Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, issued on behalf of Pope Francis, who sent “the assurance of his spiritual closeness to those from throughout the United States who are participating in this 2025 March for Life.”
The pope expressed appreciation “for this long-standing public witness to the sanctity of human life.” He prayed that this annual gathering “may always be a visible sign of the immense goodness present in our world.”
The vigil event is hosted each January by the basilica, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities and The Catholic University of America’s Office of Campus Ministry.
Julie Asher is senior editor for OSV News.
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