BALTIMORE, Maryland, March 29, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Baltimore’s Archbishop William Lori will lead a prayer walk from a famous traditional Catholic parish to Planned Parenthood on Good Friday this year.
“On Good Friday, the most solemn date in the Church year, we mark the suffering of Christ and the gift of our salvation,” Lori told LifeSiteNews. “Here in the Archdiocese of Baltimore each year, we mark this solemn day by participating in the Way of the Cross, a pilgrimage of thanksgiving for the Life we have been given, for those whose lives have been ended by abortion, and for the women who feel they have no other options for their babies.”
“May our prayers touch their hearts and urge them to choose Life, not death, most especially on this day on which the Lord gave up His life so that we – His children – might live,” said Lori.
The prayer walk begins at 8:00 a.m. at the National Shrine of St. Alphonsus Liguori, a parish under the care of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP), which offers Catholics sacraments according to the Church’s ancient, pre-Vatican II rites. As they process from St. Alphonsus to the Planned Parenthood abortuary, the Catholics will pray the stations of the cross. Upon arriving at Planned Parenthood, they will pray the rosary.
Tell Congress to keep their promise and defund Planned Parenthood. Sign the petition here!
The unofficial motto of St. Alphonsus is “where saints have prayed” because St. John Neumann lived there in the 1800s. Visitors may see his bedroom as it was when he lived at the parish.
Archbishop Lori invited the FSSP to operate the parish, which for years had offered the sought-after Extraordinary Form of the Mass (the Tridentine Rite), because its 90-year-old pastor was retiring.
The Baltimore Planned Parenthood so close to this Catholic holy site will soon also be next-door-neighbors to a three-story pro-life pregnancy center. The scope of that center’s services will depend on how much money it’s able to raise, and how much the space can be renovated.
Archbishop Lori led the U.S. bishops’ religious liberty efforts as the Obama administration tried to force Catholic entities to participate in the provision of abortifacient and contraceptive drugs and devices.
In Washington, D.C., pro-lifers will pray the stations of the cross at the mega-Planned Parenthood at 10:00 a.m. on Good Friday.