By M.A. Student Vincent Schiffiano
This past week I attended the March for Life in Washington DC. There are few things which truly amaze me in politics, but the March is one of them. I began my day with a walk through the National Mall down the reflecting pool to the Lincoln Memorial. From the top of the magnificent stone structure I looked out over the city as the sun rose behind the capitol building. It was peaceful as I thought about what was going to happen that day. I thought about slavery and the parallels to the modern day right to life movement. As a child of the south the legacy of slavery was very present in my upbringing and I was painfully aware of its history. But now the fight against our new human rights abuse is originating in the south. This noble endeavor which several former slaveholding states have engaged in to end abortion is a redeeming effort which brings joy to my heart.
I do not know exactly how many people attended the March this year but the number was in the thousands at least. This group of people came from all over the nation. The majority seemed to be religious, largely Catholic, but also Protestants and Orthodox figures. As I walked down the street, I could see people as far as I could see in front of me and behind me. Not only did I get to reconnect with many old friends but I got to see just how many people are willing to exert themselves for the sake of this important movement. This was inspiring.
Ultimately, the largest thing I took away from the March was truth. Politics cannot be simply about exercising one’s personal desires. Rather truth has to guide our politics. Laws teach our society by shaping the behaviors of citizens and shaping what people believe to be moral norms. This is true in abortion just as in any other issue. If we are to have a healthy society, laws, while allowing freedom within human dignity, must use this teaching function to advocate truth and must create a society which values truth. But it cannot end there.
The speech I recalled the most was that of Tony Dungy who, as a football fan, I was very excited to see. Dungy’s point was that prayer and the sacred dignity of life has to be paramount. His discussion of the recent Damar Hamlin injury (a game I was actually watching) showed this. St. Thomas Aquinas placed grace as the fulfillment of law in the Summa Theologica. I think Dungy’s speech shows this as prayer and the role of the spiritual aspects of our life have to be the final end of even our politics. Even if this happens indirectly, in order to avoid corrupting our spiritual lives with the toxicity of human politics, our community life must be in service to our higher aims. All of this was made evidently clear to me in the March for Life.
