CALEXICO — Catholics are rallying their prayer warriors for January’s pro-life activities in the Imperial Valley, starting with a novena, leading up to two separate Walks for Life.
Catholics kicked off the San Diego Diocese-wide “Multicultural Novena for Life” on Jan. 16 at Our Lady of Guadalupe parish in Calexico. The rosary was prayed for the protection of the unborn with prayer intentions to protect babies, their mothers and fathers, and for abortionist medical staff to change hearts and minds. They ased God to help all choose life.
The Novena for Life is held nine days leading up to the San Diego Walk for Life, which will occur on Jan. 24 at Waterfront Park in San Diego, starting at 8:30 a.m. The Multicultural Novena spans parishes in Mira Mesa, Oceanside, Imperial Beach, Chula Vista, San Diego, La Mesa, and the Imperial Valley, with OLG Calexico being the designated starting spot annually for the Novena.
While the San Diego Walk is heralded as the culmination of the pro-life events, locally, an Imperial Valley Walk for Life is also set to be held on Sunday, Jan. 25. The Imperial Valley Walk for Life meets on the sidewalk adjacent to the Planned Parenthood clinic in El Centro and has local faithful walk around the clinic in a public demonstration for life. In 2025, about 60 attended the IV Walk for Life.
Separately, Protestant brethren held their own March for Life on Jan. 12, sponsored by the Imperial Valley Life Center, a pro-life resource center located directly next to the Planned Parenthood clinic in El Centro. Organizers said the Catholic and the Protestant communities invite each other to their respective walks.
Armando Mena, a San Diego Walk for Life committee member, Knight of Columbus, and parishioner of Mission San Luis Rey Parish in Oceanside, coordinates the Multicultural Novena for Life, and has done so in the diocese since its inception in 2019. Mena said the pro-life Multicultural Novena was started by Knights of Columbus chapters in other states, which he saw and decided to start in the San Diego Diocese as a way to bring Catholics together in prayer, even if remotely through Zoom, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“What I noticed is that there were parishioners from each one of the churches we visited, including pastors,” he said, “so (the Multicultural Novena) serves the purpose of bringing this (pro-life) issue to each parish community, but it also brings the diocese together in prayer.”
It also organically took on a multicultural identity in that San Luis Rey is a multicultural parish, with parishioners there of Samoan, Vietnamese, Filipino, Hispanic and Anglo descent, Mena said.
Mena said in 2019, the first Multicultural Novena for Life saw 500 viewers via Zoom. Since then and over the years, the online reach has also seen classes from universities and Catholic schools tune-in to the Novena, including classes from the University of Dayton in Ohio, Chula Vista’s St. Pius X School and some in Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico.
For Mena, who himself is a pro-life success story as a child whose mother chose his life even though he was conceived out of wedlock, he wanted the Novena to start at a parish named after Our Lady of Guadalupe, as he believes it was the Mother of the Americas who aided in his mother’s decision to keep him.
“The Knights of Columbus Council 4000 tries really, really hard to do the best we can, especially for the Pro-Life Novena and Walk for Life,” KofC Council 4000 (OLG Calexico) Grand Knight Raul Martinez said after the Multicultural Novena.
Pro-lifers said the fight for life is still important and needed more than ever.
“Its very important, especially now, because 80 percent of abortions are done medically — that means through a pill that comes in the mail. We pro-lifers call it the ‘kill pill,’” said Daniel Ramirez, the designated Culture of Life co-coordinator for the Imperial Valley through the diocese. “It’s important for all Catholics to know about this new method. It’s not new, but now it’s more popular than ever.
“Some people here still don’t know that there is a killing (Planned Parenthood) Center here on 4th Street in El Centro,” he said.
His wife and fellow Culture of Life co-coordinator, Lourdes Ramirez, went into detail about how the pills induce an evacuation of the unborn child, with pills being given without parental consent for minors.
“It’s free and it’s going out en masse, and we don’t even know how many surgical abortions are performed because they have the power … so there’s a lot more abortions going on. It’s awful; it’s really awful,” she said, “and so, we have to fight with all we have to save the lives of the unborn.”
Lourdes, also known as “Luly,” is also the director for the local BirthChoice pregnancy resource center. She said many pregnant women in the Imperial Valley are poor and in need of help, and, while some Catholic organizations donate to the center, many also do not.
“It’s about life, after all, and without life we have nothing,” she said.
The Imperial Valley Walk for Life will be held on Sunday, Jan. 25, from 2 to 3 p.m. at 1561 S 4th Street in El Centro. “All are welcomed” and resource tables will be available, according to an event flyer.
BirthChoice of Imperial Valley can be contacted by telephone at (877) 398-7734.
