SAN DIEGO — “Very peaceful … very profound.”
That’s how 32-year-old Daniel Mai, a member of Our Mother of Confidence Parish in University City, described his experience with the ongoing fall campaign of 40 Days for Life.
Mai, a first-time participant, is just one example of young adult Catholics who are taking their place on the front lines of the pro-life movement.
Held across the country on the same dates, 40 Days for Life aims to bring about the end of abortion through prayer, fasting and community outreach. The centerpiece of the campaign is a 40-day, round-the-clock prayer vigil outside abortion clinics.
“We were never disrupting the peace. We were just simply letting our voice be heard and letting our stance … be known,” Mai said, reflecting on the prayerful atmosphere that he encountered Sept. 30 during a prayer vigil outside a Planned Parenthood facility in Kearny Mesa, where participants held pro-life signs and prayed the rosary together.
The fall campaign began on Sept. 24 and is set to conclude on Nov. 2. Locally, vigils are taking place at nine locations, including four in San Diego and one each in Chula Vista, El Cajon, El Centro, Escondido and Vista.
Vicki Whitmire, 40 Days for Life campaign leader for El Cajon, told The Southern Cross that most younger participants come at the invitation of a friend or as part of their parish’s young adult group.
She said that, unfortunately, the young adults who participate individually, rather than as part of a group, are “still very few.” However, she has seen an increase in the above-30 demographic, many with their own children in tow.
Elena Ruta, 23, and her 20-year-old sister, Emily, serve as Culture of Life coordinators at Our Lady of Grace Parish in El Cajon.
Elena has been participating in 40 Days for Life since the fall 2021 campaign.
By the time she first got involved, she had been hearing announcements about 40 Days for Life at Mass for about two years and feeling “an increasingly stronger calling” to join the effort.
“I knew we needed more young people to be enlightened of the truth of the sacred dignity of human life,” she said. “I knew that I could help increase awareness among young people, who are misinformed by the culture of today, and that at the same time, I could be an example for more pro-life youth to see that they are not alone.”
Emily Ruta, who got involved with 40 Days for Life a few campaigns after her older sister, said that there has “never been any doubt or question for us” that life begins at conception.
“The act of taking the life of an unborn child is unfathomable; it is murder in the cruelest form,” she said. “Thus, to us, the pro-life cause means standing in defense of the defenseless, being a voice for the right to life of the unborn child, and raising awareness of the truth.”
During 40 Days for Life, the Rutas pray outside a Planned Parenthood facility in El Cajon for one hour every weekend.
Mai first learned about 40 Days for Life during a ministry fair held during the Sept. 6-7 weekend at Our Mother of Confidence Parish.
He has gone through a “rough” year that has included “a lot of personal hardship” and which, he said, served as a “wake-up call … to go and live out my faith more proudly, more boldly than I ever had before.”
“40 Days For Life was just one of the ways that I envisioned myself doing that,” he said.
Mai has joined other Our Mother of Confidence parishioners outside the Planned Parenthood in Kearny Mesa and fellow members of St. Therese of Carmel Parish’s young adult group outside another facility in Mira Mesa.
Of his first prayer vigil, he said, “It felt like we were doing something real, like getting active in our faith and really demonstrating our faith by our actions.”
Mai has been trying to participate in the prayer vigils at least once a week during the 40-day campaign. For him, the pro-life cause is about advocating not only for “the babies in the womb, who can’t speak up and advocate for themselves,” but also their mothers, who need support during their pregnancies and after giving birth.
The prayerful presence of 40 Days for Life participants outside of abortion clinics provokes both negative and affirming responses.
“There’s definitely people who scream at you, curse at you; a lot of middle fingers, a lot of yelling,” said Mai. “But there’s also people who drive by, and they honk in support; they give us a thumbs-up or they raise their fist in the air.”
What does it mean to have younger Catholics out there at the prayer vigils?
“Seeing younger people praying helps other younger people relate to them,” said Whitmire, “not only for those abortion-bound women, but those just driving by. It is easier for them to relate to someone closer to their own age.”
Mai feels the same way.
If a young pregnant woman sees “a bunch of older men and women” representing the pro-life cause, but no one in her own age group, he said, she might feel that those pro-life advocates “can’t relate” to her situation.
Additionally, the time will eventually come for a changing of the guard.
He said, “We need the younger generation to step up and ensure that our values and our traditions continue to hold.”
