Summary of Lenten Campaign – February 25th to April 5th
The Lenten 40 Days campaign is now over. On behalf of the organizing committee, we want to thank all of you who showed up at Ground Zero and witnessed for the unborn during this Lent. We had approximately 120 people turn out for the closing rally on a cold blustery evening on April 5th. Despite waves of bitterly cold and wintery weather, we can all be proud of Ottawa’s participation in this campaign.
Stats of the Campaign:
Number of Participants: 750
Groups: 15
Person-hours: 3000
Time Slots Covered: 90% coverage
Possible Babies Saved: 5
We had people from just about every Parish, and many churches take part in this Lenten 40 Days for Life Campaign. As Shawn Carney, the National Director of 40 Days for Life wrote recently, everyone who took part through prayer, fasting or standing vigil throughout these 40 days is a HERO, for responding to God’s call to speak-up for the most helpless.
Through Baptism, we all know that we are called to be Priests, Prophets and Kings. And what better way to be a prophetic witness for the Lord and for the Gospel of Life than at the Vigil site, outside the abortion mill, where so many innocent lives are being snuffed out, and women’s lives ruined.
13 Parishes in our diocese decided to take the opportunity to participate in a Parish Pilgrimage day, whereby the parishioners chose to cover a full 24 hour day, or part of a Day, during the 40 Days, to do a vigil. This became known as the Parish Day for a particular church. This is a marked improvement with respect to the previous Campaign, when only 5 Parishes picked a day.
The 13 parishes are, starting with those who did 24 hours both in this Campaign as well as the previous:
Annunciation of the Lord
St. Augustine
St. John the Apostle
St. Maurice
These were joined in this Campaign by:
Blessed Sacrament
St. Clement
St. Mary’s
St. Monica
St Hyacinth (also known in Polish as Parafia Swietego Jacka)
Other parishes are Holy Redeemer, which signed up for a 12-hour day both in the previous campaign as well as this one. Holy Redeemer was joined in this Campaign by:
St. Patrick in Fallowfield
St. Leonard in Manotick
Paroisse Ste. Marie in Orleans
There were also some inter-Parish or inter-Church ministries that took part in the Vigil. Net Ministries took a full 24-hour day, and Couples for Christ a 12-hour day. A contingent from the Evangelical Group Bound for Life came regularly during the odd evening shift, as did a group from CCO – Catholic Christian Outreach during the odd night shift.
A few individuals should be noted for the uniqueness of their Witness at this Vigil site: Frances Wilkinson, because of her powerful hand-made sign attracted several individuals which allowed her to engage in one on one evangelization. Frances also wrote a great testimony which was published in the Ottawa Citizen. Another Vigiler who engaged in one on one evangelization was Frances Walker from St. Patrick Basilica, who came in on many a night shift in this Campaign.
There were many individuals who did multiple shifts – these were the backbone of this campaign. We are very grateful to all these individuals, parishes, churches, and ministries for being willing to publicly demonstrate their rejection of the Culture of Death on this very busy street and to bravely give prophetic witness to the Culture of Life.
The fall 40 Days for Life Campaign will run from September 23rd until November 1st. Let’s pray for an even better participation.
Thank you all and God Bless!