Learning about, and learning to proclaim, the Gospel of Life is an
important part of a seminarian’s spiritual formation. Two recent
events allowed the men to put life-ethics into action.
Third-year theologians join Archbishop
Allen Vigneron at the National Shrine
of the Immaculate Conception the day
before the March for Life on January 22.
Seminarians March to Defend Unborn
Dominic Macioce
My third-year theology class and I had the opportunity to attend the January 22
March for Life in Washington, D.C. It was a tremendous grace for the thirteen of
us to be among the hundreds of thousands of people praying and protesting for an
end to abortion. Our group was part of a long tradition of Sacred Heart seminarians
bussing down to the nation’s capital to attend the march.
We constantly hear from media outlets how almost everyone is in support of abortion, especially the younger generation. However, Cardinal Seán O’Malley, Archbishop
of Boston, gave a powerful homily at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception that young people are a force behind the pro-life movement. This position was
evident by the huge amount of students at the march. They praised the Lord while
walking from the National Mall to the Supreme Court building to protest the 1973
Roe v. Wade ruling that maintained aborting a pre-born child is a constitutional right.
Another grace for me was to have our own Archbishop Vigneron marching with
us. He took the time to visit, encourage, and lead us in the march. It was a powerful
example of what pastoral care should look like. Another grace was in response to
hostility some people showed toward us. I felt close to Jesus as we stood for the truth
of the gospel in the face of opposition.
Dominic Macioce is a third-year theology seminarian for the Archdiocese of Detroit.
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Sacred Heart Major Seminary | Mosaic | Spring 2015
Record-breaking Crowd
Attends Dinner for Life
With 425 satisfied dinner-goers attending this year’s Dinner for Life, February
6, Sacred Heart’s seminarians beat last
year’s attendance by more than one hundred. The annual event is organized entirely by seminarians, who also do all the
cooking and serving. It is now in its sixth
year, with ticket sales rising each year.
All donations to the Dinner for
Life go to support pro-life charities.
This year’s dinner raised more than
$11,000, which will be donated to Project Hope, a right-to-life outreach of
Catholic Charities of Southeast Michigan (ccsem.org/campaigns).
The event opened with a Mass at 6:00
PM, celebrated by Archbishop Allen Vigneron in Sacred Heart’s main chapel.
Guests then moved into the gymnasium,
where seminarians served a fish and pasta dinner. Attendees enjoyed an address
by noted Catholic apologist and conference speaker Kimberly Hahn.
Ms. Hahn spoke with conviction
about our culture’s ignorance of how
easily abortion could be avoided. She
called on attendees to join their prayers
for vocations to prayers for life.
“We have helped to create a vocation
crisis,” she said, linking the two issues,
“because statistically the culture has
aborted many potential priests and
religious.” Seminarians John Carlin
(Archdiocese of Detroit) and Bryan
Kassa (Chaldean Eparchy of St. Thomas)
spoke about how the pro-life movement
has bolstered their vocations to the
priesthood.