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For the second time in two years, the Sisters of Life and the Knights of Columbus will team up in presenting the “Life Fest” at the annual March for Life in Washington, DC.
“In response to an increased need to support vulnerable women and form hearts in receiving every human life as a gift, the Sisters of Life and the Knights of Columbus have announced Life Fest, their second annual morning rally to be held in conjunction with the 2024 National March for Life,” the two organizations said in a press release.
Life Fest will be held on January 19, 2024, at the 10,000-seat D.C. Armory, and will feature testimonies from Cardinal Seán Patrick O'Malley of the Archdiocese of Boston and several of the sisters.
A Mass will be celebrated by Knights of Columbus Supreme Chaplain Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore. Sarah Kroger and Damascus Worship will provide music. Kroger is an acclaimed, Nashville-based, Catholic worship leader and songwriter who has released five albums. Damascus Worship is a Catholic missionary worship movement based in Ohio that is about glorifying the Lord and seeing people come alive through an encounter with God.
There will be a Eucharistic healing procession and an opportunity to venerate first-class relics of the recently beatified Ulma family, whose lives “exemplify what it means to value the dignity of every human person,” organizers said.
At the height of the Second World War, Jozef and Wiktoria Ulma and their seven children, one of whom was still in the womb, were killed by Nazis in Markowa, Poland, for hiding members of two Jewish families. In honor of the 80th anniversary of their martyrdom, relics and a special exhibition titled “The Good Samaritans of Markowa: The Sacrificial Love of the Ulma Family” will be on display at the St. John Paul II National Shrine in Washington, D.C., until at least March 24, 2024. The Ulma family bears special significance to the pro-life movement, as the relics include the first unborn child to be beatified.
It is good that you exist
Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly of the Knights of Columbus explained why the Catholic fraternal order is involved in the Life Fest.
“Since our founding over 140 years ago, the Knights of Columbus has been supporting vulnerable mothers and their children, and we’ve been involved in the pro-life movement since it began in the 1970s,” said Kelly. “We’re honored to continue with this important mission by partnering once again with the Sisters of Life at the 2024 Life Fest. Together, we will work to inspire a new generation to restore a culture of life and march with courage and compassion until abortion is unthinkable.”
“I’ll never forget the first time I attended a rally before the March for Life when I was a teenager,” said Sr. Mary Grace, SV. “I knew the pro-life movement was important, but standing in a packed stadium, listening to stories and seeing countless other youth celebrate the gift of life changed the trajectory of mine. I marched differently. It was no longer simply another cause — it became for me a whole new way of looking at the world we live in.”
Organizers hope attendees reap the same benefit as Sr. Mary Grace, who said she “left the rally with a fresh conviction that every single human person is precious, and your value is worth cherishing again every year.”
One of her fellow sisters, Sr. Marie Veritas, SV, said that building a culture of love and life “needs a proclamation and celebration of the fact that it is good that you exist.”
“Every human person needs to know that they are important in God’s eyes, that they can’t be replaced,” said Sr. Marie Veritatis. “Every woman needs to know that she is not alone, that we are with her and for her. Everyone who has suffered abortion deserves to know that healing is possible, that there is no sin or darkness bigger than the mercy of Jesus Christ. So we come together to celebrate, to proclaim the goodness of life.”
For more information about Life Fest or to register, visit lifefestrally.com
