40 Days for Life vigils
Two groups in the Archdiocese of San Francisco will take part a community-based prayer campaign to end abortion that takes place during the 40 days of Lent. The groups, based in San Francisco and San Mateo, will lead prayer vigils in front of Planned Parenthood facilities each day as part of 40 Days for Life.
Ron Konopaski, director for the San Francisco 40 Days for Life program, said the group is small as yet, but dedicated.
"Other people started out modestly, so I took a huge leap of faith and trusted in Lord," Konopaski. "We'll see what the Lord sends me. We'll do the best can with what we've got."
A group of 18 met at Star of the Sea Parish Jan. 29 to begin planning for the event, which will start Feb. 25. The San Francisco group hopes to recruit at least 80 volunteers to ensure at least two people will be in front of the abortion centers at all times.
Konopaski's participants had planned to hold another planning meeting at Star of the Sea School on Feb. 5.
San Mateo Pro-Life chair Jessica Munn, who heads the San Mateo 40 Days for Life group, said the vigils offer an opportunity for those not actively involved in the pro-life movement to engage.
"Typically a third of people who have joined [in 40 Days for Life] are people who had never done anything in the pro-life movement," Munn said. "A lot of people can feel and think pro-life, but until they do something it will remain a feeling."
Munn said her group is reaching out to the Knights of Columbus and the Legion of Mary, as well as local Catholic parishes and Protestant churches.
Though many 40 Days for Life vigils last 24 hours, both the San Francisco and San Mateo groups told Catholic San Francisco they want to start modestly to build up a base of support for possible eventual expansion. Each vigil will last 12-hours, with 40 such vigils over the Lenten period.
Visit www.40daysforlife.com.
By Michael Vick
From the February 6, 2009 issue of Catholic San Francisco
