Over 425 young people and adults from throughout the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois are preparing for a pilgrimage to Washington, D.C., to participate in the March for Life, Monday, Jan. 24.

The March for Life is held annually in Washington, D.C., on or near the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in the United States.

Two bus caravans, each with four buses, will set out Friday evening, Jan. 21, from various parts of the diocese, link up with other buses in their respective caravans, and arrive in Washington Saturday afternoon. An additional bus, carrying passengers from both the Springfield and Belleville dioceses, will leave Alton Sunday, arrive in D.C. in time for the march Monday, and immediately return home without spending an overnight in the Capital.

Bishop Thomas John Paprocki will celebrate Mass for the Springfield groups the morning of the march at St. Peter Church.

“This will be my 24th march,” says Becky Bauerle, youth minister at both Mother of Perpetual Help,  Maryville, and Mother of Dolors in Vandalia, who organized a four-bus caravan, with 227 people.

In addition to youth from Maryville and Vandalia, the group includes people from: St. Boniface, Edwardsville; Ss. Peter and Paul, Collinsville; St. Charles Borromeo, Charleston; St. Anthony of Padua, Effingham; St. Isidore, Dieterich; St. Francis of Assisi, Teutopolis; St. Mary of the Assumption, Neoga; St. Francis DeSales, Moweaqua; Sacred Heart, Virden; St. Louis, Nokomis; St. Francis-Holy Ghost, Jerseyville; and St. John Vianney, Sherman.

Clergy traveling with Bauerle’s group include: Father Joseph Carlos, OFM, Dieterich; Father Daren Zehnle, associate director of vocations; Father Joseph Havrilka, Vandalia; Father John Titus, Charleston; and Deacon Brian Alford.

The group will be wearing black and white.

Kyle Holtgrave, director of youth ministry in the diocesan Office for Catechetical Ministries, has organized a four-bus caravan, with 187 in his group. Father Tom Meyer, pastor at Our Saviour, Jacksonville  will be traveling with the group, as will Our Saviour parochial vicar, Father Jeffrey Long, who will be signing for a group from the Illinois School for the Deaf in Jacksonville.

Deacon Ben Hoefler from St. Aloysius, Springfield; Deacon Mike Hagen from St. Francis, Hardin; and Deacon Ray Roth from St. Rita, Kincaid, will be traveling with the diocesan bus caravan.

Groups traveling in this caravan include representatives from Sacred Heart-Griffin High School, St. Aloysius School and Blessed Sacrament School in Springfield; Routt Catholic High School, Jacksonville; and St. Francis of Assisi, Hardin.

Abby Howard, a senior at Routt, drew the winning design for a T-shirt for the March for Life Rally.

The group will be wearing red and white at the march.

Father Nnamdi Moneme, OMV, youth minister at St. Mary, Alton, will be on the bus making the trip out and back without an overnight stay in D.C. He will be leading a group from St. Mary School.

Cathy McNamee, a St. Mary parishioner who helps Father Moneme with the youth group, previously has gone on a round trip to the march without an overnight stay in D.C. “It is a rough trip but well worth the sacrifice to give witness to our youth about the sanctity of life,” says McNamee.