Members of the Archdiocesan Youth Leadership Team along with students from various parishes and local schools attended the Youth Mass of Celebration and Thanksgiving at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20 on the morning before the annual March for Life.

Students from about 16 schools in the area made their way into the cathedral, as Mike Tenney, host of the podcast Pop Culture Catechism, played guitar, sang and guided students in meditation. The congregation then prayed the rosary, led by members of the Archdiocesan Youth Leadership Team. 

Before the Mass, a microphone was passed around for students to answer why they support the pro-life cause. Answers included that everyone “deserves a chance for life” and that life was created by God, so it must be protected. About 500 people attended the Mass. 

Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory celebrated the Mass, while Father Robert Kilner, the administrator at Our Lady Star of the Sea in Solomons, Maryland, gave the homily.

After Communion, Cardinal Gregory thanked those involved and encouraged students considering vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life to “hang on to that thought….The Church is so in need of joyful, holy young men and women who want to follow Jesus Christ with all their heart.”

Then after the Mass, Tenney introduced Ogechi Akalegbere, the keynote speaker and master of ceremonies. Akalegbere serves as the director of Youth and Young Adult Ministry at St.  Rose of Lima Parish in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and is a blogger, personal trainer, and podcaster. About 500 students attended the Mass and gathering for youth that followed.

“As a cradle Catholic, I understood why the March (for Life) was important. It was a physical witness against the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling that made abortion legal,” Akalegbere said. “At that age, I understood the call to be pro-life as having a moral stance on singular issues such as abortion, the death penalty, and euthanasia. I even wrote an A.P. English paper against euthanasia for one of my assignments,”

She continued to explain her experience of sharing her lifelong pro-life stance with others, which required her often to “bring evidence of having a consistent life ethic that went beyond talking points and stances. The broader pro-life movement in the eyes of my peers was missing nuance and consistency.”

She explained the Catholic Church’s teaching on the subject of life.

“The first principle of Catholic Social Teaching states that the life and dignity of the human person is sacred. From conception to natural death, that life has a value that should be upheld. That first principle also calls for us to avoid things like unjust war and to oppose the death penalty,” Akalegbere said.

Akalegbere then went on to quote the Gospel of John, when Jesus refers to himself as the “good Shepherd.”

“One of the most transformational experiences that shaped the way I live out living a consistent life ethic was volunteering as a crisis pregnancy counselor for five years at my local pregnancy center...They (the women) came into the center from many different walks of life. Most of the clients were not able to access healthcare or did not have support from family. The pregnancy test, counseling and sonogram were some people’s first experience talking through their tough situation with either a trained volunteer or a nurse,” Akalegbere said.

A big part of the gathering’s message was what younger students could do for the pro-life cause. 

“What does this have to do with you?”  Akalegbere asked. She added, “You are sitting in those pews listening to me tell a nice story. But what next? My favorite soon-to-be saint (the noted Catholic evangelist) Sister Thea Bowman has an amazing quote that reminds me of the beauty of the Church and how each of us can work individually and collectively to further shatter the darkness of death in our society. She says, ‘You have a gift. You have a talent. Find your gift, find your talent, and use it. You can make this world better by letting your light shine and doing your part!’” 

Akalegbere then noted, “We all have a part to play in being pro-life... Please remember that as much as we fight for people to be alive, we must also fight for them to thrive and live from womb to tomb to the fullest.” 

 Following her keynote address, there was a question and answer session with Cardinal Gregory, who answered questions from the Archdiocesan Youth Leadership Team.

The first question was on next steps for the pro-life movement. The cardinal stressed caring for mothers who carried their crisis pregnancies to term.

“Obviously, once a baby is born there is a lot of needs that that child has, just ask your parents,” Cardinal Gregory. He continued to describe how schools and parishes in the archdiocese collect products such as formula and diapers to donate to those in need. Like Akalegbere, Cardinal Gregory encouraged students to help how they could, such as with babysitting. 

“Maybe babysitting, maybe providing some care for the little ones that teenagers know how to do,” Cardinal Gregory said. “That would promote a spirit that once you’re born, you still have needs, once moms have babies, they still need support. Our young people I think could do an awful lot by getting into that mix.”

When asked about why it is important for young people to take a stand for life, the cardinal said that during the Mass while looking out at the young faces in the congregation, “I saw a wonderful future for the Church. You are the Church now, but you are also the Church for tomorrow… The Church has a bright future in you, and we want you to invite your friends, your classmates, your neighbors, young people that you play sports with, to invite them to join you in being active at your parishes, active at your schools, and very active in the practice of your faith.”

Cardinal Gregory also noted, “This morning Pope Francis issued a statement to the young people who are planning to go to Portugal for World Youth Day this coming August. And he used a phrase that I'd like to borrow. He said that young people should open horizons,” Cardinal Gregory said.

The cardinal added, “The Holy Father encourages you, to be open to new horizons, new advnetures…Let your hearts smile because there’s a lot of goodness within you that we want to come to the surface.”

The students from the Archdiocesan Youth Leadership team then presented the cardinal with an “I Stand for Life” T-shirt, and they also distributed some of them to youth attending the gathering.

One of the organizers for the youth Mass and gathering was Matthew Avery, the coordinator of Youth Leadership for the Catholic Youth Organization of The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, who also works with a nonprofit that helps D.C. students graduate from high school and enroll in college.

“It’s something I’m really passionate about, trying to help young people make decisions that will help them to make their life choices. So be it going to college, be it determining what their faith is going to be or what their faith journey is going to be like,” Avery said. “Just making decisions about life and death, even in terms of making good decisions about being in a gang or not.”

Avery noted that being a “cradle Catholic” has had a large impact on his career path. 

“When I went to school, I wanted to work with young people and I knew that, and I wanted to work within my faith. I didn’t know how that would look,” Avery said. Then, after graduating college and still trying to figure out what he wanted to do professionally, a parent at his parish suggested he help with the youth program there, Avery said.

He said he immediately felt this was what he wanted to do with his life. 

“I feel like God asked me to be here or laid out the path for me to walk into this area. And then I think that I'm really able to help young people find their own leadership style and find their own comfort and help them to allow the Holy Spirit to work within them, to be able to show their leadership, be able to stand up for their faith,” Avery said.

Avery then said he believes that the faith could be a common ground for people, although Catholics are divided on the abortion issue. According to a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center, out of a sample size of 7,202 people polled, 48 percent of Catholics say abortion should be legal in all or most states, while 47 percent of Catholics said they believe abortion should be illegal in all or most states. 

“Politically speaking, abortion and pro-life and pro-choice, it really gets really, really heavily blown and really, really divisive and really, really angry and emotional on both sides. And I feel like one thing that can always bring people together is the Eucharist,” Avery said. 

Avery added that, “Being able to bring the conversation, not so much about red versus blue and right versus wrong, but bringing it back to the Eucharist, I think, because that's the central focus of our faith. And so I think it's the central focus of this conversation is that, ‘Hey look, remember, we're all connected in Christ. We're all connected through the Eucharist, so let's start with there as a grounding point, if you will. And then to be able to ease tensions, to be able to have a conversation.’” 

Avery believes that it is still pertinent to host events like this, even after Roe v. Wade was overturned in the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling, because he believes young Catholics who are still wavering in their stance on abortion may be convinced to stand for life. 

“I think that there are young people up there right now that are struggling, that want to support life because that's what God is asking us to do, and that's what God wants us to do, and they know that. But I also think that because of the way society is, it makes it hard for them to make that choice. So I do think that there are people here at the Mass that may not be fully pro-life or fully supportive, necessarily, of a pro-life stance, not because they don't believe in, not that they would maybe make the choice of having an abortion or anything like that, but they may not necessarily feel as strongly as other people,” Avery said.

Avery said that members of the Archdiocesan Youth Leadership Team have previously donated to shelters protecting people from domestic violence. 

 In interviews, Brandon Chernosky and Emily Staub who are high school students and members of the leadership team and attend St. John Neumann Parish in Gaithersburg, Maryland, spoke about the importance of standing for life. 

“Nothing has changed in Maryland, all it's done is pushed the decision up to the state legislature and Maryland has not changed it, and a lot of states still have the same abortion laws that they had before,” Chernosky said. “So it’s just as important as ever to still stand up for the right to life.”

According to the Guttmacher Institute, 17 states and the District of Columbia have laws in place that protect abortion rights.

“Being raised Catholic, I was always kind of grown in the idea of the right to life being the most important right that we have,” Chernosky said. “My mom played a big part of that, it’s because of her that I’m here, because she chose life, and I think that’s such a beautiful thing.”

For Staub, it was a talk that solidified her belief in being anti-abortion.

“That’s how I started getting involved in our youth group, [the talk] was very eye opening,” Staub said. 

Chernosky explained why he feels he has a role in the discussion of abortion as a man.

“I think it’s a woman’s issue as much as it is a man’s issue,” he said. “Because every baby that is grown in the womb has a gender. So I think that yes, it is women’s bodies, but then it becomes the child’s body when it is in the womb. So I think that everyone has to stand up for those who cannot speak for themselves.”

Two other members of the Archdiocesan Youth Leadership Team, Noah Strawberry from Our Lady Help of Christians Parish in Waldorf, Maryland and Eva Lake Olan, a member of John Neumann Parish in Gaithersburg, Maryland, also shared their thoughts on the day. Both planned to attend the March for Life after the Mass and youth gathering at St. Matthew’s Cathedral. 

Olan said that her opinion on abortion really came together more recently. 

“I’m pretty new to the pro-life thing. It’s really just been in like the most recent two years I’ve been really getting into it, and I’ve really formed any thoughts about it, especially in public school. I will be honest, (I was) not really encouraged to be pro-life,” Olan said. “To be honest, I’m not super open about it, because it’s very controversial.”

Strawberry said his pro-life view was fostered through the Archdiocesan Youth Leadership Team and events at church. 

“Doing things like this really opened up my eyes to seeing the beauty of life and just to see how great being alive is, and I’m so grateful and I know that every person, every unborn baby deserves a chance at experiencing this,” Strawberry said. 

Like Chernosky, Strawberry reflected on what he believes his role in the movement is as a man.

“The role of men, they can be vocal, and I think it doesn’t matter who you are. I think the mother, specifically, has a personal feeling and emotions that everyone should understand and be aware of...it’s the role of men to support mothers and women going through hard pregnancies,” Strawberry said. 

As for how their opinions impact their views on adulthood, Strawberry said that some day, “I want to support my wife and my kids and make sure that everything goes right, and never have the option of aborting the child.” 

Olan added that some day when she becomes a mother, “[I want to] do my best to be a good mother and really care for this child. I was thinking even of adopting and giving the same love that I would to my biological kid as I would to my adopted kid, just any child in my care, just give them the most love.” 

At the gathering after the Mass, the youth who spoke included Kingsley Ndukauba from Archbishop Carroll High School in Washington, D.C.  He noted, “Abortion takes away a life that could have the potential to change the world. A life that could have found a desired need in our society and found a solution to solve it. Just like how many of the world's most successful entrepreneurs have changed our lives with their crafts; Imagine a world without Amazon or Twitter.”