WASHINGTON (OSV News) -- Catholics across the country are invited to observe a nationwide prayer vigil from Jan. 23 to Jan. 24 to pray for an end to abortion and a greater respect for all human life.
The event is hosted each January by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Pro-Life Secretariat, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington and The Catholic University of America's Office of Campus Ministry. It takes place on the eve of the March for Life, held annually on the Friday closest to the Jan. 22 date of the historic 1973 Roe v. Wade decision by the U.S. Supreme Court of the United States. Roe was overturned by the court in 2022.
The 52nd National March for Life will take place Jan. 24.
"I enthusiastically invite Catholics from all around the country to join me in-person or virtually, in praying for an end to abortion and building up a culture of life," Bishop Daniel E. Thomas of Toledo, Ohio, chairman of the USCCB's Committee on Pro-Life Activities, said in the USCCB's statement announcing the dates.
Since the high court's Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision in 2022 overturned nearly a half-century of its own precedent that held abortion to be a constitutional right, individual states have moved to either restrict abortion or expand access to it.
"Together, we must pray to change hearts and build a culture of life as we advocate for the most vulnerable," Bishop Thomas said. "I look forward to opening our Vigil with Holy Mass together with many other bishops, hundreds of priests, consecrated religious, seminarians, and many thousands of pilgrims."
The Jan. 23 Mass opening the vigil will be celebrated in the basilica's Great Upper Church from 5-7 p.m., with Bishop Thomas as the principal celebrant and homilist. A Eucharistic procession and the National Holy Hour for Life will follow the Mass. The vigil's closing Mass Jan. 24 will be celebrated by Bishop Robert J. Brennan of Brooklyn, New York.
The event will be broadcast on Catholic networks and livestreamed on the basilica's website at www.nationalshrine.org/mass. More information about the schedule can be found on the USCCB's website, www.usccb.org, and more information about on-site attendance at the basilica is at its website.
On Jan. 22, the Catholic Church in the U.S. marks the annual Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children. Since 2013, the U.S. Catholic bishops have also invited the faithful to join in the 9 Days for Life novena ahead of the day of prayer, with the goal of ending abortion. This year's novena began Jan. 16.
The General Instruction of the Roman Missal describes Jan. 22 as a time to pray "for the full restoration of the legal guarantee of the right to life" and to undertake "penance for violations to the dignity of the human person committed through acts of abortion."
