Bishop Daniel R. Jenky, CSC, will join hundreds of representatives from the Diocese of Peoria and tens of thousands of other participants at the national March for Life and supporting events this week in Washington, D.C.

“This year especially, I thought it was necessary to witness in Washington, D.C., to the Gospel of Life,” Bishop Jenky told The Catholic Post, noting the Jan. 22 march recalling the 36th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions legalizing abortion comes just days after President-elect Barack Obama is inaugurated.

“The election of the new president is an occasion that I believe is going to ask of the church to redouble our pro-life efforts,” he said.

The bishop will be accompanied by Father Stanley Deptula, director of the diocesan Office of Divine Worship. Prior to the march, Bishop Jenky and Father Deptula will take part in a Thursday morning youth rally and Mass at the Verizon Center sports arena, where more than 20,000 Catholic teens and young adults are expected to attend.

The rally will begin at 7:30 a.m., with a 10 a.m. Mass to be celebrated by Washington Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl. Afterwards, the bishop plans to march with about 250 high school students and some 90 college students representing the Newman Centers of the Diocese of Peoria.

A group of 32 college students from the St. Joseph Newman Foundation at Bradley University in Peoria and about a dozen from the St. Robert Bellarmine Catholic Newman Center at Illinois State University in Normal will take a single bus to the March for Life.

St. John’s Catholic Newman Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign also is chartering a bus to Washington, D.C. Forty-seven students from the U of I will be at the march, according to Megan Gober, a junior who is coordinating the trip with sophomore Mike Hamoy.

Others from the Diocese of Peoria will take a bus chartered by Central Illinois Right to Life. There are still seats available, according to Sondra McEnroe, CIRTL board member-at-large. The cost is $180 per person, which includes two meals.

The bus departs from the parking lot of Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2025 N. Kickapoo Creek Road, Peoria, at noon on Wednesday, Jan. 21. The group will leave Washington, D.C., after the march on Thursday evening and will return to Peoria on Friday morning.

For reservations call McEnroe at (309) 645-8000 or Pat Snell at (309) 370-6081.