SPRINGFIELD — During his homily at the Mass for Illinois March for Life participants at Sangamon Auditorium on the campus of the University of Illinois on April 17, Joliet Bishop Ronald Hicks asked what seemed like a simple question: “Where do you live?”

One by one, Bishop Hicks invited people from the various dioceses in Illinois to raise their hands. When he announced Peoria’s name, he was impressed with the hands that went up. “Nice turnout . . . Bishop Tylka.”

Bishop Hicks then posed a couple of “provocative questions” for the primarily student audience. “Are those of you who live in one diocese better than those who live in another diocese?,” and, “Do the people who live in the United States have more value . . . than people who live in Mexico, or Italy, or El Salvador?”

“Of course not,” he said, adding that by the same token, “One’s value should not depend on whether you live inside the womb, or outside the womb.”

Among the students in the auditorium was Joshua Pierce, a freshman at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Pierce took Bishop Hicks’ words to heart. “I’ve been using a wheelchair my whole entire life,” he said. “I feel like everyone can still be treated as the same value.” He said it was his first pro-life event. One sensed it would not be his last.

Later, at the Illinois State Capitol building rally hosted by March for Life and Illinois Right to Life, thousands cheered as speakers including host Bishop John Paprocki of Springfield focused on the need to keep up the fight in the wake of Roe v. Wade being overturned.

Then, shortly after 1 p.m. the march began. In the front flank was Joshua Pierce, with his University of Illinois classmates carrying yellow umbrellas supplied by the student pro-life organization weDignify.

LOVE THEM BOTH

Anna Kinskey, weDignify’s executive director, described the yellow umbrellas as a symbolic response to the “rainstorm” of abortion and the culture of death. “We hold our yellow umbrellas as a sign of joy to protect both mother and child, because we care for them both.”

Among the other schools from the Diocese of Peoria participating in the March for Life were: Central Catholic High School, Bloomington; The High School of St. Thomas More and Holy Cross School, Champaign; Peoria Notre Dame High School, Peoria; Alleman High School, Rock Island; Schlarman Academy, Danville; and Marquette Academy, Ottawa.

Father Nic Wilson, Marquette Academy chaplain, who accompanied that school’s contingent, said a student’s comment crystalized for him how being pro-life is about recognizing and remembering the dignity and worth of others. “One freshmen student said that seeing Father (Corey) Krengiel was a highlight of the day for him.”

Father Krengiel, now pastor of St. Mary of the Woods in Princeville, was last assigned to Ottawa  when the student was in fourth grade, and the student “was so impressed and filled with joy that Father Krengiel recognized and remembered him.”

Father Wilson added, “This recognizing and remembering seems to be very fitting with the pro-life mentality, where the dignity of mothers and children must always be held up in our memories and recognized in our legal systems.”