This blog’s first article was published in November 2020, shortly after that year’s infamous election.  The article covered the first of what became many Jericho Marches.  Of course, that inaugural Jericho March was not the group’s first rodeo.  It’s practically a prerequisite of being Catholic: you are no stranger to public demonstrations of your faith.

The Washington D.C. March for Life has been referred to as “the annual Catholic family reunion.”  Having attended it many times, I can attest to the awesome experience of marching for the sacredness of life with hundreds of thousands of (mostly) Catholics.  Various parishes, schools, Knights of Columbus chapters, and lay groups from around the country are united and led by hundreds of bishops and priests within the crowds.  

40 Days for Life facilitates a regional version of this phenomenon.  In regions with good leadership from Church hierarchy and/or solid “grassroots” organization among the laity, many Catholics give public witness of their faith for weeks outside of abortion mills.  Groups like the A-Team, Students for Life, and Knights of Columbus even make regular showings outside of those 40 days.  

So when Catholic podcasters began calling for “Jericho Marches” in 2020, unsurprisingly, Catholics readily answered.  It may have been for a different cause than we were accustomed to, but part of us just enjoys being the proud universal Church perfectly equipped for public demonstrations of faith.  We all sign the cross together, pray the same prayers together, and convey the same messages at protests.

To be fair, some of us at that first Jericho March felt particularly energized by the tumult of Covid and all of its controversy that year.  That and all the other madness of 2020 inspired many to double down on public prayer as a means of resistance and as a source of consolation.  In the words of one gentlemen, “Before Covid, I would wonder during the week how my sports team would do on game day do or what weekend party I might attend.  Now I wonder where my brothers and I will be praying the rosary on Saturday.”

Clearly, there is something that draws Catholics to public prayer, and it goes beyond just the pro-life cause.  What is it that binds us in this practice and keeps us coming back to more and more public prayer rallies?


June 16th, 2023, Dodger’s Stadium

In response to the “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence”, over 6,500 Prayer Warriors assembled in protest outside of Dodger’s Stadium this past June 16th.  Last week, I attended a men’s group meeting where several in attendance provided a debriefing.  According to these attendees, approximately 90% of the protesters in attendance were Catholic.  

The testimony was overwhelmingly positive, and their were a couple valuable takeaways worth sharing.  

One was that the trolls ran scared.  Not all of them, but there was a witch on a corner casting spells who, after hearing enough prayers and catching unwelcoming glances from protesters, appeared visibly distraught and practically ran away from the event.  This is a testimony to both the power of prayer and the strength in numbers.  There was also a kid in ANTIFA like garb, complete with a mask, backpack, and a dark hood prowling about… until police officers advised him that he should leave.  Which he promptly did.

Another thing that stood out was that Protestants admitted that they were impressed by the Catholics.  The Catholics were not only strong in numbers, but they were noticeably unified.  

Catholics are built for public prayer.  We can pray rosaries and litanies and seemingly never stop.  We can do it all day if we need to.  At times, it can be awkward observing Protestants at public prayer rallies.  They say impromptu prayers which, ironically, sound pseudo-formulaic (“Father, we just ask that… in Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.”).  But after that, they don’t have a lot of material to bind them as a unified group.  A collection of them may briefly listen as one reads scripture, but even collective hymn singing is rare, and sometimes a lone Protestant will steal the show with a boisterous display on a mega-phone.  

According to the Dodgers protesters, Protestant ministers stated that they were in awe of how the Catholics all signed the cross together, recited the same prayers, sang the same hymns together, and wore the same red for the feast of the Sacred Heart.  Knowing these Protestants were both watching and were impressed, Catholic influencer, Jesse Romero, lead the crew in a “Scriptural Rosary.”  That’s an awesome way to take advantage of an opportunity and maximize evangelization.  Because of the example of these Catholics, Protestants got to witness just how Christ-focused and scripture based our prayers really are!

On a similar note, this event forced dozens of Catholic groups, who at times bicker about respective differences, to put all of that aside and rally together.  It’s disappointing to see Catholic pod-casters and bloggers sometimes fight vigorously against one another online.  But when a group of clowns came together to blaspheme the consecrated women of our Church, all those differences were checked at the door for the sake of a greater cause.  Not only is that encouraging, but it’s a phenomenon that we frankly need to experience more regularly.  

A silver lining to this event is that there will surely be more opportunities to exercise this unity and to effectively evangelize in the streets going forward.  Whatever the cause may be, we need to come out again for such occasions and replicate this kind of witness in even stronger numbers.  


Numbers and Precision

In What to Say When, authors Shawn Carney and Steve Karlen provide a good synopsis of the pro-abortion movement at this time.  Decades removed from the original “feminism” movement behind Roe v. Wade, pro-aborts are unable to effectively make the same appeals to “women’s rights” as they did in the 70’s.  Additionally, thanks to inter-uterine photography and decades of well delivered scientific and logical arguments by pro-lifers, the “No one can say when life begins” argument has fallen flat too.  

But the left has not taken these cues as signs to give up.  Instead, many among the left have doubled down on the fight, albeit without a specious “moral high-ground” to stand upon.  They have chosen to lean into fighting for fighting sake.  It’s just a war to them and they must win by whatever means necessary.  Perhaps many of them have taken things personally for so long that their emotions propel them to continue.  As to the younger ones, their rhetoric reflects none of the old messaging of “safe, legal, and rare abortions”, for today they are “shouting their abortions” on Twitter.

The authors acknowledge that, at this point, the only argument that can be used to defend abortion is “might is right.”  The characters who defend abortion at rallies often convey such an attitude.  They do not aspire to be logical, morally consistent, or fair.  Shocker, but those who defend baby murder view arguing and taking the public square as a “war.”  And they take it to a whole new level.  They believe only in “winning” in the most arcane way: they treat every venue as a material battlefield and they are only satisfied when physically controlling that field.  

This means that they are plenty happy to merely intimidate you and your group from showing up or sticking around.  They are also satisfied to make you look bad and to do you harm, even by deception.

This means that two factors are very important when coming to make public witness, even though our concept of “winning” is different than our opponent's.  For us, we consider it a victory to do our humble part in converting hearts and minds, all while giving greater glory to God.  Nevertheless, considering the mindset of our opponents, we must have strength in numbers on our side.  Our opponents typically lack moral courage.  Though we are not out to “fight” them, (despite what the rhetoric about “Domestic Violent Extremists” lies) remember that those who kick and scream to murder the most innocent and vulnerable are the kinds who are less emboldened to cause trouble when they feel smaller than you.  If you have a public event to pray at, get the invites out early and invite as many clans as you can.  

Considering our opponent’s willingness to distort and hack, it is also important to communicate our messages well.  

The pro-life community has organically developed effective and appropriate messaging for decades now.  The messages that are specifically appropriate for a pro-life rally are tried and true: women deserve better than abortion, we love the mothers and their babies, and the love of Jesus is stronger than death.  

Over the last three years, Catholics have rallied behind the pro-life cause, for election integrity, against blasphemers at a baseball game, and even against a Satanic convention.  It’s important to use well crafted messages that are specifically appropriate to the event we are at and what we stand for.  

This is something I was reminded of this past weekend at a Jericho March celebrating the one year anniversary of the Dobbs decision.  Distrusting the media, and lacking a well prepared statement to give, I asked those attending to simply answer the several “media” outlets sticking cameras in our faces, with “God bless you.”  Considering this was a pro-life cause, and that such media attention should have been expected, a statement with the classic pro-life messages mentioned above should have been prepared and delivered.  

That’s okay.  We practice these opportunities and learn for the future, always getting a little sharper each time.  Overall, the event was a beautiful experience, with grace and camaraderie abound.  While it’s great that there were no “fumbles” (no one lost their cool) we must go beyond playing not to lose.  Like a team preparing for an athletic contest, we must bring the plays effective for the specific contest we come to and execute them with grace and precision.  

Let’s keep developing and turning good experiences into greater experiences.  Forward.


Cultural

When I was growing up, there was this concept that a speaker at my youth group shared that was very compelling.  With all the negative influences from pop “culture”, Hollywood, and the music industry, my peers and I were challenged to be “counter-cultural”.  Considering that the “culture” seemed to glorify provocativeness, promiscuity, and death, with many of these themes package and delivered as products for teens, it made sense: we must counter the “culture” in it’s current form.  I suppose it was a slightly modified conception of “Restore all things in Christ”.

I now know that we should embrace the challenge to be cultural, not “counter-cultural”.  Today it should be even more obvious: the biggest enemies of humanity and the Church itself are the ones providing a counter-culture.  A society that minds the natural law, and even better, lives the ideals of Christendom in full, demonstrates the ideal form of “culture” itself.  Culture is a good.  It is the culimination of people living and working together under just codified laws and facilitating the common good together.  The rulers advance authentic human flourishing and the subjects love one another and advance what is true, good, and beautiful in a community that is clean, prosperous, and Godly.  Culture.

A “counter-culture” is what is advanced by a group whose mission is to destroy a culture.  The Vikings had a “counter-culture”.  Their economy was literally dependent, not on fair trade, innovative development in agriculture, improving architecture etc… but upon stealing the fruits of everyone else’s labor.  By sabotaging, pillaging, and plundering.  

We are up against a counter-culture today.  This was made clear to me outside of at a Planned Parenthood in Tempe, Arizona on October 30th, 2021.  There I observed a “Pro-Choice Escort” (someone who volunteers her time to make sure that women get in to have their abortions, and are not tempted away by pro-life sidewalk counselors) heckle pro-lifers while wearing a rainbow colored vest, a face mask, and purple dyed hair.  One day before Halloween, I had the profound realization that this woman was accidentally wearing a Halloween costume.  Behold, the post-modern counter-cultural Viking.   

If you are looking for a decent read right now, consider Ballad of the White Horse, an epic poem by G.K. Chesterton depicting the deeds of Alfred the Great (pictured), the Christian king of England who successfully defended the Anglo-Saxons from Viking king Guthrum and the Danes in 878 AD.  This was a book that was once more celebrated among Westerners who understood the threat of Modernism at the turn of the 19th century.  Upon recently reading of Alfred’s heroic deeds, as he defeated Guthram and then became his Godfather upon his conversion, it was clear that today we have an even greater calling to rally around the cross against gods of destruction and chaos.  We must defend our culture against the counter-cultural Post-Modernists of our time.  

Things could be worse.  You could live in an event-less, soft, and comfortable age where you wouldn’t even know how effeminate you were, choosing to just sit around drinking bud light, watching grown men throw a ball around, and watching porn.  Under Alfred, England became a stronger Christian nation because it was challenged by a counter-culture, and the Christians fought back.  Similarly, Europe was strengthened when Charlemagne was challenged by the Muslims, and he lead the Christians against them.  They accepted the threat of their age, became harder by it, and defended their culture as a united band of Christian brothers.  Because they did, it is what gave Europe and Christendom it’s very identity.

Just as Alfred the Great, Charlemagne, and other heroes of Christendom rallied chieftains from across their kingdoms, asked the Blessed Virgin Mary for her intercession, and then took the field, this is our calling today.  Wishing away our crosses will gain us nothing.  Our opponents are here, and it’s time to make the best of that reality by becoming strengthened and further developing our culture through our witness before them.  Be encouraged, you have brothers all around you who both understand the gravity of our situation and are eager to take up the rosary and march alongside you.  


Spiritual Heart Rate

A dear friend, whom I have marched next to on several occasions, recently offered an analogy that is quite appropos.  He likened the keeping of one’s spiritual health to that of maintaining physical health.  It is by no means a new analogy, but he said one thing that really stuck out; “We don’t want to be overwhelmed, but we don’t want to be too comfortable either.  We need our spiritual heart rates to be consistently up a little.  Enough to tell that we are breaking a sweat and working.”  He suggested something like a spiritual heart rate of 115.  Hey, St. Paul did once liken keeping the faith to finishing a race. (2 Timothy 4:7)

Ironically, like the old days of Gold’s Gym, it seems like the best place to get exercise (spiritual in this case) is out in public.  Yes, there will be gawkers, but unlike Muscle Beach, they aren’t there to admire displays of vanity, but rather full displays of your faith.  Go work out with your spiritual brothers in the public square and leave as a man built up stronger than you were before.  Added bonus, the scene you leave behind is holier and more grace-filled than when you arrived.  

Finally, and here’s the best part about the physical exercise analogy, the best gains are made when brothers keep each other accountable and enthusiastically carry each other from one exercise to the next.  Just like young men cheering for each other as they set new personal records at the gym or on the track, we will become our spiritual bests as we continue to push each other into the public square and beyond.  Citius, Altius, Foritus!

As a brother recently pointed out, we can’t wait for our clerics to push us into the public square.  Most bishops won’t.  At the Dodger’s stadium on the 16th, only one US bishop attended, Bishop Strickland of Tyler, Texas who is currently under Vatican investigation.  In today’s Church landscape, that’s a sign that he’s actually doing a great job.   

Considering the state of the Church Hierarchy at this time, going forward, we can’t wait for their leadership.  It’s up to us as faithful laity to defend Holy Mother Church and to do our work as her sons in the public square.  We will continue to serve as witnesses at abortion clinics, the State Capitol, and where blasphemers of the Church assemble.  We must march in fuller force and with the most efficacious prayers and messages possible.  We can and we will.  

After all, we are Catholics.  It’s what we do.  

God bless,

Gadfly