By Christina Leslie | Staff Writer

Carolyn Norbut, administrative assistant in the diocesan Office of Worship, is no stranger to the annual March for Life in Washington, having travelled via bus seven times in the past. But this January, Norbut decided to extend her customary day-long trip to the march to more fully participate in the many activities surrounding the pro-life movement’s seminal event. Norbut and Kimberly Connolly, youth minister in St. Anselm Parish, Wayside, journeyed by car to arrive in Washington the evening before the march and extended their visit into the following day to partake in a modern-day pilgrimage of faith. 

Norbut’s pilgrimage in Washington began early Jan. 22 as she, Connelly and roughly 125 others assembled in Washington’s East Potomac Park for the March for Life 5K Run/Walk sponsored by the National LIFE Runners Team and the Vitae Foundation. Participants clad in red t-shirts urging others to “Keep Calm and March for Life” ran and strolled along the 3.1 mile route through the park bordering the Potomac River.

“It was awesome,” said Norbut, a member of St. Benedict Parish, Holmdel. “It was the very first event of the day with an 8 a.m. kick-off time. We began with a prayer, then ran through East Potomac Park. Since it was along the water, it was bitter.”

Norbut encountered many faithful and fleet of foot from across the country. “I met people from Massachusetts, Texas, Florida and California,” she said. “There was a nice representation of people: old, young and women with their infants in strollers.”

The veteran pilgrim and novice runner appreciated the opportunity to show her respect for life during the event which proved more contemplative than competitive. “[The 5K] gave us the opportunity to pray along the way during the run,” Norbut said. “It helped us remember why we were there and run through the pain.”

After a quick respite, Norbut made her way to the National Mall for the day’s main event: the March for Life up Constitution Avenue. She was gratified that she had plenty of company in the streets of Washington.

“It was my eighth time [at the march] and by far the largest crowd I’ve ever seen,” Norbut marveled. “There were people as far as the eye can see. When you stood at the bottom of Capitol Hill, there was a mass of people who had climbed before you, and when you got to the top, you saw all the people that were yet to climb.

“At the top of the hill, I waited over an hour to find my friend, it was so wild,” she continued. “The procession took such a long time. Two and a half hours later they were still coming. It was so great to see the representation from our diocese,” Norbut said, including a group of seminarians of the Diocese she encountered along the march.

That evening, Norbut aside the cold-weather gear and slipped into something more formal for the conclusion of the 2015 March for Life activities: the 33rd annual Rose Dinner in the grand ballroom of the Renaissance Washington D.C. Downtown Hotel.  

“The dinner was a beautiful witness of the fact the right to life movement is not just a Catholic event,” Norbut asserted about the evening of faith-filled witness, speakers and awards to youth active in the pro-life cause. “There were people of so many denominations there,” she continued. “At my table alone, there were Catholics and Protestants and a Jewish engineer from Chicago.”

The ecumenical event featured prayer from Metropolitan Tikhon, Archbishop of Washington Metropolitan of all America and Canada Orthodox Church in America; a benediction by Dr. Russell D. Moore, president, Southern Baptist ethic and religious liberty commission, and remarks by Jeanne Monahan-Mancini, president, March for Life education and defense fund.

Carl A. Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, delivered the evening’s keynote address. He informed the crowd that the Knights’ Ultrasound Initiative, a campaign to finance ultrasound machine donations to pro-life clinics around the nation, had just marked their 500th donation, and shared anecdotes of the lives saved when women changed their minds on abortion once they viewed pictures of their children growing within them.

The next morning, Norbut completed her pilgrimage with a visit to the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle and the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, the largest Roman Catholic church in the U.S. and North America, and one of the 10 largest churches in the world.

Norbut summed up her three-day journey of faith to Washington simply. “I loved it,” she said with a smile. “It was phenomenal.”