Mega-Shield Brings Over 125 Students to Their Knees at the Abortuary
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Under the title “Shield of Roses,” a group of Christendom students travels to Washington, DC, to peacefully protest abortion by praying outside an abortion mill each Saturday, after attending 7am Mass on campus. This tradition was established at Christendom from the very beginning and continues up to this day. According to Sophomore Paul Wilson, the current president of Shield of Roses, normally about 25-50 students give up their Saturday mornings each week to defend life through their witness and prayer at the abortion mill, operated by Planned Parenthood, located centrally in Washington, DC, on 16th St. and L. More than 125 Christendom students participated in the prayerful efforts of the Shield of Roses on November 17. Extra effort and high attendance for the event, dubbed the Mega-Shield, generally takes place once a semester, although the last time this many students took part was in 2004. “Not everyone can give up their Saturday morning each week to protest the horror of abortion,” Wilson says. “We are students, after all, that’s our vocation at the moment,
and that means we have papers, tests, and lots of homework – and Saturday mornings are primetime for these types of activities. But encouraging a large portion of our student body to attend a miniature ‘March for Life’ once a semester is good for everyone because it helps us see the ‘real’ faces of abortion – the pro-choice escorts, the women entering the building, and even the people on the street who yell things from their cars as they drive by – and this helps us to pray harder for the babies, the women, the doctors, and the nation. And I think that’s a good thing.”
Christendom’s motto, “To restore all things in Christ,” is more than just a saying for the students. It is their mission and their way of life. Through the rigorous moral and academic education that they receive at Christendom, the students are well prepared to enter society and the workforce as “Soldiers for Christ,” dedicated to the restoration of all of Christendom.
“Christendom students never cease to amaze me,” says Admissions Director and Shield of Roses Moderator Tom McFadden, who took part in Mega-Shield with the students. “I spend my days informing interested students and their parents of the merits of Christendom College,” says McFadden. “When the students get excited about saving the lives of the unborn and encourage almost 35% of the Front Royal campus students to travel the hour and a half to DC to pray many Rosaries and the Divine Mercy Chaplet in front of an abortuary, my job gets easier. These actions speak for themselves.”
John Killackey kneels holding an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe as the escorts look on.
Ali Schuberg and Micah Willard participated in Mega-Shield on November 17.
The student-led group, Shield of Roses, organized Mega-Shield on November 17, which attracted over 125 students who traveled to Washington, DC, to pray in front of a Planned Parenthood abortuary.
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