Students will gather at state capitol in defense of life

 

A 2017 photo of students from Bishop Garriga Middle Preparatory School marching on the grounds of the state capitol.

Archived photo
 

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Michelle Mirabal’s two sons will attend their second Texas Rally For Life in on Saturday, Jan. 25, at the State Capitol in Austin. She could not be more proud of their commitment to defend human life, from conception to natural death. 

The Mirabal boys will join several hundred of the faithful representing the Diocese of Corpus Christi and thousands from across Texas. The Texas Alliance for Life, the rally’s organizer, points out that the goal of the mass meeting is to show elected officials that Texas is pro-life. 

The rally will be held on the 47th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Roe v. Wade, which made abortion legal throughout all nine months of pregnancy. Legal abortion in the United States has claimed the lives of more than 60 million unborn children and has wounded countless men and women.

“I have two very different boys on the exterior, but on the interior, they’re the same: they both value and respect life,” Mirabal said of her sons, Christian, who is a sophomore at St. John Paul II High School and Giancarlo, who is an eighth-grader at Bishop Garriga Middle Preparatory School.

“I think it’s important that boys attend the Texas Rally For Life because boys will become men who lead their household,” she said. “They lead their wife and children by the values they instill and the examples they set.” 

Ben Nye, a theology teacher at St. John Paul II High School, is helping organize the school’s participation in the 2020 Texas Rally For Life and said it is important to participate because it teaches the students how to put their faith into action.

“We are making a sacrifice, leaving on a chartered bus at 5 a.m. on a Saturday morning, traveling to Austin and trying to do something about this horrific travesty going on in our society today,” he said. “We are speaking out for those with no voice.”

Nye said he also teaches his students lessons in civics and advocacy on the bus trip.

“We try and encourage the students to be inspired to do more and make a difference for others. When they see thousands of young people who have the same ideals, it makes a significant impression on them,” he said. “We have some alumni from our school who created a pro-life group on their campus at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio. It was partly inspired by their time here at St. John Paul II High School and their participation in the previous Rally For Life events.”

This year marks the school’s tenth year participating in the Rally For Life. In the first year, the school took 60 students. For the 2020 event, they plan to take at least 150.

Beth Nguyen, director of the Office of Laity, Family, and Life for the Diocese of Corpus Christi, said the life lessons learned by students participating are immeasurable.

“Whenever they have an opportunity to travel outside of their community, students learn that the world is a bigger place than they often experience and that there are good people everywhere who care passionately about the same things they care about,” she said. “Pro-life rallies don’t often get the media coverage they deserve, so a trip like this allows students to see history in the making that is not filtered through the lens of the popular media. It’s also inspiring to see people from all across the state and from many different faith traditions that all believe in the sacredness of human life.”

The Diocese of Corpus Christi is coordinating buses to leave from several different locations for the 2020 Texas Rally For Life in Austin, including St. John Paul II High School in Corpus Christi, Kingsville, and Alice. Details and registration are available at diocesecc.org/texasrallyforlife.