Yesterday afternoon we in Atlanta standing on the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and Capitol Avenue, just as we do every year at about this time.
Nicholas and some of his friends were holding signs and waving at passing cars.
Other friends were holding signs for the Catholics across the street to let them know that the Catholic Campaign for Human Development is NOT something we should be contributing to if we are interested in the sanctity of life, and that the U.S. Catholic Bishops do contribute to this.
Thousands of us were waiting for the Silent March for Life to begin.

I really wish I had taken some better photos to show just how monstrous the crowd was, and is every year. It really is amazing! And unfortunately I got the confederate flag being waved by one wacky guy in my picture. He was the only one with a flag, but others had signs urging an end to abortion.
Messages included Men Regret the Loss of Fatherhood, and Abortion Hurts Women, and one homemade sign with a picture of a baby girl and the words What about her rights? followed by an arrow pointing to her.
Suddenly we saw a man walking through our midst arguing with some of the sign holders regarding the existence of God. It is all a myth, he said. He was being very civil, and I have a feeling he was really searching for God, so we played along.
When I asked him how he thought the universe came into existence, he said that he didn't know for sure, but it was not created by God. How could all of this come about by accident, I asked. Nature was his answer. So you think that all of this complex universe with complex beings just came about by accident? It is possible, he agreed.
I asked him if he though that a highly sophisticated computer with all kinds of super programs could just come into existence on its own or by accident. No, he laughed. "It needs people like me to program it and tell it what to do." Ah, so a computer can't be an accident, but a human being can.
Many other people were standing around asking this guy questions and arguing with him as well. Our friend Bob came forth and offered the explanation of a scientist because this guy was saying that he followed reason and logic. Bob got him to agree that the universe was created either by something, nothing or something that is neither something or nothing. And since he had never seen nothing create anything, it the creator must be something. Because of the massiveness of the universe, the Creator must be massive.
This guy didn't really go for this either, because he wasn't really looking for logic as he said. In fact, he tried to skirt the subject at this point and go on to calling the Bible a work of historical fiction. Some people argued on this, but I stepped out. There is no way you can convince a nonbeliever in the validity of the Bible without going through several steps. So...
Next we moved on to abortion. He said that a fetus is nothing more than a mass of cells, which is obviously ludicrous considering the ultrasound technology we have today. He said that if you take an embryo out of the mother's body and put it on a plate it would not survive. Thus, he said, it isn't human and does not have a soul.
I said that if I dropped him off alone in the middle of a dessert with no food, water or transportation that he wouldn't be able to survive. He claimed to be self-sufficient and able to find his own food, so I let that slide. I reminded him that many people aren't self-sufficient and many would and have died in this situation. He agreed.
So then those people who died weren't human by his definition, right? No he argued. Well, that was his definition, but apparently he doesn't agree with it. Hmm.. By this time, I had had enough of this guy. I was ready to move on....
To the Silent March for Life. The thousands of folks standing in front of the Georgia State Capitol began the 1 mile march through the streets of Atlanta. We went past Five Points, Woodruff Park and through part of the campus of Georgia State University and back to the Capitol. We were very quiet for such a large crowd, and people everywhere came out of their office buildings and classrooms to watch us. Our boys and their friend waved at the people sitting in the park, and I was pleased to see people smiling back.
It was a very fun day, which began in the morning with a Rosary and then the Mass for the Unborn with Archbishop Gregory and Bishop Zarama and a dozen or so other priests. Of course, we can't wait for the day when such a protest will be no longer necessary.