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| 40 Days for Life co-founder Shawn Carney meets with attendees and signs copies of the book 40 Days for Life at a recent kickoff event at the Bishop O’Connor Center in Madison. Carney was involved with the first 40 Days vigil in 2004. (Catholic Herald photo/Kevin Wondrash) |
MADISON — From now until Sunday, Nov. 2, for 24 hours a day, at least two people at a time will be praying for an end to abortion in Madison.
The annual 40 Days for Life campaign kicked off on Wednesday, Sept. 24. The campaign has a vision to access God’s power through prayer, fasting, and peaceful vigil to end abortion.
People in shifts are taking turns praying outside the Planned Parenthood clinic on Madison’s east side.
This is the eighth straight year the campaign is taking place in Madison. Similar campaigns are happening all over the country and the world.
Kickoff event
The kickoff event was held at the Bishop O’Connor Center in Madison.
Gwen Finnegan, director of Vigil for Life — the Madison area organization that puts on 40 Days for Life locally — welcomed everyone.
With a “thanks be to God,” she was also happy to announce that “a young mother and her baby were saved from abortion” the day before. This was met with loud and exuberant applause.
Next, Steve Karlen, North American outreach director for the national 40 Days for Life campaign and Madison area resident, spoke on some of his travels across the country and world.
Karlen described 40 Days for Life’s progress over the past several years: almost 9,000 babies saved from abortion, 56 abortion centers closed, and more than 100 former abortion workers “had a conversation” and left the industry.
For the achievements and work that needs to be done in Madison and around the world, he quoted John’s gospel, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
During the vigil, he encouraged everyone to “stretch” themselves and take one or two more hours than they’re comfortable with praying on the sidewalk and also to bring two or three people along to the site that had never been there before.
40 Days co-founder speaks
Karlen introduced the main speaker of the evening, Shawn Carney. Carney was a co-founder of 40 Days for Life when it first started in Texas 10 years ago.
Carney spoke as a rallying cry to those who will be out on the sidewalks for 40 Days for Life.
“So much has been done in the state to save the unborn,” Carney said. He called Wisconsin an example to the rest of the country.
“We need that in our nation,” he said. “We can’t control what goes on in Washington, D.C., but we can control what goes on outside a Planned Parenthood abortion facility. We are not helpless.”
Carney called 40 Days for Life a “simple invitation to do the most basic thing we can do, which is to pray, to fast and sacrifice for those who are losing their lives, and to visibly and physically show up to the places where these abortions actually take place.”
He added, “40 Days for Life has proven one thing — it’s that people respond to the vigil.” Carney said those responses may be anger, indifference, or joy, but people respond. “There is nothing to respond to when no one is out there,” he said.
After Carney’s talk, Vigil for Life workers and volunteers were on hand to help people sign up for hours during 40 Days for Life.
More volunteers are needed to help cover the vigil hours. To sign up or for more information, visit www.vigilforlife.org or call Gwen Finnegan at 608-393-8545.