James and Samantha are parishioners here, students at Nolan Catholic HS and (importantly on the day I met them) alumni of Holy Trinity Catholic School. Almost two-hundred kids there, from pre-kindergarten through 8th grade sat attentively the other day in the multi-purpose room hearing about the adventure James and Sam had at the March for Life in Washington, D.C. Before the assembly began, James and Sam were discussing how they would refer to the issue of abortion. “So many of these kids are so little, you know?” said Sam, not wanting to alarm them if they didn’t know what abortion is. They decided to say the Pro-Life cause is about “saving babies.” As only teenagers can, their natural exuberance and infectious sense of fun enlivened and opened up their young audience.

Sam kicked off the talk asking the kids if they knew who Tim Tiebow is; several shouted, “yes, sure.” She then recounted how Mrs Pamela Tiebow, Tim’s mother, was a speaker at the Pro-Life Bishop’s Banquet and Mrs Tiebow’s strongly resisting doctors’ advice when she was pregnant that she should not have this baby because it was “going to have trouble,” and “to abort Tim” “’No way,’ said Tim’s mom, ‘this is my baby!’” An inspired way to introduce the topic to young kids; from there, they were in the palm of Sam’s hand. Sam’s facility with engaging her audience rivals that of show hosts like Queen Latifah and Ellen Degeneres. Her and James’ nervousness and qualms about talking to these younger kids were gone. James charged them up with how cool the Pro-Life Boot Camp was. As more and more people gathered in Washington, you could tell who was there to march “because they were carrying signs on the Metro.” James’ and Sam’s charism was bringing the Pro-Life message to the kids in that big room. When you are in elementary grades, it seems as though there is no one as     fascinating, knowledgeable or “cool” as a teenager – especially one who was sitting on that same floor a few years before!

Telling the story of one of their young Pro-Life cohorts who not only went to Washington, according to James, but “went to Rome, Italy, which is where the Pope is; and where religion is a big part of life – priests and nuns everywhere… And there are catacombs, really dark and scary. You get to sit in the crypts and stuff which is cool.” The kids on the floor were enthralled.

Both James and Sam were having a great time recounting the many things the younger kids could only imagine – snow (although most have seen it now, some had not on that day, January 31) and how cold walking the March really was; the Washington Metro system, the half-million people gathered and marching for life (despite the terrible cold); visiting national monuments; attending the Pro-Life Vigil Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception; attending the events meant for young people: the Youth Rally and Mass for Life at two different venues – the Verizon Center and the DC Armory.

There was lots of laughter that day at Holy Trinity, lots of fun, and moving moments, too, of reports of people met who had “been through it.” When asked if he would return next year, James said, “Maybe, yes” and Sam, who hopes to attend Catholic University of America in D.C. would ride the Metro to get there, “Easy.”

These two terrific young people, and hundreds of thousands like them, are following Pope Francis’ exhortation to “go out, go out” and get out of their comfort zones.  Examples for all of us.

Next week, we will meet another young evangelizing Catholic on this page.

What Does Pope Francis Say?

“Go out. Go out and share your testimony, go out and interact with your brothers, go out and share, go out and ask. Become the Word in body as well as spirit.”

What Does the Bible Say?

“Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you…’”

— Jeremiah 1:4-5

Evangelizing Challenge This Week
Ask someone in your family or a Catholic friend how they live out their faith in body as well as spirit or how they would like to do that.