PICAYUNE – Frigid weather did not deter nearly 600 people from gathering at Jack Read Park on Jan. 30 to promote the cause of life.

St. Charles Borromeo and several churches joined their hearts, hands and voices to sponsor the city’s first-ever Pro-Life Rally.

St. Charles Borromeo pastor Father Mike Snyder set the tone for the rally by giving thanks to God for all babies and their mothers.

“Without mommas, we wouldn’t be here,” Father Snyder said.

Father Snyder reminded the “grassroots gathering” of the National March for Life, which was held a week earlier in Washington, D.C.

“We marched in Washington for the Right to Life, remembering the unborn that have no one to speak for them but you and I,” he said. “That’s why we’re here. We’re gathering together all of us who are Christians and have a common baptism and we remember that our Father in heaven loves us and loves life. Without him we would not have life.”

Father Snyder said the people in Picayune and the surrounding area are known for having “a deep civic and religious conviction.”

“The sign (coming into the city) says ‘Jesus is Lord over Picayune’. This is a great indication to anyone entering the city of who we are,” he said. “But whether you think the right to life is a religious and moral issue, which it is, or just a human issue - because a human society that does not give life to its own people will end up annihilating itself – you have to say that human life is our most precious and vulnerable beginning. So who will defend it if not you and I?”

Father Snyder pointed out to the crowds that the mainstream media gave miniscule coverage to the national march.

“To bring the message that over 300,000 people marched on Washington, we are having a grassroots march ourselves to bring that message here,” he said.

“If every small community were to do that, people would begin to see how many people are really pro-life. That’s the way to do it. We start from the bottom. That’s the way they did it 37 years in Washington D.C. when about 25,000 people gathered for the first Right to Life March and now it’s over 300,000. So, our country is predominantly pro-lifer and that’s the message that needs to be spoken. We need to witness and we need to tell others. When this message gets out, people will surely be converted.”

Father Snyder, who was ordained in 1997, shared his own conversion story.

“Back when I was fresh out of college, a young girl came to me who was 16 years-old who had her right-to-live and had her emancipation, so she was a legal citizen. “She said, ‘I’m going to have an abortion. What do you think?’ Being a Catholic Christian, I didn’t have any problem with it. I had never heard that abortion was against the teachings of the Church. I didn’t hear it preached. I didn’t hear people talking about it. This was an unspoken issue. So I said, ‘Fine, you’re 16 years-old. You have no right to have a baby.’ You can’t raise a child.’ She had already had two abortions. She was a prostitute and I was a do-gooder trying to help someone. I thought I was doing good. How I regret not speaking up for that child.”

Later, when he lived in New Orleans, a friend came to Father Snyder lamenting that her boyfriend would not pay for her abortion.

“I said, ‘Well, that’s sad. You have the right to choose.’ I had then not heard about the right to life because it wasn’t in the media, it wasn’t in the mainstream and it wasn’t at the grassroots level that I could see. So I ignored it and passed it by,” he said.

“I regret twice not standing up for life, but if no one tells us, no one witnesses to us, no one is there to change our hearts, then who will do it? Who will speak up for the unborn if not you and me?”

In addition to ministers from neighboring churches of various denominations, other speakers at the rally included United States Senator Roger Wicker and Father Scott Daniels, O.P., a representative of Priests for Life, who applauded the rally’s organizers for drawing attention to the sanctity of life.

“There are many things to be said on this issue of life and what I have discovered since I’ve become a member of Priests for Life is this issue, although it touches us most intimately, the attention given to it is not adequate,” said Father Daniels.

“We have to remember that all of us share a common human nature. No one of us is any more human then the other. So, when one baby is aborted, it has a negative effect on all of us.

Likening the pro-life struggle to the next Civil Rights Movement, Father Daniels said, “Our civilization is in great danger and it will collapse if this is not stopped.”