PHOTOS: Hundreds of Catholics join Eucharistic procession to Pittsburgh Planned Parenthood

PITTSBURGH (LifeSiteNews) —Over 150 Catholics processed with the Blessed Sacrament to a local Planned Parenthood after an evening Mass to kick off 40 Days for Life Pittsburgh’s Lenten campaign Tuesday night.

The February 17 Eucharistic procession, led by Pittsburgh Auxiliary Bishop William Waltersheid, who also celebrated the preceding Mass at Epiphany Catholic Church, saw numerous Catholics, including many young people, process through the streets of Pittsburgh for about half a mile to the local Planned Parenthood, chanting the litany of the saints and praying the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary along the way. Bishop Waltersheid then offered Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament in front of the abortuary.

The director of 40 Days for Life Pittsburgh and multiple attendees emphasized to LifeSiteNews the importance of bringing the light of Christ to a wicked place like Planned Parenthood to cast out the demons present there.

During his homily, Waltersheid highlighted the importance of 40 Days for Life’s work and called on the faithful to turn to Our Lady and Our Lord in prayer to end abortion, recalling how, according to St. Faustina’s diary, one prayer can save an entire nation.

“If we step up and do our part, through the intercession of our Blessed Mother and through the protecting hand of Jesus, we can make a tremendous difference in the world,” the bishop said. “In St. Faustina’s diary, there is a conversation between her and Jesus where He says to St. Faustina, ‘If it were not for you and your prayers, Poland would have been annihilated during the Second World War.'”

Waltersheid noted how remarkable it is that one person’s prayers could save a nation and urged the faithful to remember this and resist the devil’s temptation that our prayers and advocacy will never end the evil of abortion.

“(W)hen we look at the difficulties that we face, and we hear that voice in the back of our head saying, ‘You’re never going to be able to make a difference,'” he said.

READ: Over 3,000 join Eucharistic procession through the streets of New York

The bishop continued:

Those dark moments of our lives, when we think, ‘No matter what I do, (our culture is) not going to change.’ Well, you know whose voice that is, it’s the enemy, that old serpent who comes slithering into our lives and into our society and our culture. Who says, ‘You know it’s a different time, you’ve got to look at things in a different way. And what you’re willing to do isn’t going to make a difference anyway.’ It is a lie! Nothing can be further from the truth. And then you hear that voice that says to us, ‘In the end, My Immaculate Heart will triumph.

Waltersheid further underscored that the faithful must rely on Our Blessed Mother in the battle for the unborn.

“Each tiny child conceived in their mother’s womb has the right to be born and to live his or her life according to God’s plan,” he said.

“And the woman who bore Christ into the world is the one who walks with us, dear brothers and sisters, and says to us ‘I will be your protector, I will be your advocate, I will be the one who always reminds you to do whatever He tells you to do, I will be the mother who shows the way to eternal life, I will be your mother because He gave you to me as He hung on the cross … ‘ She looks at us this evening with tremendous love and will guide us on our way; there is no doubt about that,” he added.

Nikki Bruni, the director of 40 Days for Life Pittsburgh, told LifeSite that the organization’s quarterly Eucharistic processions to Planned Parenthood are important to cast out the demons there, and highlighted how the abortion giant has been forced to temporarily close since they began these processions in 2020.

“We want to cast out the demons, we want to defeat Satan. And so we want to bring Jesus and the Eucharist there,” she said. “Twenty-four times we’ve brought Jesus (to the abortuary) and now Planned Parenthood is faltering. They’ve announced they’re (temporarily) closing their, some of their supposedly ‘health clinics … ‘ So I think they’re faltering.”

READ: More than 26,000 babies have been saved by 40 Days for Life: report

“We’re going to keep bringing Jesus there as long as we’ve got our good bishop who does that,” she added.

Bruni stressed the importance of Catholics fasting, especially as we begin the Lenten season, and making acts of reparation for the end of abortion.

“It’s good for Catholics, especially during the season of Lent, to try to fast however they can … and to do it intentionally, in reparation for our sins and the sin of abortion,” she said.

“I think doing acts of reparation, such as going to Planned Parenthood to pray, in the cold and all that suffering entails, and offering that up too,” she added. “We can even offer ourselves as a victim soul, for God to have mercy on us and give us his grace and hopefully remove this scourge.”

Andrew McCauley, director of Sidewalk Advocates for Life Pittsburgh, emphasized to LifeSite the importance of witnessing against abortion, one of the greatest plagues on modern society.

“Abortion is one of the most grave evils that society is plagued with, and it’s an offense to God that needs to be righted,” he said.

Jonah Hanlon, a Catholic in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, told LifeSite that it’s important to bear witness to abortion, to protect the most vulnerable people, unborn children.

“The most vulnerable people on Earth are being sacrificed to Molech. It would be a moral tragedy if Catholic Christians were not going into battle against this,” he said.