Despite the day’s frigid cold, nearly 50 people gathered in downtown Louisville to pray about human life — on the sin of racism, abolition of the death penalty, the end of abortion, the protection of conscience rights in health care and the protection of human life at its beginning.
The annual Walk for Life, held in solidarity with the national March for Life in Washington, D.C., covered 1.5 miles and included five stops for prayer.
Karl Dolson, director of the Archdiocese of Louisville’s Youth and Young Adult Office, led the walk from the Cathedral of the Assumption to stops at Jefferson Square Park, the EMW Women’s Surgical Center, the park at Hospital Curve, and the Thomas Merton Epiphany site near Fourth Street Live. While walking, participants prayed the rosary.
During the stop at the EMW Women’s Surgical Center, which was one of two places that performed abortions in Kentucky until Roe v. Wade was overturned in June, Dolson asked that they pray for “reparations for the lives that were lost (to abortion) and pray in thanksgiving for all the lives saved.”
He noted that while Roe was overturned in 2022 and abortion is no longer legal in Kentucky — though the ban is being challenged in court — it’s important to continue working toward a solution for all pro-life causes. Among them, he said, were capital punishment, racism and assisted suicide.
