Dozens take to the streets of Biloxi for third annual March for Life

BILOXI, MS (WLOX) - For more than four decades, the congregation at Nativity BVM in Biloxi has been holding an annual celebration of life.

After the 41st annual Rosary Rally on Sunday, dozens joined together to march toward the Biloxi Lighthouse in a March for Life.

Local youth members gathered before the march, leading the congregation in prayer.

“The Rosary Rally, we pray for life and pray especially for our country, that we may respect life from conception until natural death,” said Bishop Louis Kihneman.

Following the service, dozens filed out of the church and onto Howard Avenue, marching toward the Biloxi Lighthouse.

“For us as Catholics, being pro-life is not just a matter of being anti-abortion,” said assistant youth director Paul Blanchard. “It’s a celebration of all life in general.”

Blanchard was happy to see so many young people advancing the message of life.

“It’s just really great to see young people just not letting an idea that the world throws at them just swallow them up,” Blanchard said. "Just really take a step back and examine what truths are out there. To me, it just kind of warms my heart to see them take a stand and to be here and participate in this. "

Young people like Gulfport High student Thomas Healy spent Sunday at the event.

“Life is such an amazing thing and a lot of people are just not going on with life, and we think that life is so pure and so precious that life counts every step,” Healy said.

Bishop Kihneman said it’s important for the youth to continue the message that life is important.

“It really is important because they are the generation of life, and we are very grateful that we have so many youth that have joined us in the march and in the mass and the rosary,” Kihneman said.

Following a prayer at the lighthouse, the group marched back to the cathedral.

This year’s rally comes a week after the diocese sent 338 people to Washington D.C. for the National Walk for Life.

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