Thousands of students and faculty from Catholic colleges and universities will March for Life and call on new President Barack Obama to reject abortion on Thursday, January 22, in Washington, D.C.

This witness, according to The Cardinal Newman Society (CNS), underscores the important contribution being made by many faithful Catholic colleges and universities to the pro-life movement.

“We are heartened by the Catholic college officials, faculty and students who are standing up in defense of innocent human life, an important way of living out their Catholic identity,” said Joseph A. Esposito, editor of The Newman Guide to Choosing a Catholic College and director of CNS’s Center for the Study of Catholic Higher Education. “The enthusiasm of thousands of students, administrators and faculty for the March for Life and other pro-life activities gives us renewed optimism that the moral crime of abortion will eventually end.”

Esposito noted that all 21 of the colleges recommended in The Newman Guide are committed to supporting the pro-life movement. Many of them have had a significant presence at the March for Life, a national tradition begun in 1974, one year after the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide.

Few have been as engaged as Christendom College, which has participated every year and will once again bus all of its students to Washington, D.C., on Thursday. For the third time and the first time since 1998, the college will lead the March with its banner.

The entire student body of Magdalen College in Warner, N.H., will travel about 500 miles to the March for the second consecutive year. Students solicited donations to support their trip.

As with many other student groups, Magdalen students will be staying with local host families. Repeating last year’s hospitality, parishioners from Jesus the Divine Word parish in Huntingtown, Md., about a half-hour from the nation’s capital, will be accommodating the 60 students.

Magdalen president Jeffrey J. Karls, who will accompany the group, explained his college’s commitment: “We mourn the intentional killing of millions of innocent babies and the suffering of pregnant mothers from these killings, and we wish to show America our determination to defend life, and our unequivocal endorsement of the Culture of Life.”

Undoubtedly, the most extensive hospitality for the March for Life takes place through The Catholic University of America, where Pope Benedict XVI spoke to educators last April. Hundreds of students are housed at the campus’ DuFour Center and at the adjacent Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

Nearly 200 students from the bishops’ university volunteer to assist this effort and serve as ushers at the pro-life Masses, especially the National Prayer Vigil for Life which attracts thousands of clerics, students and other pro-lifers on Jan. 21.

“I have seen the hundreds of students who come to the Vigil and then stay on to sleep overnight in the crypt of the Shrine,” Esposito said. “It is truly an awesome experience to see this outpouring of support from young people, and it makes you thankful for the high schools and colleges which help nurture this prayerful dedication.”

Many other Catholic colleges participate in the March for Life. About 750 students come from Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, nearly half of them arriving by bus. Campus Students for Life vice president Emily Espinola said, “Franciscan University is very pro-life, and since the mission of the school is education, our main focus on campus is educating students about the pro-life movement and how they can be pro-life.”

She noted that the group’s ongoing activities include prayer ministry outside clinics four days a week, training sidewalk counselors, hosting prominent speakers and educational talks on campus, and connecting with students from other colleges to train them as pro-life leaders in their communities. Once a year, a coffeehouse is held to raise money for the Assistance in Motherhood Pregnancy Help Center in Steubenville.

Benedictine College in Kansas this year celebrated its 150^th anniversary with a unique “150 Day March for Life,” which extends from September 2008 to slightly beyond the Washington March. Ten percent of the student body will travel 20 hours to Washington, a figure which is 60 percent higher than last year and reflects a waiting list.

Benedictine College students not traveling east will participate in a 24-hour prayer vigil at St. Benedict’s Abbey Church. Campus minister Father Brendan Rolling, O.S.B., notes that the Ravens Respect Life is the second largest student organization on campus.

Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, Md., will be sending two busloads of students to the March for Life, and all the seminarians from its seminary will participate. Beth Walsh, president of the Mount Students for Life, added, “We pray a weekly Rosary at an on-campus memorial for the unborn, and we pray at a local abortion mill on Saturdays.”

Belmont Abbey College of North Carolina will be represented at the March by more than 100 students, college president Bill Thierfelder and other faculty and staff. College representatives also participated in a pro-life march in Charlotte on Jan. 16.

Students at Belmont Abbey also take part in an annual pro-vigil on campus each fall at which 400 luminarias are placed in honor of abortion victims. More than 80 students volunteered at a fundraising banquet to benefit a proposed on-campus home for pregnant women known as Room at The Inn.

Pro-life events also are taking place at other major cities around the country, and Catholic college students are there, too. One is the Walk for Life in San Francisco on Jan. 24, which draws about two-thirds of the student body from Thomas Aquinas College, 400 miles away in Santa Paula.

“The pro-life dedication of these and other Catholic colleges is part of the ‘springtime’ of spiritual revival in Catholic higher education,” Esposito said. “We are blessed to have this profound witness intensifying as we engage a disturbingly hostile culture.”