By Carrie McClish
Staff writer

High school-aged youth in the Oakland Diocese are invited to the first diocesan Pro-Life Boot Camp, Saturday, Aug. 29, where they will be challenged to stand up for pre-born life.

Oakland Bishop Salvatore Cordileone, a vocal leader in the pro-life movement in California, will head a group of local activists who will provide words of encouragement and guidance to the youth.

The other speakers include the Rev. Walter Hoye, a Berkeley minister recently profiled in The Voice, who was jailed earlier this year for refusing to stop counseling pregnant women outside an Oakland abortion clinic; Dolores Meehan, a co-founder of Walk for Life West Coast, which drew a record 32,000 participants in January; and Amelia Calderon a 19-year-old pro-life veteran who has been involved in an abortion ministry since she was nine.

Greta Rosenberger, faith formation director at St. Philip Neri Parish in Alameda, will speak about the dignity of the human person, and Cathy Manzo will talk about healing from an abortion.

All the speakers will help to energize the youth and encourage them to be “courageous witnesses,” said Joe Murray, diocesan coordinator of youth and young adult ministry. The basic message of the gathering is that it is “OK to be pro-life,” he said and that “we stand for defense of life from conception.”

Murray hopes the gathering will help teens talk to their peers about abortion and building a culture of life. He said the annual Walk for Life is “packed with young people” who are “starving for truth in faith. They know that the little person in the womb is a person. They really gravitate toward the message.”

However, their beliefs are challenged when they are in high school, he said. Some may feel ill-equipped to stand up for their beliefs and do it in a charitable way.

The boot camp will not only give the teens the facts about abortion, but through role-playing activities teach them “how to deal with real-life issues and challenges,” Murray said.

The event begins at 8 a.m. with continental breakfast in the parish hall at the Cathedral of Christ the Light, 2121 Harrison St. in Oakland. At 9 a.m. Bishop Cordileone will offer the opening prayer and deliver the opening address. Later he will celebrate Mass. The day concludes with a question and answer panel at 4 p.m.

The $20 registration cost includes lunch and is due by Aug. 21. Register at: www.oakdiocese.org/pastoral/events/090829prolife.htm. Joe Murray can be contacted at jmurray@oakdiocese.org or (510) 267-8389.

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