40 Days for Life to begin anti-abortion prayer effort in Salt Lake City on Ash Wednesday

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SALT LAKE CITY — 40 Days for Life, an internationally coordinated 40-day campaign to pray for an end to abortion through prayer, fasting, community outreach and peaceful vigils in front of abortion businesses, will run March 2 to April 10 this year.

In Utah, a new approach to the campaign is being proposed: Each parish in the Diocese of Salt Lake City is being invited to sign up for one hour of prayer with this intention.

“Our goal is to personally invite all churches to send delegates to peacefully gather for prayers at Planned Parenthood Metro (in Salt Lake City), the primary abortion clinic in the state of Utah, for one hour, from 11 a.m. to noon, starting on March 2 until April 10,” said Michael Dovel, a member of 40 Days for Life Utah.

The prayer effort is being organized by Dovel along with Deacon Greg Werking; Crystal Painter, director of the diocesan Office of Marriage and Family; and Catherine Stokes, president of the diocesan Respect for Life Commission.

The plan is to have Catholics praying outside the abortion clinic from 11 to noon each day of the week, but other times could be available. Already the parishes of the Cathedral of the Madeline and St. Ambrose in Salt Lake City, St. Martin de Porres in Taylorsville, St. Thomas More in Cottonwood Heights, St. Vincent de Paul in Holladay, St. John the Baptist in Draper and Blessed Sacrament in Sandy have responded to the call and have been assigned a day for the hour of prayer, Dovel said.

“To start modestly, we will fill the schedule with churches on Monday, Wednesday and Friday,” he said. When those days are filled, “we will add Tuesdays and Thursdays, followed by Saturday and Sunday.”

40 Days for Life has created a worship aid with Psalm-based pro-life prayers for people to use if they choose.

With the prayer aid, the prayer leader recites a portion of a Psalm or prayer, and the group answers “with a set response following a ‘call and response’ idea found in many Psalms,” Dovel said.

The power of prayer is effective, Painter said. “When people are outside abortion clinics praying … the numbers of abortions go down” through God’s intercession, she said. “Even people who go to those clinics, when they get to see other people really caring for them, praying for them, that opens up their hearts.”

One of the many things that she likes about the 40 Days for Life campaign is that people feel comfortable doing it, she said, while many people are uncomfortable doing sidewalk advocacy or protesting. “But it is easy for us Catholics, who are used to praying the rosary, to be there and pray for the women and men that go to those clinics.”

Painter is encouraging all the people interested in joining this effort to approach their parish prolife ministry or to contact their priest about participating.

The first 40 Days for Life campaign took place in 2007. Since then, according to the organization’s website, it has grown into a worldwide movement with a million volunteers in 607 cities across 64 nations. Because of the movement, 20,728 lives have been saved, 229 abortion workers have quit their jobs and 114 abortion centers have closed, the website states.

For information about 40 Days for Life in Utah, contact Michael Dovel at 40daysforlife.saltlakecity@gmail.com or 801-797-4497.