Lenten 40 Days for Life: Prayers for the unborn

IC photo/Linda Petersen

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Barbara Granja, Nancy Sliwinski, Vicki Pope and Denise Maxwell pray outside the Salt Lake City Planned Parenthood Metro Center.

SALT LAKE City – Every Wednesday in Lent, Barbara Granja has made her way to downtown Salt Lake City. Rain or shine, she spends an hour praying with other Catholics outside the metro Planned Parenthood Clinic. They usually pray the rosary, a novena or a litany, she said.

It’s something Granja, the Respect for Life ministry chair in her home parish of St. Thomas More, has done every spring and fall for the past seven years. She became involved with the semi-annual 40 Days for Life vigils after hearing about them from a friend. Granja has a particular affinity for the unborn for a special reason.

“Our daughter being adopted, she realizes she could have been aborted,” Granja said. “Her birth mother made the choice for life.” In addition to daughter Jenna, 21, Granja and her husband have a son, Garrett, 24.

The goal of 40 Days for Life is to be a 40-day, non-stop prayer vigil from Ash Wednesday to Palm Sunday outside Planned Parenthood centers. The Salt Lake vigil has not yet reached the round-the-clock level. Vigil organizer James Snow said people pray during about 50 percent of the clinic’s business hours, but he hopes to be able to extend the hours in future vigils.

Catholics from the parishes of St. Thomas More, St. Ambrose, St. Jude, St. Martin de Porres and St. Catherine of Siena Newman Center are participating in the vigil this year. They join Christians of many denominations, because 40 Days for Life is not only a Catholic endeavor. At a recent vigil, Granja was joined by Nancy Sliwinski, a St. Ambrose parishioner; and Vicki Pope, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who drives from Utah County three days a week to participate in the vigil. As the Catholics in the group pray the rosary, Pope silently offers her own prayers.

Pope makes the trip so often “because the little babies can’t speak for themselves,” she said. “I have the time and I feel inspired that I need to do this.” She has been participating for two years. “This year I just decided I wanted to come up more frequently.”

Although those who pray don’t generally interact with clients, who park and enter through the back of the clinic, last year a man who was driving by stopped and thanked them for their presence. His friend’s girlfriend was pregnant, and he got information to give to her, Granja said.

Even if they don’t have such interactions, those who pray during the vigil say they do so for other reasons.

“We’re killing God’s creation and God gives life and takes away life, not Planned Parenthood,” Sliwinski said.

“Being a peaceful presence in front of the clinic is to allow the mother and whoever is bringing her there to reconsider their choice,” Granja said. “The rest is to trust and to give it up to God because it’s not in our control; we’re just there to be a presence.”