New approach for 40 Days for Life brings added participation to pray for end to abortion

Friday, Apr. 01, 2022

SALT LAKE CITY — The annual 40 Days for Life campaign in Utah began its traditional prayer effort on Ash Wednesday and will continue through April 10. This year the campaign to pray for an end to abortion through prayer, fasting, community outreach and peaceful vigils in front of an abortion business took a new approach. Each parish in the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City was asked to sign up for one hour of prayer with this intention.

“We had 16 of the days of the campaign covered by a Catholic church;” during the other days, people of various other faiths offered their prayers, said Michael Dovel, a member of 40 Days for Life Utah. He added that he hopes these prayer efforts have prevented women from entering the abortion clinic. 

“Seeing people standing up for life has been great. It makes me feel great; it is a wonderful feeling,” he said.

Dovel is one of the organizers of this year’s campaign. The others are 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.

Because this year’s approach differed from previous efforts, which didn’t specifically call on individual parishes to participate, Dovel said he was very impressed with the response.

Deacon Werking was a great asset and a blessing to the prayer effort, Dovel said. 

The deacon returned the compliment, saying, “I think that the Catholic Church has led by example by organizing behind our leader Michael Dovel and lining up over 10 different parishes to pray together for an hour in front of Metro Planned Parenthood [in Salt Lake City].”

Participants prayed together with prayers dedicated to stopping the evil of abortion, yet “being respectful and dignified,” which was a great gift, the deacon said. “When a young mother approached [the clinic], she was met with prayerful voices, not anger and hatred.”

A number of individual parishes stepped up in the fight against abortion, the deacon said. “Leaders like Deacon Jeff Allen, who shepherded his pro-life parishioners from St. Vincent [de Paul Parish in Holladay] and led them in powerful prayers highlighting the fight against the intrinsic evil of Planned Parenthood.” 

The power of prayer is the best tool that Catholics have to make their voices heard, Deacon Werking added. “To fight against abortion, we need to change minds and hearts. Knowing that fellow citizens feel so strongly that abortion is the wrong solution, that they are willing to take time out of their busy day to pray that young mothers can have a change of heart” makes a difference, he said. “These young mothers need to hear the sound of prayers and let the work of the Holy Spirit work on their hearts.”

In addition to St. Vincent de Paul Parish, participating in this year’s effort were the parishes of St. Martin de Porres in Taylorsville, St. Olaf in Bountiful, St. Thomas More in Cottonwood Heights, St. Ambrose and the Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City, St. John the Baptist in Draper, Blessed Sacrament in Sandy and St. Joseph the Worker in West Jordan.