Wrapping up: An end to an epic and long journey

Going from where I left of last, we were on the road for the last part of our journey. We parked the camper right opposite the shrine of St. Anne. What a privledge! Getting to visit such a beautiful church with such a large relic of st. Anne's (her arm) was such a treat! I volunteered to do the night shift for the very last week of the walk. We set out to walk one side of the St. Lawrence, only to realize that it would be better to walk the other side of it . We counted our kilometeres and set out on the side that had the shrine of St. Anne. We really pushed it. One of the hills was what seemed to be a 70 degree incline. It took me 20 minutes to cross that short stretch, which would have normally taken me 5 minutes on a straight road! The hills in Quebec have really sharp inclines but they don't go up for very far, unlike the rockies which don't have so much of an incline but go on for many many kilometers. Quebec also seemed to have some great city and lake views, ski runs and mountains. It was starting to look a whole lot like BC again.

The next day felt miserable after being up all night. I kept looking for an opportunity to sleep. We went for mass at the shrine of St. Anne's again. Just when I thought I was going to catch a wink, I was told that we were set to do the day walk too. Since this would be our very last walk, I accepted the offer. I reached a point where I did not sleep for so long (over 30 hours) that I almost did not feel sleepy again. We did one 6 man relay and because we aimed to catch the evening ferry from St. Simione to Rivere de loop, we did not do any more. So, we officially ended our walk in Bay St Paul in Quebec (about 100 km east of Quebec city). There you have it, a trek from Vancouver, BC to Bay St. Paul, QC about 6200 km. I sure was ready to rest those feet! We made it through the cold windy waters of the St. Lawrence in a ferry that lasted an hour. We found a campground almost right away. I was put up in a tent outside in colder conditions. That did not seem to matter. I slept like a rock after being awake for more than 40 hours straight! Our highway walking was officially over!

We drove the next day from Riviere de Loop to Ottawa. I drove for most of the way, a trip (with stops) of about 9 hours. The next day was our big official finish at parliament hill. We did a 10 km trek through the city of Ottawa. We initally got a lot of pro life reaction, but once we got in town we got a mix of both. Our finish line experience was quite something! About 40 people clapping for us with a welcome sign. Among the distinguished guests included Archbishop Pendergrast of Ottawa and MP Pierre Lemieux's wife.

They had a little reception for us and we were all given "congratulations" helium baloons. We were made to answer questions. We were served lunch and we had a bit of socializing. Here we got to meet up with Pierre Lemieux.

The crazy rush of Crossroads was not over yet. We rushed back to drop people of at the various parishes in Ottawa. I had a challenging time changing the speach for my parish. Now that the walk was over, we had to change our speach to the past tense and speak of future walks. The response at the walks was moderately generous despite my terrible attempt at changing tenses! When we came home, we had way too much fun with the helium baloons by sucking them and speaking in our funny helium voices. What else do you expect when you give a group of grown up men helium baloons?

The next day I spoke at St. Clements, the traditional parish. It was my first time experiencing a first class high traditional latin mass. So reverent, beautiful and slow. I loved every minute of it. I gave my last speach of the walk at a reception in the basement of St. Clements. I attempted not using my script for the first time. Instead, I added as much personal touch to my speach as I could. The young people at the parish were indifferent. However, we did get some faithful pro-lifers that were curious about our walk.

It's hard to believe that this walk is over. 80 days on the road. 100's of cities. 6200 km. So many arguments. So much of love. First, I just want to thank first of all my fellow walkers. You guys thought me so much about myself. I feel that I have come out of this a different person. Molded in the fire through all the experiences and grown sharp and strong mentally, physically and spiritually. Exactly the reasons why I decided to do this walk. I want to thank all the wondeful pro-life people that hosted us throughout Canada. You guys truly provided a little Oasis for us as we persevered in this hard journey. I want to thank my parents, family, relatives and friends who were there for moral support. Though they could not walk with us phyically, they walked with us spiritually by praying for us. Finally I want to thank the hundreds and thousands of parishoners we met along the way. You prayed for us. You trusted us with your intentions. You supported us financially. Together with your support we can win this war and put an end to this legal holocaust.

Jesus promised us that "the gates of hades (hell) will not overcome it" (church) (Matthew 16). We know that abortion will end. This inhumane killing cannot continue. Until then we will march for life.

Yes, life is a gift and every minute of it is worth living!

Bonjour from Quebec

Hard to believe, but we have almost made it to Quebec city! A

distance of over 5300 km and a plane ride of over 6 hours, we have walked it in less than 3 months and this walk ain't over yet! I'm going to try something different this blog. I'm going to let one of my fellow walkers, Frances Platt write my blog. So here it is......

Hello Everyone, I am here typing as three of the Crossroads group... including Michael... are valiantly walking the night shift in this last week.

Yesterday was one of the most challenging and inspiring city walks, for we walked right into downtown Montreal, visiting 3 magnificient churches - Our Lady Queen of the World, St. Patrick's and Notre Dame. For the first stage we were joined by a man and his son, and a friend of Jon, Mike and Frances joined us for the whole afternoon.

We began our walk with Mass at Our Lady Queen of the World, a large Church modeled after St. Peter's in Rome (though only about 1/4 the size). It was majestically

beautiful and awe inspiring... pictures cannot capture it properly. Sadly there was a pro-abortion message spray painted onto the sidewalk right beside the church steps... in

direct contrast to the lasting call of the Catholic Church to uphold the sanctity of life.

Next we went to St. Patrick's Church, which was also stunning. It had one of the largest high altars I have ever seen. Around the inner

walls of the Church were a few hundred iconic pictures of the saints.

The third Church that we visited was Notre Dame, one of the most beautiful Churches I have ever seen... breathtaking! However, it was really very sad since people have to pay to go inside

unless you are going to visit the small Chapel to

the side where they have the Tabernacle. We

visited both, but it is really hard to pray with all the cameras and tours going on. I hope and pray

that the Church will be able to become what it was built to be.... a temple for God.

To finish off in the city we went to visit Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception church, close by, to stop in for some quiet prayer and Eucharistic Adoration. It was so peaceful, a quiet refuge in

the midst of the busy city.

Afterwards, we left the city and went to visit

the tomb of St. Kateri, just outside of Montreal. Her body was in a small mission Church dedicated to St. Francis Xavier. It was very special to be able to visit the resting place of this humble and gentle saint.

To end the day, we made a final visit to St. Joseph's Oratory to see the museum and Br. Andre's heart. It was a fitting end to our time in Montreal.

I got back to the RV first, and there a woman complained about the RV, but also attacked the pro-life message... stating "Abortion is legal in Canada." In many ways her statement was that of many of the people we met throughout the day. There were some very openly supportive people, but most were incredulous that anyone would be speaking out for the sanctity and dignity of life..... they gave little response, but when they did it was to basically state that abortion was not an issue. Montreal needs our prayers.... this city used to be vibrantly Catholic, as is evidenced by the magnificent and plentiful

Churches, but most of the people seemed to have lost their faith.

We stayed in a lovely RV park for the night, and the day crew began walking about 10:00 am. It was an interesting day to walk... the weather kept changing. I walked in overcast weather, drizzle, rain and sun. The best part about the walk, was that each of the small towns that we went through had a lovely Church on the main road. We often took a small moment to stop for a short visit and prayer.

The day ended with a delicious dinner prepared by the night crew. Then we went to a evening Mass at the shrine of St. Ann.... there was also a lovely Candlelight procession around the church at the end of the Mass.

Tomorrow we will be going for a longer visit to the shrine... which you will hear about...

God Bless.

From Country to City

Instead of doing my regular essay style blog, I`m going to try a different style. I`m just going to be captioning on pictures, since I have not blogged for a while. Pictures speak a 1000 words and I`m sure you could appreciate them versus a long blog with all sorts of details.

The following picture shows our drop in at John Henry Westen`s place. He took in various details about our blog and posted an article about us here
















The following shows our march through Sudbury. We were surprised to learn that at the Sudbury hospital 40 abortions happen there every week. We were also interviewed by the local news there shortly after the walk you see in this picture below. The `Sudbury Star` also published a great article about us here















The following pictures show our walk through Barry`s Bay. We were surprised by how Catholic this little town of 1200 was! One Catholic school and 2 Catholic churches, not to mention people on the road that we met that were on the way to adoration just amazed us by how faithful the people of Barry`s Bay are! Three of our group members were from Barry`s Bay and they set up amazing contacts with us which included a stay with one of the professors of Our Lady Seat of Wisdom and a photograph with the local Barry`s Bay paper. The article can be found in the Aug 11th issue here





Our next stop was Madonna House in Combermere. Below is our lady of Combermere, where I will be staying at after this walk.



















After this we walked over to Wilno, where one of our group member`s family kindly took us in for the night. Below is her family.














After more walking, we arrived close to Stitsville, Ontario, where one of our group member`s girlfriend lives. Below us is having a hearty breakfast at her family`s house.















We drove down to Hanover, from Ottawa, to do our talks for the weekend. I was surprised to meet another cross country walker here, who walked in 1992 for pro-life from East to West. She gave us a book that she wrote. Below is a picture with Therese Weiler















Below is a meal we are having at Br. Paul`s parents house who live in the area where we were talking and took us in for the weekend.















Below is me posing in front of a beautiful sunset in the Hanover area.















Below is a wonderful big family that we met along the way. I ended up climbing trees, having running races and walking cylindrical barrels to compete with those kids. Man, sometimes I think I have not matured since Grade 5!














Below is our walk through Hanover. We walked through Hanover, MildMay and Walkerton. We had our biggest attendance ever for these city walks with about 25 people joining us for one of the city walks.















As we continued our walk into and past Ottawa, it rained and we got a sight of Gandalf aka Johnathan Baker walking on yet another one of those rainy days!















We made it to Trois Rivers and we drove down to Montreal for this weekends talks. Below is a picture of a Morgenteller clinic in Montreal. It is situated to the left of the gate. About 50 abortions happen in Montreal every day.















We stayed with the president of Quebec Life Coalition. The St. Joseph Oratory is literally in his backyard. Below is a picture of an amazing dinner we had with them.














Below is a picture of us trekking up to the oratory. We went there for several masses. Today we toured the oratory and we visited the Basilica, Br. Andre`s tomb. It was an awesome sight to see the number of people that were cured by praying to St. Joseph or Br. Andre! The Basilica was monstrously huge. It had 2 organs with 40 foot pipes. Unfortunately the music they were playing was very loud and it almost seemed demonic.



















The responses in the Churches in Montreal was very generous and they do have some gigantic and wonderful churches here! Now, we just got to get some orthodox priests here!


That brings me up to date with today. Only 1 more week to go. I can`t believe it`s almost over

Pilgrimage to Sudbury

Our battle in Sault Ste Marie was short, but sweet. We started by going down to the local hospital where they do abortions. About 200 abortions are performed there every year. We met the most dedicated group of men, probably of our whole trip. The pro-life movement in Sault Ste Marie is small, but STRONG! Some of those men have been coming to protest at the hospital week after week for 17 years!!! Their dedication certainly empowered us as we gave them hope too. They efforts have not gone in vain. There are now no local doctors who perform abortions. They have to fly them in from Toronto!

As part of our speaking duties, I was lined up for something new, speaking at an Anglican church. The litrugy at the Anglican church was quite different. We found the service very lax and informal. The minister had to call up someone to do the second reading from the congregation. The minister also played the organ. There was a woman who read the gospel and the sermon. There was a healing service during mass. The whole liturgy was 2 hours! Needless to say, the minister and his wife were very welcoming of us. They wanted to run a story of us in the Anglican paper and they were very pro-life! There were also some very pro-life people in the congregation. However, there were quite a few that were very indifferent to our message and did not stop to look twice at us on their way out.

The rest of our speaking engagements were as expected. We also did something new, which was eat with the poor. We were invited to a "friendship meal" where we got to sit and eat with the poor. I was at a table with a very pro-choice person, who mentioned right away that she did not liked pro-lifers and that she aborted her daughter. It was hard to respond or even correspond with her as she was clearly not in the right state of mind. Outside the church, we came across a unique parking spot, which we think should be in more places and relates so much to do work we are doing, a parking spot for "pregnant and new mothers"!

Our walk to Sudbury can be summarized as hot and long, since we were only doing day walks and we were with only 5 members for most of the week. Br. Paul went to return the rental van and had the longest drive of 20 hours from Sudbury to Winnipeg!

We are staying with the watergate community here in Sudbury. They are some of the most faithful and hardworking people I have seen on this trip yet. The director of this community is handicapped and on a wheel chair. However, she is one of the smartest, determined and dedicated ladies I have ever seen. They are in the midst of defining the constitution for this community. However, this is a lay apostolate and they mainly deal with healing of people and also of the church. The whole place seems like a church with the statues, paintings and Christian reading material that they have got. Their mission is so important in today's broken church. Please pray a lot for their ministry!

We did not have many speaking engagements here in Sudbury, but the people and the priests overall have been very generous and hospitable, respectively. One of the most encouraging moments was meeting this young guy after mass who is on his way to becoming a teacher. He was filled with so much knowledge, zeal and passion for God. He knew himself well and you could tell he was open and searching for what God wanted for him. Meeting such enthusiastic young people really makes me want to work, support and pray for them. There are so few of them left amidst the darkness and disarray that today's youth seem to be going into.

Another blessing of us being here in this Watergate community is getting to spend time with and talk to a wonderful young priest. He was a great resource to bless us and our items, celebrate mass for us and just to talk to. He took us on a tour of Sudbury and treated us to dairy queen. What more can seminarians ask for than a great tour by an awesome priest and then a visit to DQ to finish it off?

Please pray for the diocese of Sault Ste Marie where a number of churches are closing down, there are a number of fairly liberal priests and very few young people attending mass. That's it from Sudbury. We are onwards to our most exciting part of the trip - Barry's Bay, Cumbermere and then Ottawa all in line for speaking in Hamilton next week. Adios for now....

Walking to Sault Ste Marie

On Sunday in Thunder Bay, I attended an outdoor mass. Fr. Terri talked about showing love to our neighbor as people could literally see their neighbors houses from where they were sitting. I gave my first outdoor talk and it was well received. We had an indoor lunch later and I got to meet Fr. Terri's parents and part of his family. Indeed it must be cool to have a brother or son who is a priest in the same diocese as you are living.

That evening I was set to go to a life teen mass at St. Agnes parish in Thunder Bay. Lifeteen was not active there in the summer, so there were not many youth, however, much more than you would normally see in mass. We try to focus our message on the evils of abortions at youth masses rather than the blurb about prayer intentions and donations.

After this, we geared up for what we knew was going to be our toughest stretch of the walk. 692 km, from Thunder Bay to Sault Ste Marie and only 6 of us to do the walk. We did our regular city walk through Thunder Bay and the majority response was pro-life, although we did get some pro-choices reactions that were pretty strong and were mainly expletives!

I was on the night team and I knew this was going to be really hard. The night team usually gets less sleep, since we have to move the RV during the day and do certain errands when places are open during the day. Not to mention, we were warned about bears, wolves & moose.

The first few nights are always a little eerie and your mind plays games with you. Usually the 3 or 4 AM shift is the hardest, since you are so tired and you have to keep walking. The last shifts are also really difficult since you have been walking the whole night and your legs are really aching and craving a massage! The best thing about the night shift is when the morning breaks. You see the sky lighten up, the birds chirping. In this case, the highway was right beside Lake Superior and you could hear and see the waves crashing, which is also a welcome addition to the morning sounds. The other good points about the night shift are it is really quiet and there is less traffic and hence serves as a good time for contemplation. The skies are filled with literally thousands of stars on the route from Thunder Bay to Sault Ste Marie on the No. 17!


We stopped by Montreal River and got our chance to swim in Lake Superior. The water is super clear and there are no fish. We said our evening prayer to sunset on L. Superior. Montreal River has got to go down as one of the best venues and campgrounds of this trip. Simply beautiful. The beauty transcends all imagination!

After some intense walking and a regular 140 KM/day, we made it to Sault Ste. Marie today. I was practically stumbling along on my last shift today.We attended a Polish service today and the priest was very welcoming to us. He told us about the amalgamating of two churches in the diocese. What I got from our conversation with him was that our priests and young people need a lot of prayers today.

We are based in an old retreat center in Sault Ste. Marie. The whole house was given for us to stay. This place is huge! It has 11 bedrooms, several washrooms, a huge dining room and kitchen, a private chapel, all exclusively for the 6 of us. Man, we are really spoiled!

Tomorrow we start our adventure in Sault Ste. Marie. Only God knows what's in store for us as we continue down this path. Each day, we wake up to a completely new adventure!

Long Trek To Thunder Bay

The walk to Thunder Bay indeed was long. The great thing is we had an extra walker, Sean to join us. We met him in Winnipeg and in matter of a day he decided to join us. He was God-given because John Deuling was going to leave us in Thunder Bay.

I was on the day team this week. I was told that we are entering bear territory again, so my hair was starting to stand on end again. In summary, the walk was hot, tiring. There were a few honks, mostly pro-life. This was also the first time we would be walking on the No. 1 highway. The traffic there is so much more intense than the smaller roads. We had to move way over every time these huge trucks passed us, which was quite often. The traffic also was much more fast-moving. It was hard to jog on the gravel and my right thigh was starting to hurt. I also got my first blisters of the walk, which I treated immediately. There was definitely a good share of physical pain to offer up.

In Dryden we met with an inter-denomenational bible study group. They treated us to breakfast at A&W and asked us a lot of questions about our walk. In Kenora, Br. Paul met up with a priest that he knew before and the parishners there took us out to breakfast. As usual, it is these people that pray and feed us along the way that keeps us going.

We saw a blue heron in the act of catching a fish which was one of the many treats of the walk. We finally made it to Thunder Bay after what seemed like an endless week of walking from Winnipeg. I was practically limping to the car the last few meters.

At Thunder Bay, we were given an awesome welcome by Fr. Richard of Corpus Christi and his young adult team. We were delighted to talk to them about youth ministry and pro-life work in Corpus Christi. One of the members of the young adult team was the vice-president of the pro-life group of Lakehead university. We gave him some ideas on how to improve the pro-life movement in Thunder Bay. They made us an amazing dinner of spaghetti and mince. After dinner, we got the best gift ever. Fr. Richard opened up the church for us for adoration, confession and our own private mass.

Today, sadly, we had to bid farewell to John. We were scheming ways that we could keep him, but the reality is that good times have to come to an end. It was especially a sad day for us seminarians at Christ the King because John will not be returning to Christ the King next year. He will be discerning with the Jesuits in Montreal. He will definitely be missed by our group. His musical and social talents are just unbeatable! We took a group picture with him beside the sleeping giant on L. Superior and the Terry Fox memorial. Perfect last venue for such a dedicated group of pro-lifers!

When we return back to Corpus Christi we got ourselves organized for the evening masses. Frances and I were set to go to St. Peters, the first Slovak church in Canada. The priest, Fr. Terri, was ordained just a month ago and he gave us an extraordinary welcome. He came and picked us up, gave us an excellent reception, took us out to dinner and welcomed us to his youth group bocchi ball social. All, very memorable activities.

That takes us unto this moment. More to come about Sunday in Thunder Bay and our route to Sault St. Marie. Bye for now

Walking into Winnipeg

We spent the rest of our weekend with Regina giving talks at many parishes. We were scheduled to speak at 6 parishes with 7 of us. All of this has given me a good exposure to many priests, their style of operating and preaching. It has also given me exposure to the liturgy in many churches which include the lay people helping at the liturgy and the choir. We prayed outside the Regina hospital and got an interview there with one of the Catholic reporters. It was good to show our support for pro-life as a large group.

Even though we spoke at 6 parishes, none of them gave us the opportunity to speak to youth. We really wanted to hit the youth in Regina. We went to the divine mercy chapel in Regina and prayed about it. I guess God must have wanted that too, since at the chapel was a retired priest who was going to celebrate a youth mass at the Regina Cathedral! We admired his dedication because though he was a retired priest, having had multiple surgeries and clearly weak, he did celebrate mass. He gave us one of the biggest welcomes ever. He asked all of us walkers to come up to the front of the cathedral and he allowed us to exit the church with him. I think we touched a lot of people because we got a lot of donations including a young man, Kevin, who wanted to walk with us that night. Now, given that we had to cover a huge distance from Regina to Winnipeg, we considered this to be a huge blessing.

We set forth that night on the long road to Winnipeg. Kevin was a huge help to our walk and we thank him for his spontaneous response and desire to walk with us. We set a record in distance that night. We covered 135 KM! Our walk on the road to Winnipeg can be summarized as heavy winds, limited reaction and lack of cell coverage.

We did stop by Portage La Prairie and Brandon. We went to another beautiful Ukranian liturgy in Brandon. The Ukranian priest in Brandon gave us $70 in donations and another lady in the parish matched that. The donations they said was just for our breakfast that day. The Ukranian priests, liturgy and lay people continue to amaze me with their generosity and hospitality.

We reached Winnipeg on Friday to a blistering 31 degrees! The heat just sapped the energy out of me. When I reached my last of my 5 KM shifts, I was ready to pass out and happily welcomed an iced cap. A lady came up to us on our first stop in the city of Winnipeg and she was so pleased with what we were doing, she gave us a $40 donation. Pretty good for someone who just randomly noticed us in the parking lot of mall!

Our time in Winnipeg has been short, but busy. We got to pray outside the woman's hospital in Winnipeg, where they do abortions. My highlight of Winnipeg was experiencing the traditional Latin mass. We were scheduled to speak at Pope Pius the X. I really enjoyed the liturgy, especially the reverence and respect that they have for our Lord. I spoke about our walk and they asked us several questions about our journey. A young man from Pius the X took us out to dinner and we had an interesting talk about the differences between Pius X being in schism with Rome. Needless to say, there was no blood drawn and the 3 of us took of unscathed!

We attended an amazing BBQ with a Catholic family that knew 3 of the walkers. I spoke with the mother of 9 at the BBQ and she shared with me how much she would like to show others how much love there is in the Church.

Finally, I was scheduled to go to St. Vital parish for the 8PM mass. The priest there wanted me to strictly keep to the script when I gave my talk. I was a bit dissapointed with this because you usualy show a lot of enthusiasm and draw more people when you speak from the heart and share a bit of your own personal statements. However, out of obedience, I did this and the results for somewhat poor given the number of people at mass.

That's it for Winnipeg. We are onwards to Kenora and then to Thunder Bay today. Should be a long journey. Another 700KM atleast from Winnipeg to Thunder Bay. We are now half-way through our journey. Another 40 days to go. We are now in our second lent. Should be exciting!