Crossroads Walk group spreads pro-life message
They wore white shirts with one phrase: Pro-Life. That said it all for the 14 young adults gathered in the hall at St. George Maronite Church in Uniontown on Tuesday.
They were walking with the Crossroads Walk group to spread the message of God and life to all who wanted to listen.
Dennis Stoll of St. Louis, Mo., said the group is walking “to witness to the sanctity and dignity of all human life,” and they offer up their daily hardships as their commitment to the pro-life movement.
“We offer it for the unborn, so they people will see in the unborn the life that God’s given,” Stoll, 22, said.
Stoll said the group started their walk on May 20 in San Francisco, Calif., and they will end up in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 12 to celebrate Mass and rally for life with two other groups of walkers who made a similar cross-country trek.
The groups walk day and night in nine- or 10-hour shifts, Stoll said. That works out to about 30 miles per shift, he said. During the walks, they spend time speaking with people, praying the rosary or encourage one another.
“And we offer it all up for the intention of the unborn,” Stoll said.
They have daily Masses thanks to the kindness of priests such as Father Joseph David at St. George’s.
“I’m convinced that’s what got us through this,” Stoll said.
They walked into Uniontown around 3 or 4 a.m., Stoll said. He was one of the six night walkers who came into the city on Route 40.
David made arrangements for the group to shower at the Uniontown YMCA before they left for the day, and Paul Elias at Yum Yum Bakery provided them with breakfast.
Dave Kelch, the 23-year-old walk leader, is a student at West Virginia University. He got involved while looking for “something adventurous, meaningful and worthwhile to do.”
The Moon Township native said he felt it was God’s will that he be involved in the walk.
He said walkers have received overwhelmingly positive support from the strangers they’ve encountered.
Each weekend the group stops in major cities, where they stay with host families. While there, Stoll said they try to make their presence felt in the communities by meeting with church youth groups and giving talks at Masses. They also stand outside abortion clinics and pray for the women going in, Stoll said.
During the weeks, Stoll said they try to find host parishes where the group can stay.
“We run solely on the generosity of the people we come into contact with,” Stoll said.
And that generosity has been abundant.
“We’ve been well-taken care of,” he said. “We’ve never doubted we’d have food or drink and we’ve always had plenty – even more.”
Stoll said he long hoped to be involved with Crossroads. When he was in grade school, he knew a family who make the trek and looked up to them. Having just graduated from college with a political science degree, Stoll said he felt the time was right.
The group of 14 comes from New Hampshire to California, Montana to Mississippi, Stoll said. They’re doing the central walk across America. Two other groups are walking across the north and south. All three will meet in Washington and march in together on Aug. 12.
There, they’ll celebrate Mass and rally for life.
The Crossroads walk has been going on since 1995, and the participants are primarily college students. While a Catholic man founded the walk, Crossroads walkers also come from other Christian faiths that support the pro-life movement.
According to the Crossroads Web site, www.crossroadswalk.org
, each walk is about 3,200 miles and each walker averages about 1,000 miles by the end of the summer.
From Uniontown, the group will head to Steubenville, Ohio, for the weekend, and on through Maryland.