WASHINGTON — Smith Street, that normally congested artery pumping traffic into and out of the heart of Providence, seems eerily deserted at 2 o’clock on this late January morning. Nary a car in sight. None but a lone pedestrian trudging through the dark, cold and snow. Driving down this road on a predawn Friday, you might believe you’re the last person on Earth. Yet a peculiar aspect of loneliness is that we can feel it both in the absence of other people and in the abundance of them.
Signs of human activity eventually emerge in the parking lot of St. Patrick Church. Several vehicles sit idling to keep the heat running for their passengers, who await the imminent arrival of a charter bus that will transport them from one capital (Rhode Island’s) to another (the nation’s) and back again over the next 24 hours. Among them, a high school student, a young father, and a more seasoned European immigrant striving for U.S. citizenship.
Outnumbered by their neighbors with opposing views in mostly Pro-Choice Rhode Island, this age-diverse trio attests to suffering spiritual and philosophical isolation due to their unwavering Pro-Life stance on abortion. Such steadfast conviction has led them here in the middle of the bleak midwinter night to join several other first-time participants, as well as some experienced activists, for a daylong pilgrimage to the 53rd annual March for Life in Washington, D.C.
THE IMMIGRANT
At one time in her devout Catholic life, marrying a Protestant and then becoming a citizen of the United States, where abortions remain legal, would have been laughable to Caroline Dooley. She came of age in Derry, Northern Ireland, during “The Troubles,” the decades-long conflict when tensions between her country’s Catholic and Protestant populations frequently boiled over into bloodshed. Even routine trips to the supermarket involved security pat-downs at the door, something Dooley found as normal as breathing.
On her first U.S. trip in 1989, with The Troubles still raging back home, she met and fell hard for a Protestant-American man. Five years later, they wed in Ireland, and have called Portsmouth, R.I., home since 1995. While adults killing one another became a commonplace, albeit frightening reality during The Troubles, Dooley could not abide the slaughter of untold numbers of unborn children in the U.S., nor the mindset of anyone supporting the practice.
“My thing was, I’m not swearing allegiance to a country that kills its children,” she explains. “How can people say they’re Catholic, but not Pro-Life? And then Ireland [legalized abortions in 2018]. I was distraught that I had an Irish passport and they were going to murder Irish babies. And I was like, ‘What am I going to do now?’”
First, she wrote to Irish media outlets and world leaders, including the late Pope Francis and President Donald J. Trump, in the midst of his first term. “The best letter I got back,” Dooley reveals, “came from President Trump. He gave me hope for a future here.”
Dooley subsequently co-founded the Respect for Life group at St. Barnabas Catholic Church in Portsmouth, along with fellow parishioners who inspired her to become active with Rhode Island Right to Life. Dooley also now serves the Diocese of Providence’s Human Life Guild and hopes to receive approval for her U.S. citizenship application in the near future.
Meantime, all too familiar with violent demonstrations back home, Dooley finally took part last Friday in the peaceful, joyful, familial gathering that has come to characterize the March for Life each January. “I’m so excited! I’ve seen it on television, and it really is so inspiring,” she exults while amongst the Pro-Life throngs on the National Mall, “because you live in Rhode Island and you think, ‘Does anybody else believe?’
“Then you come down here and see that there actually are so many Americans … The number of people is incredible. And from all over the country. So many! I can’t believe how many young people are here. College and high school students, young men and women. They’re really our future for life. So, please God, we can continue to fight. I’d like Ireland to do the same.”
THE STUDENT
Before marching through Washington’s streets, the 2026 Pro-Life pilgrims assemble on the National Mall to hear motivational messages from a lengthy lineup of distinguished speakers. North Smithfield’s Ben de la Cruz, an elementary school student, sits on the shoulders of his much taller older brother, Jonathan, to get a better view of the stage, where Vice President J.D. Vance makes a second consecutive in-person appearance at the Rally for Life.
As de la Cruz records the Vice President on his iPhone, Vance thrills the crowd by assuring them they “have an ally in the White House,” adding that, while 1973’s Roe v. Wade decision has been overturned, the March for Life remains a vital institution because, “We are not arguing to the Supreme Court. We are arguing to our fellow citizens that life is worthy of protection. That is why we march.”
While the Vice President’s remarks at the March for Life emphasize a shared vision of the White House as an ally in protecting life, this rhetoric is complicated by the administration’s specific policy stances on IVF and the Hyde Amendment. Despite Vance’s focus on the dignity of life, President Trump’s promotion of IVF directly contradicts the ethical convictions of the U.S. bishops.
Next to the de la Cruz siblings, their soon-to-be-17-year-old eldest brother, David, stands precociously decked in a brown fedora, suit and tie, and black top coat. Were he on stage with Vance and the others, he wouldn’t look at all out of place. Yet the Chesterton Academy sophomore frequently feels like an outlier in the Ocean State.
“You don’t see many people with the same ideals,” he laments. Which is why he, his brothers, and two Chesterton friends are in Washington this year. “I’ve been surrounded by people with the same moral compass as me, but not at this scale. And that’s really comforting. I was crying sometimes because there are just so many here.”
He and tens of thousands of marchers wind their way from Pennsylvania Avenue onto 3rd Street, up Independence Avenue, before turning onto 1st Street, where the march concludes outside the Supreme Court—a continuously flowing river of humanity encircling the U.S. Capitol building grounds. At this point, de la Cruz becomes awestruck when he can see neither beginning nor end.
“I was like, ‘Whoa, this is huge! That’s way more people than I thought. And when the Pope’s letter was read, I got emotional, because Pope Leo really is the spiritual leader of this generation, whether you’re Catholic or Protestant or not.”
Lighter moments sustain de la Cruz as well. Early on the 7th Street portion of the route, a busker performs a bespoke version of Bob Marley’s classic “Get Up, Stand Up,” altering the chorus from “Stand up for your right” to “Stand up for Pro-Life.” Three high school boys break off from the march, singing and dancing in front of him, which quickly attracts a larger crowd. “We love our music at Chesterton and have these instant breakouts of singalongs, too,” de la Cruz remarks. “When I saw that, I thought, ‘These really are just the same people.’”
THE FATHER
Outside Washington’s Union Station train terminal, a little girl hugs her life-sized Teddy Bear, about as big as her baby sister sitting alongside her. Lusvyn Jolon’s youngest children, Sophia and Santiago, may not yet comprehend the complexities of the abortion issue, unlike their older sister, Gabriella, a Georgetown University student who’s active in the D.C. campus’ Pro-Life movement. Nonetheless, their father insists that he and his wife, Jennifer, expose them to events like the 2026 March for Life, a first-time experience for all.
“It’s amazing to see churches from all over the place coming together with one belief, that life is something God gives and He’s the only one with the right to take it away. We strongly believe babies are a gift from God, and we’re called to steward everything God gives us,” reasons Jolon.
“We brought our kids so they can see what we stand for, to pass that over to them—our faith in God and our beliefs—to put that in their minds and their hearts. Little by little, they’ll have questions, and we’ll answer them. It’s very important to us as parents to teach them our beliefs, not what the world is teaching everybody else.
“Sometimes, living in Rhode Island, you feel like you’re the only one, or there’s only, like, five of us in the state,” Jolon laughs. “But seeing so many youths here brings hope to the nation. It’s our duty to keep praying for them, asking God to help them stay strong in their belief.”
THE RESULT
From Bishop Bruce A. Lewandowski, C.Ss.R., and several Our Lady of Providence seminarians, to students representing local colleges, other Pro-Life Rhode Island groups traveled separately to march with the tens of thousands in Washington on January 23, 2026.
Nearly 24 hours after leaving Providence, Right to Life’s two-dozen pilgrims arrive on schedule back at St. Patrick’s parking lot. Tired, achy, hungry, they tumble half-asleep off the bus. Immediately and unequivocally, they agree, they would do it again.
Once more facing a Smith Street that’s fallen silent in the dark, cold desolation of this predawn Saturday, the pilgrims realize they’ve changed. For they no longer feel so alone.
