WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The basement of the Northeastern University Catholic Center in Boston on the night of Jan. 23 looked like any other college hangout, minus the priests keeping watch.

The center's basement was bustling with 47 young adults, students from Boston-area colleges, chatting and checking their phones. Star Wars and Indiana Jones posters hung on the wall across from an icon of the crucifixion, and a bookshelf containing catechisms, biographies of the saints, and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. A toy basketball hoop was mounted to another wall, with a piece of tape warning "NO DUNKING" stuck beside it.

These students weren't mere college partiers. They were pilgrims, preparing for a two-day journey to Washington D.C. for the March for Life on Jan. 24 and the National Pro-Life Summit on Jan. 25. It was the first March for Life for Aidan Roberge, a junior at Boston College and a member of its Pro-Life Club.

"It seems fitting that our first experience in our nation's capital was continuing the American people's history of fighting for the rights and freedoms of all by advocating for the most important and basic of human rights, the right to life," Roberge told The Pilot.

He was joined by BC freshman Aaron Pauwels and grad student Quinn Cunningham. Roberge, a lifelong Catholic, has always been pro-life. He collected diapers and other baby items with the Knights of Columbus in his hometown of Marshfield. When he entered BC, he leaned more into his faith.

"I just love being part of such an important cause, being a small part of something much bigger than myself," he said.

At the Catholic Center, students packed snack bags and designed posters with slogans such as "Equality Begins in the Womb" and "Ur Mom Chose Life." The group was shepherded by three priests: Father Eric Cadin, director of the Office of Vocations and Office of University Ministries for the Archdiocese of Boston; Father Michael Zimmerman, assistant director of the Office of Vocations; and Father Edinardo de Oliveira, a chaplain at Hult International Business School in Cambridge.

"The faith, passion, and courage of the young people we accompanied to Washington, D.C., continually inspires me," Father Cadin told The Pilot. "They, and the millions of people across the country, speak loudly and compassionately of the dignity and blessing that belongs irrevocably to every person as a beloved son or daughter of God."

At midnight, the 50 pilgrims got on a bus and rode all night to the EagleBank arena in Fairfax, Virginia. There, on the morning of Jan. 24, the Sisters of Life, Knights of Columbus, and the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, hosted the annual LifeFest rally.

"That was inspirational and a really good spiritual experience," Gabriel Dionisi, a senior at Bridgewater State University, told The Pilot. "Seeing the sisters for Life is cool, because they really do have a lot of joy. They seem like they're really living the Gospel and have a good energy around them, and they're a good example of showing a lot of love to women and care and compassion. And that's what we need in the pro-life movement."

Dionisi was always pro-life due to his Catholic faith, but his feelings on the issue solidified when he picked up a church pamphlet about abortion and was disturbed by what he saw. He began making pro-life bumper stickers, and runs a website dedicated to them.

"Just realizing the scale of the problem, the millions of babies in our country that never got the chance to grow up, and also realizing how many women don't even necessarily want the abortion but feel pressured into it," he said. "And it made me feel like this is something where I can get involved and make a difference."

Inside the arena, students could take selfies with the Sisters of Life and pose with a cardboard cutout of Pope Francis. One girl wore a t-shirt reading "I'm in my Jesus era."

The highlights of LifeFest were a Mass celebrated by Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore and witness talks from Connie, a Guatemalan woman who had an abortion and healed from it with help from the Sisters of Life, and Maryellen, a woman who was going to abort her baby but chose not to.

Elizabeth Lollar, a missionary with St. Paul's Outreach who works at the Catholic Center, said that the talks "put a face and a name" to the pro-life issue.

"That's a really powerful thing for people to see, especially young people," she told The Pilot.

She felt "helpless" about abortion until she discovered ways she could help. Her Catholic faith was strengthened in college, and so was her activism.

"The heart and the passion and the emotion attached to it, I really started seeing that and developing it more in my life," she said.

She frequently engages with people who disagree with her pro-life stance, especially on college campuses. Rather than trying to convince them, she wants to ask them questions and have a two-way conversation about their beliefs. She doesn't sidestep the emotions that the issue can create.

"When you actually hear someone's story, it can be a little more powerful," she said.

Dionisi, however, keeps the focus on facts when he talks with the opposing side. He considers himself a logical person.

"There's certainly a lot of emotion with this issue, and understandably so," he said, "but I try to ask people, find out where we have common ground."

After LifeFest, and lunch provided by Chick-fil-A, the students rode into Washington, D.C., for the March for Life. Beneath the Washington Monument, they joined Archbishop Richard G. Henning and pilgrims from parishes, seminaries and schools throughout the Archdiocese of Boston. Archdiocese of Boston Director of Family Life and Ecclesial Movements Liz Cotrupi led over 40 pilgrims. Father Steven Clemence, pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish in Marlborough, led 56 young adults. There was also a large contingency from Most Holy Redeemer Parish in East Boston.

It was the eighth March for Life for Peter Agbasi, a grad student at Regis College and native of the D.C. suburbs.

"Ever since I was a little kid, my parents taught me the importance of being pro-life, and making sure that every life is valuable and the image of God," he said, adding: "This is probably one of the best march weekends I've been to in a while."

Despite it being almost three years since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Abgasi said "there's still a lot of work to do." He believes the March for Life would continue even if abortion was banned nationwide.

Now that the legality of abortion is up to the states to decide, Agbasi sees himself fighting 50 battles instead of just one.

"In Massachusetts, it's certainly going to be a long haul to create a state where life is protected from conception," he said. "However, even now, there's things we can do to protect pregnancy centers, to help women who are in need and save lives right now."

Boston's pilgrims waited for their turn to march as flags and banners fluttered overhead. Police officers and armed guards surrounded the throng of marchers, who wove through men selling hot dogs and hoodies.

"LeBron was once a fetus," one sign read.

To the tune of Avril Lavigne's 2006 hit "Girlfriend," another group of students chanted: "Hey, hey, you, you, I don't like abortion/Hey, hey, you, you, gotta save the babies."

Boston's pilgrims chanted "We are Boston. Jesus loves you. We we we we we we we we love you . . ."

Roberge was happy to see all of the people at the march.

"The sanctity of human life, that's the most basic of human rights," he said. "And seeing so many people marching in support of that, it was really inspiring."

Opposition during the march did not come from pro-abortion counterprotesters, but street preachers who hurled anti-Catholic invective at Lollar and other students as they prayed the rosary. The preachers demanded they put away their rosaries, but they did not.

"I felt part of something bigger than myself," Lollar said. "I know my faith is important to me and is so important to the people around me, that even when people are yelling at us and not agreeing with each other, we are still grounded."

Following the march, the young adults visited the St. John Paul II National Shrine, located beside the Catholic University of America and the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. The JPII Shrine has been designated as a pilgrimage site for the Jubilee Year of 2025. (One student on the bus remarked that the shrine's gift shop is "poppin'.") They watched a film about Pope St. John Paul II's life and venerated a first-class relic of his, a vial of his blood taken after his assassination attempt, in the shrine's Luminous Mysteries Chapel. There were also relics of St. Faustina Kowalska and the Blessed Ulma Family, who were martyred in 1944 for sheltering Jewish families during the Holocaust. In 2023, they became the first family to be beatified together. The family's matriarch, Wiktoria, was pregnant when she was murdered. Her unborn child was also beatified. The family's relic was brought to the shrine because John Paul II was known as "the pope of the family."

The next day, the students attended the National Pro-Life Summit, a conference sponsored by various Catholic and pro-life groups. There, they had a series of discussions with like-minded students and heard witness talks, including one from Pete and Tricia DeMaio. The DeMaios conceived two babies as teengers but aborted them both. Later, they rediscovered their faith, married, started a family, and founded the pro-life nonprofit Mission Love.

Roberge was deeply moved by their story.

"It was truly inspiring to see so many people, especially young people, supporting the rights of the unborn, and it gives me hope that we can move toward a culture of valuing the sanctity of human life," he said.

Agbasi had over 40 people sign up for the American National Pro-Life Group Chat, a group chat he made in the weeks leading up to the March for Life. The group chat will meet over Zoom multiple times each month to discuss pro-life news and raise funds for crisis pregnancy centers.

"I thought I was going to get a lot of no's, but a lot of people are actually passionate about what I talked about," he said.

At 6 p.m. on Jan. 25, the students got back on the bus for the ride back to Boston. They would arrive at the Catholic Center at 2:30 a.m. After evening prayer and reflections, they had a vote on what movie they would watch on the bus. The final two candidates were "Nine Days," a documentary about Pope St. John Paul II's visit to Poland during his papacy; and "Another Cinderella Story," a straight-to-DVD children's musical starring Selena Gomez. "Another Cinderella Story" won.

"Sorry, JPII," Agbasi joked.

"Nine Days" was screened afterward.