Flash Mob: In the Midst of a Gloomy Pro-Abortion Rally, Suddenly LIFE Shows Up!

Steve Weatherbe : Sep 29, 2015
LifeSiteNews.com

Accompanied by drummers, the 100 Crusaders and a dozen parents sang ditties such as "We love babies, yes we do. We love babies, how 'bout you?"

(Chicago)—When Chicago's Feminist Uprising to Resist Inequality and Exploitation (FURIE) called for a rally on September 19 to defend beleaguered abortion-profiteer Planned Parenthood, they got more than they tweeted for: a surging, rollicking, chanting band of teenage Crusaders for Life equal in numbers but, according to participant Alex Beke, 17, "way more joyful." (Photo via LifeSiteNews)

And far better chanting, too, because of the Crusaders' connection with Gregorian Chant and traditional Christian liturgy.

FURIE wanted a rally to express the support of Chicago's Planned Parenthood, which has been under sustained political and media assault because of the revelations of an undercover team earlier this year that exposed the efforts of the nation's leading abortion provider to market unborn baby parts.

"Join us for a rally and speakout [sic] against the continuing attacks on abortion rights and funding for reproductive healthcare, childcare, and education in IL," went the Facebook call. "The most recent attacks on Planned Parenthood including heavily edited undercover 'sting' footage from anti-choice groups is just the latest strike in the decade’s long war on women's rights."

But then Crusaders for Life decided to respond. The young organization has spread nationwide from its base in five Chicago parishes served by the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius. This is a new, still small order of priests and brothers devoted to the restoration of Gregorian Chant, the Latin Mass, and "the sacred" in other features of traditional Catholic liturgy, according to Father Joshua Caswell, assistant at the order's birthplace at St. John Cantius.

When the Crusaders spread the word to their membership to join FURIE at Chicago's Federal Plaza through various social media, the feminists were tuned in enough to learn about the threat. "ALERT," they countered. "We've just gotten word that there will be anti-choicers counter protesting our event tomorrow. That means more than usual, we need everyone to show up ready to chant down these ---- ----."

What was the Crusaders' goal? Fr. Joshua's brother Nathan, a priest at Chicago's St. Peter's Church, told LifeSiteNews, "We wanted to go out there and engage them. We wanted to bring light and even fun into the situation and to understand their point of view, see their signs, and so on." (Photo via LifeSiteNews)

Not for the first time, the Crusaders did this with a "flash mob." After about a hundred pro-Planned Parenthood people assembled in an inward-facing hollow square at one end of the federal plaza, 20 yellow-clad Crusaders who had marched through the streets from St. John Cantius took up position in the middle, drumming and chanting.

"They laughed and mocked us because there were so few of us," recalls Alex Beke. "But our drumming was a call to 80 more hiding..."

Read what happened next, and watch the video of the Crusaders for Life Flash Mob, click here.