WASHINGTON -- Among the Right-to-Life activists at the 34th annual March for Life Jan. 22 was Kansas Republican Sen. Sam Brownback, who two days before had announced a run for the presidency.

With temperatures hovering around freezing, Brownback addressed the crowd packing several square blocks of the Mall and overflowing onto side streets.

“We need a culture of life that respects all life ... from conception to natural death,” said Brownback, a Catholic.

“The unborn person is unique, is sacred, is beautiful” and he or she “deserves protection,” he added.

His appearance at the microphone sparked huge cheers from a large Kansas delegation just in front of the stage. Hundreds of people in all parts of the crowd waved blue “Brownback for president” signs.

Later Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, Kan., who also attended the rally, spoke privately with the senator.

The archbishop told Catholic News Service that he “thanked him for making the sacrifice for running for national office.”

“We support the values he stands for,” Naumann added. “We need people like him.”

Brownback shared the stage with Nellie Gray, who has led the March for Life since its inception in 1974, Bobby Schindler and Suzanne Schindler Vitadamo, the brother and sister of Terri Schindler Schiavo, and Carl A. Anderson, supreme knight of the Knights of Columbus.

Among the more than 20 Catholic bishops at the rally were Cardinals Justin Rigali of Philadelphia and Sean P. O’Malley of Boston.

Brownback attended a Jan. 21 Mass on the eve of the march held at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. He was cheered as he talked with supporters, signed autographs and posed for photos.

-- Catholic News Service

National Catholic Reporter, February 2, 2007