OneLife LA, Southern California’s annual pro-life gathering organized by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, will return as an in-person gathering next January.
The event will take place Saturday, Jan. 22, beginning at noon with a walk from LA’s historical city center, La Placita, to Los Angeles State Historic Park north of downtown.
“We will be once again in person, gathering in downtown LA to be bearers of hope, witnessing to the great beauty and dignity of humanity,” said Michael Donaldson, senior director of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ Office of Life, Justice & Peace, in the Nov. 12 announcement.
The 2022 event will resemble the OneLife LA events of recent years, with the exception of 2021, when the event was held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This year’s theme, “Forward in Hope,” is inspired by the motto of 2021-2022 Mission San Gabriel 250th jubilee year being celebrated in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles: “Forward in Mission.”
The festival-style gathering at Los Angeles State Historic Park will feature speaker presentations and a musical program. The event’s speaker lineup is traditionally announced a few weeks before the event.
Organizers will be collaborating with local partners to encourage involvement among OneLife participants in community projects and service activities “such as feeding the homeless, finding families for foster children, supporting pregnant women, and visiting the elderly,” the announcement said.
After the gathering at the park, faithful are invited to the annual “Requiem for the Unborn” Mass at 5 p.m. at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, where candles will be lit in remembrance of the babies lost to abortion daily in Southern California. The liturgy will be presided by Archbishop José H. Gomez.
In the announcement, Archbishop Gomez noted that the time of pandemic had helped people understand “in a beautiful way that human life is precious and also that life is fragile and brief.”
“How we live, how we love and how we care for one another is what truly matters — this is what we celebrate each year at OneLife LA,” said Archbishop Gomez. “This is why it is such a beautiful blessing to welcome our brothers and sisters back in-person at OneLife LA 2022 to continue to build a culture of conscience, compassion and care.”
Donaldson, who replaced Kathleen Domingo as head of the archdiocesan Office of Life, Justice & Peace earlier this year, said that participants’ “witness to the sanctity of life in all stages of life is even more needed in society.”
“May our gift of hope spread abundantly to others and bring the joy of life to our neighborhoods,” said Donaldson.
