Two students, two stories, one message ahead of Youth Mass for Life
Before the Youth Mass for Life began Jan. 23 at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, D.C., two high school juniors addressed hundreds of their peers and spoke about how they came to understand the value of human life.
Jorge Velasquez, an 11th grader at St. John’s College High School in Washington, D.C., spoke first. Dressed in his military Junior ROTC uniform, his testimony began not with certainty, but with reluctance.
He told the crowd that, for a long time, he participated in the faith out of obligation rather than personal commitment. As an eighth grader attending a parish retreat, Velasquez said he felt emotionally distant.