A-Cross America Relay launches the largest spanning Pro-Life event in the world
LIFE Runners will ‘pierce the culture of death’ with the witness of their message ‘REMEMBER the Unborn’ while running and walking all around the world.
By: Emily Mangiaracina, originally published August 7, 2024, LifeSiteNews.com
(LifeSiteNews) — Pro-lifers will span the continental U.S. in a massive cross-shaped relay this fall as part of an apostolate to inspire pregnant mothers to choose life for their unborn children.
Runners and walkers will kick off from the east and west coasts as well as North Dakota and Texas in September, triggering a relay of 5K legs carefully timed to converge on Kansas City in Roe Park on October 19. Meanwhile, other pro-lifers will run, walk, or simply wear their witness – a LIFE Runners t-shirt that reminds onlookers to “REMEMBER the Unborn” – in their own neighborhoods, on their own time, from September 6 to October 19.
The power of the A-Cross America Relay is twofold: LIFE Runners pray for the unborn and their mothers, including in front of abortion mills, and the witness of their message aims to stir abortion-minded mothers to a change of heart for their children.
The message’s power is explained in a study by Students for Life, which found that “78% of post-abortion women said if just one person had offered support or if they viewed a supportive sign, they would have chosen life,” as Dr. Pat Castle, founder of LIFE Runners and former Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, previously shared with LifeSiteNews.
Maximizing this public pro-life witness is the impetus behind this year’s changes to the launching point locations for the relay. Castle explained to LifeSiteNews that on the West Coast, where LIFE Runners have traditionally started from the iconic Golden Gate Bridge, this year’s grand kickoff will begin with prayer at the Planned Parenthood in San Francisco and then walk a mile to Union Square, which Castle called the city’s equivalent to Times Square: a bustling, secular square packed with people – an ideal place to share the pro-life message.
Similarly, in New York, instead of beginning from the Brooklyn Bridge, LIFE Runners will kick off with prayer at Manhattan’s Planned Parenthood and walk with their “REMEMBER the Unborn” banner to the Father Duffy statue in Times Square, where they will “pierce the culture of death” with their pro-life message, in Castle’s words.
In the southern U.S., the “REMEMBER the Unborn” banner will border the University of Texas in Austin, witnessing to a demographic in which abortions are heavily concentrated: college-age students. Castle shared that 40% of abortions are committed by college-age women.
The north kickoff arm will begin this year in front of the Cathedral of St. Mary in Fargo, North Dakota, from which LIFE Runners will walk to a Minnesota Planned Parenthood 4.3 miles away, where they will close in prayer.
Castle stressed in a Thursday interview with LifeSiteNews that without prayer their pro-life efforts are “meaningless.”
“Without it, we’re not going to complete the largest spanning pro-life event in the world… Without it, it’s not going to be sustaining or healing,” said Castle, who previously told LifeSiteNews that prayer “is often enough for a mom to not turn in to that abortion facility.”
As during every meeting, the relay participants will pray the LIFE Runners Creed to end abortion and heal the wounds caused by abortion, the killing of the innocent; the creed sets their intention to “run as a prayer,” and invokes the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. Padre Pio, and St. Michael the Archangel.
Readers are invited to add their relay prayer requests on the LIFE Runners Prayer Wall at liferunners.org/prayer-wall.
The last leg of the A-Cross America Relay will be completed by Benedictine College students this year into Roe Park, where Archbishop Joseph Naumann of the Diocese of Kansas City, Kansas, will lead a prayer.
It isn’t necessary to live near the A-Cross America Relay course in order to participate, since anyone anywhere in the world can complete a 5K leg by walking or running in their own neighborhood while wearing LifeRunners “Remember the Unborn” gear. All readers are welcome to join LifeRunners as well as register to complete a leg while wearing their pro-life witness off the course. Even those unable to walk a 5K leg due to age or health conditions can help “evangelize the world” by simply wearing LIFE Runners gear in front of others while at home or in public.
Castle has invited all readers to use the promo code “LIFER” for free registration for the relay.
Join the LifeRunners Movement
Become a LIFE Runner: Simply register to receive monthly updates and order a “REMEMBER The Unborn” shirt or jacket to wear your witness, impacting hearts and minds for saving lives: liferunners.org/join.
LifeSiteNews readers are invited to use the free promo code LIFER to register for the A-Cross America Relay at liferunners.org/across.
Did you know? LIFE Runners provides free “REMEMBER The Unborn” shirts for students to wear at school on the 1st Wednesday of each month, details at liferunners.org/chapters.
Huddle up for the LIFE Runners national race retreat witness in Portland, Oregon (Oct. 5-6), details at liferunners.org/2024portland.
Inspired by an extraordinary feat
The A-Cross America Relay was born after Castle met another faith-filled runner, Jeff Grabosky. At the time, Grabosky was completing an extraordinary and rare feat of running solo from coast to coast across the United States, praying as he ran. Only the 43rd person to complete an ocean-to-ocean run, Grabosky came to write about his four-month journey in the book Running with God Across America, in which he explains how he prayed a decade of the rosary for each of the roughly 3,500 intentions he received at the time.
Castle had already founded LIFE Runners when one of his lieutenants told him about Grabosky. The two got in touch, and Castle found that Grabosky had conveniently been forced to pause his run as he waited to receive a replacement wheel for a stroller that he pushed as he ran, in which he carried his tent, sleeping bag, and other belongings.
The two met for Mass and breakfast, and Castle offered to give Grabosky his LIFE Runners jersey if he would send him a photo of himself wearing it on one of the remaining days of the trip. According to Castle, Grabosky sent him a picture of himself by a sign that read “Castle Creek.” When Castle pointed out what he was sure was an intentional homage to his name, Grabosky said he never noticed the sign. “Coincidence? I think not,” Castle said.
The two stayed in touch, and Castle eventually came to Grabosky with an idea: “I said, ‘Jeff, what if we did this trip across America again, and could you map it, and we’ll get the hundred LIFE runners and we’ll just all do it together. And he said, ‘Absolutely,” Castle related.
For about a year and a half, they planned a coast-to-coast route, launching the inaugural A-Cross America relay on Palm Sunday 2013.
Castle explained that when they planned this first path, “whenever possible, Jeff and I would search for abortion facilities and route it by the abortion facilities, to put prayer pressure, to put holy pressure on those places.”
The relay “drew a lot of attention” to LIFE Runners, as Castle pointed out. “We kind of exploded.” LIFE Runner membership expanded from 170 at the end of 2011 to 1,791 members by the end of 2013 after the first A-cross America Relay had been completed.
In 2015, they decided to add a north-south route across the country to make a cross, and in 2016, they allowed people to “adopt” 5K segments while running “anywhere in the world during the relay time period.”
This change has also allowed the “Remember the Unborn” witness to expand in creative ways. For example, In Boise, Idaho, LIFE Runners have adopted a segment by running from a local abortion facility to their pregnancy help center. On the island of Fiji, hundreds of LIFE Runners participate in an all-night walk/run to altogether adopt the state of Utah.
“It’s spurring this public witness, this pro-life activism, this unity, this synergy. That’s the awesomeness of this A-Cross America Relay for pro-life,” Castle previously told LifeSiteNews.
Join the largest spanning Pro-Life event with 1,476 legs covering 5,183 miles (12 million steps)! Wear a “REMEMBER The Unborn” shirt while you walk or run 5K legs on the Relay course or from anywhere in the world, anytime from Sep 6th to Oct 19th.
Emily Mangiaracina is a Miami-based journalist for LifeSiteNews, and is most passionate about the Traditional Latin Mass and promoting the teachings of the Catholic Church.