By OSV News
WASHINGTON (OSV News) — In a basilica “adorned with beautiful mosaic art,” the “most impressive” mosaic was “the gathering of people from so many different places coming together to stand for life and to be a light in our culture,” Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, said Jan. 23. He was the main celebrant and homilist at the opening Mass of the National Prayer Vigil for Life at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. A congregation of 5,500 filled the Great Upper Church. Among the concelebrants were Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory, now retired as Washington’s archbishop, and his newly named successor, Cardinal Robert W. McElroy, formerly the bishop of San Diego. In his homily, Archbishop Naumann, a former chairman of the U.S. bishops’ pro-life committee, called on young people to witness to their peers. “My good young people, say not that you are too young to be a light in our culture and society. You’re called to help them to come to know what brought you here tonight.” A Mass early Jan. 24 closed the vigil, with Bishop Robert J. Brennan of Brooklyn, New York, as the main celebrant.