Snowstorm cancels March for Life pilgrimage for Norfolk-area youth

They won’t make the trip, but they can continue to pray for life – and for their fellow pilgrims.

Up to 16 inches of snow, high winds and icy roads prevented about 75 Norfolk-area youth and their chaperones from making the archdiocese’s pilgrimage to the March for Life in Washington.

About 30 students who expected to leave from Norfolk lived far enough south of the worst storm conditions to join the group leaving out of Omaha.

And those four buses with more than 200 pilgrims left Omaha shortly before 5 p.m. Jan. 25 from St. Gerald Church.

Road conditions from Omaha to the east were clear.

Peter Kennedy, interim director of the Center for Family Life Formation and manager of Family Life Ministries, said the conditions around Norfolk were too difficult to risk the trip.

But those who had hoped to make the pilgrimage for the Jan. 27 March for Life are encouraged to pray for those who can make the journey, Kennedy said.