Antiabortion Youths Begin Tour

The last time Athena Macapagal made headlines on the University of British Columbia campus was when she worked with controversial antiabortion activists to erect giant grisly photos of aborted fetuses.

This time, one year later, Macapagal will be backing a slightly less contentious campus event: the parading of a 13-foot-high wooden cross that was blessed by Pope John Paul II during a huge ceremony at St. Peter’s Square in Rome.

Macapagal and 46 other Canadian Catholic youths were blessed by the Roman Catholic pontiff at the same Palm Sunday event in front of hundreds of thousands of worshipers. The celebrations were part of the Catholic church’s efforts to promote next year’s World Youth Day in Toronto.

Vancouver will be one of the first stops on a 15-month trans-Canada tour of the stark cross, which is meant to be an instrument of evangelization to non-Christians and an inspiration to Canada’s 13 million nominal Catholics, almost half the population.