40 Days for Life kicks off with Lent; 
new co-leaders to run campaign locally

By Tanya Connor 
| The Catholic Free Press

A Lutheran life-issues coordinator and a Catholic with a new baby are co-leaders of this spring’s 40 Days for Life campaign in Worcester, which begins next week.
“40 Days for Life is committed to ending the scourge of abortion through prayerful, peaceful, lawful vigils demonstrating truth, love and compassion,” says an explanation with the Statement of Peace that participants are asked to sign on the website 40daysforlife.com/en/worcester. The website says this spring’s campaign is taking place in more than 600 cities around the world.
The Worcester co-leaders – Marla Zeneski, of Our Savior Lutheran Church in Westminster, and Kate Ulibarri, of St. Paul Oratory in Warren – succeeded Julie Koss-Stephany, who moved out of state. For years, with help from other people, she coordinated twice-a-year 40 Days for Life vigils outside the Planned Parenthood facility at 470 Pleasant St. in Worcester, where abortions are performed.
The vigils are to continue there this Lent, from Ash Wednesday, Feb. 18, through Palm Sunday, March 29, daily from 7 a.m.-7 p.m.
The campaign is to open with a candlelight vigil from 6-7 p.m. on Ash Wednesday and include a visit from Bishop McManus March 6. The bishop is to lead the rosary and Divine Mercy Chaplet in English at 11 a.m. Then St. Paul Oratory’s rector, Rev. Canon Pierre Dumain of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, is to lead those prayers in Latin, Mrs. Ulibarri said. All are welcome to participate in these special, peaceful gatherings.
Groups and individuals are also encouraged to sign up for their own time slots during the campaign, and are asked to sign the statement of peace. They stay on the sidewalks praying silently or aloud as they choose.
“I’m not a Roman Catholic; I don’t do a rosary,” Mrs. Zeneski said. “I do my own silent prayers” and will join a group for the Lord’s Prayer and singing.
She said she will inform Christians of other denominations about 40 Days. She also created a QR code that can be used on flyers and in church bulletins so those interested in participating in 40 Days can easily find the Worcester website. She is doing research and adding helpful information to the website, she said.
“My goal is to get every life group together,” advertising each other’s events, she said, adding that she’s been trying to do that for a long time, not just since becoming 40 Days’ co-leader. “I love 40 Days. With 40 Days, people put themselves right out there in the mess of the world today. ... I ask the Lord to bless all the participants.”
Mrs. Zeneski said that, as life coordinator for the New England District of The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod, which supports human life from conception to natural death, she sends emails, lectures at conferences, and staffs tables with pro-life materials. She said she especially promotes 40 Days, along with a few other initiatives.
At last fall’s 40 Days campaign the need for a new leader was announced and “I just figured someone would step up,” she said. Later, she learned no one had done so.
“I immediately wrote back and said, ‘I’ll be the leader,’” she said, and then Mrs. Ulibarri was asked to be co-leader.
“She’s got all the connections” with the Catholic community, Mrs. Zeneski said.
“I figured I had the time and I was led,” said Mrs. Ulibarri. She and her husband, Bret, have a 5-month-old, and four children ages 14-20. She said she took a week to pray and think about being co-leader of the Worcester campaign, then said “yes.”