By KEVIN CHIRI

Editor and Publisher

LAPLACE – Mary Desimone has been a religion teacher at St. Joan of Arc Catholic School in LaPlace for 34 years.

Coincidentally, the Supreme Court of the United States upheld the court case Roe v. Wade 35 years ago, which essentially legalized abortion in this country.

Since then, Desimone has been one of the religion teachers, not to mention a Catholic woman, who has continued to stand against the law and try to instill in her students the wrong of killing unborn children while still in their mother’s womb.

“It doesn’t take much research to know that the baby is alive and living from the point of conception,” she said.

On Tuesday at St. Joan of Arc, an annual event with the eighth grade religion class to bring the point home for their own students, while also making a point to the St. John community, was re-enacted again on the front lawn of the church.

After a memorial service was held inside the church, students erected 50 wooden crosses on the lawn, standing for one million babies each who have been killed, since approximately 50 million abortions have been done in the 35 years since the Supreme Court upheld the law.

Desimone has taught students for over three decades, and said that she can clearly see from her own students that the passion is there to stand against abortion.

“They are not just doing this because it is part of the course, or because we are a Catholic school,” she said. “The kids have clearly strong feelings against abortion. You can tell by the way they listen in the class, and the way they have given to this project.”

Part of the service project for the students is to raise money that will be donated to a woman who is in need, and hopefully planning to keep her baby rather than abort it. To date, the class has raised over $300.

“You hear so much about abortion, but we aren’t doing this just because we are Catholic, or we go to school here,” Danielle Brignac said. “It’s important for us as students, even though we are young, to take this stand. It’s just so sad to hear about how many kids have not lived because of this.”

Students gathered in the church for a memorial service, with 12 students holding candles on the front altar, to symbolize some of the men or women who might have lived and gone on to great things.

Just some of the candles, with a student reciting a line for each, stood for:

—“Those who had the potential to lead others to goodness as parents.”

—“Those who had the potential to be loving sons and daughters.”

—“Those who might have discovered new cures and miracle drugs in the field of medicine.”

—“Those who had the potential to give the world great masterpieces of art.”

—“Those who had the potential for profound thought and action in the struggle for peace and justice.”

The event ended with a time of prayer in front of a memorial to the side of the church building.