Crossroads - Lake View youth treks across nation spreading pro-life message

By RENEE WEBB, Globe editor
July 26, 2006

A young adult from Lake View doesn't just talk the talk when it comes to expressing her pro-life views, she walks the walk - literally.

Erin Haakenson, a parishioner at St. Joseph Church in Wall Lake, is spending her summer walking across the country with the pro-life organization called Crossroads. Every summer this organization sponsors walks across the United States to witness the dignity and sanctity of all human life from conception to natural death.

"I went into Crossroads not anticipating anything in particular because to be honest I didn't know that much about it," she said. "I knew it was a walk across the country for pro-life and that excited me. It sounded like an adventure. It is a cause that I am very passionate about."

With an open mind, she started the walk on May 21.

"It's been a really amazing journey," said Erin.

Through this walk, she said she has come to better understand that they are "part of something bigger than us. God calls all of us to holiness and answering that call means that we have to reach out in love to our brothers and sisters."

They walk during the week and give talks at parishes on the weekend to raise money to help pay for their expenses as they go.

After one Mass in Billings, Mont., a young woman came up to them and she was distraught because less than two weeks earlier she had an abortion. Those involved in Crossroads told her about God's love and mercy and said that God can forgive her. The young woman said she knew God could forgive her but she said she could never forgive herself.

"She has a long road ahead of her. That's one of the reasons why I am walking. I never-ever want to see another woman's face like that," said Erin. "It happens every day in this country - somebody hurts themselves so badly."

Most of the time the Crossroaders are clad in pro-life T-shirts. Those shirts, she noted, have helped to spawn many conversations about personhood and the dignity of life in such places as gas stations or department stores.

Erin said it is Crossroads belief that America is pro-life. People's affirmations of friendly honks and thumbs up reinforced that belief.

"There are some people who are upset with us, but that's what we are there for. We are there to make people think and we are there to pray. All throughout the country we are saying prayers and offering sacrifices up for the unborn," she said.

In addition to speaking at churches on the weekends, the group goes to daily Mass. They also pray outside of abortion clinics on Saturday mornings.

This summer Crossroads hosted four walks - three across the United States and one across Canada. Erin is participating in the walk that started in Seattle and will conclude in Washington, D.C. The other two U.S. walks started in Los Angeles and San Francisco. All will close in the nation's capitol.

"We have a team of eight people. We have a day shift and night shift," explained Erin, who noted that usually two people will walk five miles while two others are traveling in the support vehicle. Then the two getting the break will walk another five miles. "Individually, you walk 15 to 20 miles a day."

The day shift sleeps in an RV while the night shift is on and vice versa. The groups switch off on the day and night shifts.

Erin admitted that there have been times when she is sick of walking and being around the same people for all those weeks "but then I go to Mass and pray or pray outside of an abortion clinic and you remember why you are on the walk."

She described herself as born into the pro-life movement because she was adopted. In her self-described child-like innocence she could never understand why people would have an abortion when there were so many people that wanted children.

Erin is a member of the pro-life group at Iowa State University where she will be a senior this fall. She acknowledged, though, that Crossroads has broadened her perspective and gave her many more opportunities to truly express her pro-life stance.

"I had never prayed outside an abortion clinic and didn't know the depths of the pain that abortion causes," she said. "One of the things we learned at the start of the trip is that 1.3 million surgical abortions take place in this country every year, but after several weeks I have learned that it effects more than the 1.3 million babies whose lives are lost. For every one of those babies there is a mother, a father or a grandmother. We have met people whose lives have been effected."

She pointed out that she had actually interviewed to serve as one of the college-age facilitators for Totus Tuus when she learned about Crossroads. The diocesan director of catechesis, evangelization and R.C.I.A. is a former "Crossroader."

With graduation for next spring and plans to get married next summer, this was her last truly free summer where she could become involved in a project like this.

Her parents and fiancé, Jeremiah, are very supportive of this effort. The parishioners at St. Joseph's have also been supportive.

The Crossroaders will arrive in Washington, D.C. on Aug. 11.

After this trip, Erin said she plans to become much more involved in the pro-life group at her school.