Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan and 40 students from Catholic Memorial High School, Waukesha will participate in the March for Life in Washington D.C. on Thursday, January 22, the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion.

Prior to Thursday’s march, Archbishop Dolan, the Very Reverend Paul Hartmann, president, Catholic Memorial High School, and the Catholic Memorial students will attend a youth rally and Mass at the Verizon Center in Washington. The event begins at 8:30 a.m.

Archbishop Donald Wuerl, Washington, D.C., will preside at the liturgy. Archbishop Dolan and Fr. Paul Hartmann will concelebrate. More than 20,000 young people are expected to participate.

After Mass, attendees will proceed, on foot, to the Capital Mall and then head to the Supreme Court to participate in the march.

Thursday evening, Archbishop Dolan will host the group at a dinner at Holy Rosary Parish a few blocks from the Mall. Wisconsin representatives, including Congressman James Sensenbrenner, Catholic Memorial staff, alumnae and students will attend the dinner.

Students from Catholic Memorial also plan to pray the rosary on the steps of the Supreme Court Friday night.

According to organizers, thousands of Catholics will gather in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, on the eve of the event, for Mass at 7 p.m. to pray for an end to abortion.

Over 16,000 worshipers—many of them youth from schools around the nation—are expected to attend the opening Mass and all-night prayer Vigil and then join tens of thousands more the following day to participate in the national March for Life.

Chair of the bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities, Cardinal Justin Rigali, Archbishop of Philadelphia, will be the principal celebrant and homilist at the Vigil Mass, concelebrated by his fellow cardinals and hundreds of the nation's bishops and priests.

After the Opening Mass there will be confessions, a National Rosary for Life, Night Prayer according to the Byzantine Rite, and holy hours from midnight until 6 a.m. led by seminarians from across the country. The Basilica and The Catholic University of America will host up to 1,600 pilgrims overnight.

On January 22, the morning of the March for Life, the National Shrine will also host Morning Prayer at 6:30 a.m. and a closing Mass of Penance and Prayer at 7:30 a.m. Bishop Paul Loverde of the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, will be the principal celebrant and homilist.