Catholic Campus Ministry Jacksonville has a very active pro-life ministry called College Students 4 Life. The ministry consists of college students in the Jacksonville area, mostly from University of North Florida, Jacksonville University, Florida State College Jacksonville, and St. Johns River College.

Every Saturday morning the students pray and witness to life outside an abortion facility in Jacksonville (which we call the “Esther Project”) and trained students offer sidewalk counseling. We pray the rosary, hold peaceful signs to pray for the protection of every life and to build the culture of life in our city.

To bring the pro-life message and resources to the college campuses, the students are out on campus weekly promoting pure love and healthy relationships, witnessing to life, writing pro-life messages in chalk on the sidewalks, engaging in pro-life conversations by displaying engaging questions on a whiteboard, and distributing local pregnancy and post-abortion healing resources.

Some of the students started a pro-life club on UNF campus so we can involve more students and utilize more resources from the university. We also dedicate one week each semester to be “Celebration of Life Week” on campus, which includes bringing pro-life guest speakers to campus, hosting a pro-life movie night, and participate in service projects for local pregnancy centers or maternity homes, in addition to our weekly tabling and chalking on campus. This year for “Celebration of Life Week” we also had a display of blue and pink flags on the UNF Green on campus which represented the 8,000 abortions in 2003 (who would have been freshman in college this year). It was a very peaceful witness, we handed out many brochures with local pregnancy resources and support after abortion resources, and had good, peaceful, and hopefully healing conversations with many college students, including at least one post-abortion mom.

As a community, we attend the March for Life in St. Augustine and the March for Life in Washington, DC every year with a large group of college students.

For questions or more information contact Maureen Shilkunas at mshilkunas@dosafl.com.