Back to the December 2005 Newsletter Index

MARTHA NOLAN ‘WALKS THE WALK’ WITH CROSSROADS

During a Crossroads walk in the summer of 2001, several pro-lifers were walking along a remote desert highway in California when a pick-up truck going in the opposite direction slowed down, made a U-turn, and pulled up beside them.

The driver, an older woman, leaned out of the window, eyeing their T-shirts, which bore the word “PRO-LIFE” in large black letters.

“What are you guys doing?” she queried.

The walkers explained that they were hiking across America, offering up all their prayers and sacrifices for an end to abortion.

The woman burst into tears.  So did her teenage daughter, seated in the truck beside her.

The mother explained that her daughter had an appointment for an abortion the next day at a San Bernardino clinic – but now, they wouldn’t go through with it.  She knew that those pro-lifers trudging along that lonely highway in the middle of nowhere had to be a sign from God.

“They named the baby then and there,” said Martha Nolan, the national director for Crossroads.

Crossroads officially began in 1995, but the seed for it was planted in college student Steve Sanborn’s brain at World Youth Day in 1993.

There, Sanborn, a student at Franciscan University of Steubenville, heard Pope John Paul II challenge young people not to be afraid, but to “go out into the streets and into public places, like the first Apostles who preached Christ and the Good News of salvation.”

After much contemplation, Sanborn decided to accept John Paul’s challenge literally.

In the summer of 1995, with the help of some other Franciscan U. students, he organized a pro-life walk across America, beginning in San Francisco and ending in Washington, D.C.  They covered 3,200 miles in 11 weeks.

Martha learned about Crossroads from her brother, Jim, a good friend of Sanborn’s.

The youngest of seven children (the other six are all boys), Martha had attended Catholic grade and high schools in the Washington, D.C., area.

But, she said, it was as a freshman at the University of Dallas, when she took a theology course, that  “I finally understood why I was Catholic.  I was blown away!”

Martha decided to major in theology.  “The more I learned, the more my faith made sense to me.  I also learned of my responsibility to spread the faith.”

In 1998, after she graduated from Dallas with a B.A. in Theology, Jim, who was leading a Crossroads walk, convinced her to join it for the final week.

“The people on the walk helped me to realize the importance of doing pro-life work,” she said.  “Being pro-life isn’t just a good philosophy; we’re called to act.”

Jim went on to Ave Maria Law School, remaining active with Crossroads in the summers, and Martha taught religion at Pallotti High School in Laurel.

By 2001, however, she realized that teaching was not for her, and resigned her position.

That summer, she took part in a Crossroads walk, trekking from Salt Lake City to the nation’s capital.

“It was a life-changing experience for me,” said Martha.  “Even though it was hard and challenging, it was worth it – just being able to dedicate all your time to prayer and meeting people one-on-one, talking to them about the truth.”

In January 2002 Martha was hired to coordinate the Crossroads walks. Crossroads was then part of the American Life League, but in the fall of 2003, it became an independent organization.

Being national director is a full-time, around-the-year job.

Last year Crossroads began  doing three walks, starting from Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles; all three end in Washington, D.C.

“Most of my time is on the phone, coordinating the walks and arranging speaking engagements,” said Martha.

“I speak at colleges and universities, and at parishes at the end of Mass, recruiting walkers and getting donations.”

The walkers are mostly Catholic, but Martha recruits at secular colleges as well as at Catholic schools; she recently spoke to the Catholic student organization at University of Maryland College Park.

Walkers, who are primarily college students, must be 18 or older.  Each walk usually has a core group of about 10 people who travel the whole distance, with others joining them along the way.

“We have a walk leader – usually the oldest person on the walk – and an assistant,” said Martha.  “We do a training session before the walk:  we give them guidelines and a code of conduct.

“We talk about appropriate dress and behavior.  There is absolutely no dating,” she stressed.  “If there is a problem, we move the person to a different walk.”

Each day the walkers go to Mass, say all the decades of the Rosary, and recite the Liturgy of the Hours, usually morning and evening.  They also try to say the Divine Mercy chaplet daily.

“These people are focused, and they understand what they are doing is not for fun; they’re responsible, intelligent, dedicated young adults,” said Martha.

The walks usually take about 12 weeks; the walkers cover 60 miles a day by walking in shifts.

“We’ll have a group of 12 walkers – six on day shift, six on night shift,” Martha explained.  Each shift splits again, with three persons walking at a time for 15 miles.

An RV accompanies the group to accommodate the off-shift walkers.  Girls get to sleep in the van, and there are tents for the men.

The walkers usually get sore muscles and blisters during the first few weeks, “but then they get used to it,” said Martha.

But the walking is not the hardest part, she insists.

“We stop and pray and speak at parishes on weekends.  We spoke at over 150 parishes just this past summer.”

It’s very tiring but it’s also rewarding, she said.

“So many parishioners come up afterwards and say, ‘Thank-you – I had no hope for the next generation, and now I do.’”

The walkers also pray at abortion mills early on Saturday mornings, coordinating with the local pro-life groups, if possible.

They pass through 33 states every year.

The reaction to the walkers, who are easily identifiable in their pro-life T-shirts, “is almost 99 percent positive in the country,” Martha observed.  “You get negative comments in the cities.”

Certain towns are worse than others, she noted.  They got the most negative reactions when they prayed and counseled at an Omaha, Nebraska, clinic that did partial-birth abortions.

At a Denver clinic, “They turned the sprinklers on us and played loud music.”

But, said Martha, “You have to know that there are so many people that you have influenced.  We’re lucky to be a part of this!  We get so much out of it – more than we give.

“We’re not only taking the pro-life message to the streets, but the people who are walking are becoming dedicated pro-lifers.”

More than that, over the years, Crossroads has had 11 walkers who have become priests or religious.

“We have fun too,” said Martha.  “We enjoy our faith, but we also bring the joy of the faith to the people.

“I’ve never experienced God’s direct call more except in Crossroads,” she added.

“What we’re doing is good!  There’s nothing more important than standing up for the unborn and defenseless in our society.”

Crossroads’ website is www.crossroadswalk.com.