Walking more than 500 km some weeks, the group — often joined by local walkers — travelled from town to town, praying, chanting, reciting the rosary and celebrating Mass in a new church nearly every day. On weekends, they stopped in provincial capitals and other large cities to speak at churches, lead community pro-life efforts and pray at abortion clinics.

The group walks in solidarity with four other teams across the United States who will rally in Washington, D.C., on the same day as the Ottawa pro-life rally. They will also be joined by pro-lifers in Dublin, as this year marks the first Crossroads in Ireland.

Crossroads, founded by an American university student in response to Pope John Paul II’s call for a culture of life in 1995, has been sponsoring and organizing pro-life walks for 16 years. This year marks the third Canadian walk.

And while Crossroads is growing, the Canadian walkers have seen first-hand through their journey that there are many who would simply like it to go away.

“Putting on the shirts, you feel like a black person in the 1930s,” said walk leader Michael Hayden, a veteran of last year’s walk. “You’re always being watched and people are always judging. It’s a psychologically intense endeavour.”

Walking along highways and in cities, the group has gotten the thumbs-down from countless people, and swearing and the middle finger aren’t uncommon either, said Hayden.

But equally present are support and encouragement from people along the way, including those who have taken the group in for dinner, bought them treats from Tim Horton’s or “literally stopped traffic” to pull over and show their support.

The reactions aren’t Hayden’s first concern, though.

“When you start looking for reactions, it becomes more personal rather than looking at the big picture… That’s not why we’re doing this,” he said. “It’s wonderful to get good positive remarks… but I think in Canada, there’s still a big problem with indifference.”

Apathy, according to Hayden, is the pro-life movement’s biggest enemy.

“A lot of work needs to be done here,” he said, adding that the majority of faces he sees have no reaction to their cause.

Hayden takes his own words to heart. Nine of the walkers are from his school, where he spoke about Crossroads. Like those he recruited, Hayden was introduced to the walk by the witness of a past participant.

“At that minute,” said Hayden, recalling listening to the speaker, “I had an absolute conviction that I had to do it and I signed up the same day.”

Though Hayden won’t return as walk leader next year, as he is originally from the United States, he’s not worried about the continued growth of Crossroads.

“God will call people,” he said. “If he wants it to continue up here, it will continue.”