He ran across the U.S. to support pregnant women; now he’s off to be a monk
Jared Plasberg ran 3,000 miles across the United States from San Diego to St. Augustine over 114 days, carrying an 80‑pound stroller to symbolize support for mothers in crisis. The run raised $20,000 for the Front Royal Pregnancy Center in Virginia, a local ministry that assists pregnant women. The journey served as a spiritual pilgrimage, allowing Plasberg to deepen his faith, pray for mothers and unborn children, and discern a vocation to the Carthusian monastic order. Plasberg’s experience reflects his commitment to the pro‑life cause, inspired by Pope Benedict XVI and Saint Pier Giorgio Frassati, and underscores his desire to pursue “to the heights” in service to others.
3 months ago
Jared Plasberg, a 23‑year‑old Catholic graduate of Christendom College, completed a 3,000‑mile run across the United States to raise funds and awareness for a pregnancy‑help center, and is now preparing to enter the Carthusian monastic order in France. 1 2
Plasberg began his trek in San Diego on 19 February 2026 and finished in St. Augustine, Florida, on 13 June 2026, covering the distance in 114 days. 1
He pushed an 80‑pound stroller the entire way, using it to carry supplies and as a visual symbol of the mothers the journey aimed to support. 2
The run presented logistical challenges—finding food, shelter, and safe routes—often leaving him exhausted or discouraged. 1
By the end of the journey Plasberg had raised $20,000, which he donated to the Front Royal Pregnancy Center, the organization linked to his alma mater. 1 2
The stroller sparked conversations with strangers, allowing him to share the center’s mission and gather additional support. 2
He stayed primarily in motels but also experienced hospitality from families who offered food, prayer, and lodging along the route. 1
Plasberg described the run as a pilgrimage, drawing inspiration from the Camino de Santiago and using the time for daily prayer for mothers, the unborn, and those he met. 2
He reflected on Pope Benedict XVI’s words about greatness and on St. Pier Giorgio Frassati’s phrase “Verso l’alto” (“to the heights”), which motivated his commitment to a higher calling. 1
During the run, Plasberg met a hermitess, Amma Chiara, whose own cross‑country walk and contemplative life deepened his desire for a solitary yet communal religious vocation. 2
He is discerning entry into the Carthusian order, a contemplative community founded by St. Bruno in 1084, known for its blend of hermitic solitude and communal prayer. 1 2
Carthusian monks live in individual hermitages, spending most of the day in silence, prayer, and manual work, while gathering for specific liturgical celebrations. 1
The order emphasizes that solitude is not an escape from the world but a means of interceding for the Church and humanity. 2
After obtaining a long‑stay French visa, Plasberg plans to travel to France to begin postulancy at the Grand Chartreuse, the motherhouse of the Carthusians. 2
He views the cross‑country run as formative for his discernment, having revealed personal weaknesses, fostered humility, and reinforced his dependence on God. 1 2*
Explore Catholic monastic vocation as a response to pro‑life activism
Catholic monastic vocation can be a highly coherent and even “pro-life” response to the need to protect human life—especially the unborn—not by competing with activism, but by grounding it in a deeper proclamation of the Gospel of life and offering the Church a form of spiritual labor: prayer, intercession, and witness of holiness.
The Church’s pro-life teaching is not only (or primarily) a political platform; it flows from a whole vision of the human person as a gift and from the demand that human life—especially in its fragile beginnings—be protected with loving concern.
John Paul II summarizes the “core” of the Gospel of life in explicitly relational and Christ-centered terms: the inseparable connection between a person, life, and embodiment; Jesus’ unique relationship with every person; and the “sincere gift of self” as the fullest way to realize freedom.
He then states the practical moral implication: because human life is sacred and inviolable, “procured abortion and euthanasia are absolutely unacceptable,” and human life must not only be not attacked, but must be protected.
Pope Francis, addressing a pro-life movement, echoes this by insisting on the “strongest possible opposition” to direct attacks on life, and especially abortion, calling the unborn “innocence par excellence.” He also emphasizes that Christians must defend life “courageously and lovingly” with closeness and support for women.
So the question becomes: How does monastic life participate in that same Gospel of life? The answer is: by a distinctive, Church-endorsed mode of witness and spiritual combat.
A monastic vocation is not a private spiritual hobby; it is a public and ecclesial gift to the Church, with its own “charisms and institutions.”
Vita Consecrata frames consecrated life as requiring a decisive commitment to the spiritual life so that those who profess the evangelical counsels may “aspire…to the perfection of charity,” i.e., holiness.
It also stresses the inner logic of religious profession: it is a “special and fruitful deepening” of baptismal consecration—an authentic configuration to Christ through the evangelical counsels—made possible by a specific gift of the Holy Spirit.
This matters for pro-life activism because it clarifies that the Church’s pro-life work is not only “doing”; it is also being. Vita Consecrata’s broader vision—holiness as the program of consecrated life—makes monasticism a “prophetic witness” by showing, in lived form, what the Gospel says about persons, love, and God.
A common objection is: “If someone is passionate about protecting the unborn, wouldn’t entering a cloister mean abandoning the battlefield?” Catholic teaching distinguishes modes of participation in the Church’s mission.
John Paul II explicitly calls consecrated persons to “proclaim the Gospel of life with honesty and love” and describes it as an urgent task, especially in a context of a “culture of death.”
For Carthusians (a paradigmatic example of monastic withdrawal ordered to prayer), the Pope describes the mission as “gratuitous contemplation and intercession for the Church and for the world.” This mission is not portrayed as silence from the world in the sense of indifference, but as a sentinel watchfulness that gives the Church “strength and courage” so the Good News can “inflame all humanity.”
He even articulates a key monastic intuition in plain language: the Carthusian Church witness is marked by “seeking to ‘be’ before ‘doing.’”
So, if pro-life activism is often urgent and outward, monastic vocation can be a parallel and complementary form of urgency and defense: intercession for conversion, perseverance, and courage in the Church’s service of life.
Evangelium Vitae treats abortion not merely as an individual crime but as a symptom of deeper cultural and spiritual dynamics. The pro-life struggle therefore needs not only laws, organizations, and counseling, but also the recovery of a vision of personhood rooted in God.
John Paul II’s treatment of consecrated life in this perspective is that the life of consecrated persons must be nourished from a “wellspring of sound and deep spirituality,” because the whole program is to tend toward holiness—leaving everything behind for Christ’s sake.
Even in his pro-life address to Indonesia, he frames the Church’s ministry at the service of life as a testimony to the fullness of truth, proclaiming the “utter inviolability of human life from the moment of conception,” and insisting that procured abortion is “entirely outside the competence of any individual or group.”
A monastic vocation can answer this need for truth by embodying what that inviolability means in lived spirituality: the priority of God, fidelity over time, purification of desire, and love that does not reduce human beings to “use” or “discard.”
A pro-life-minded person seeking monastic life should understand that entrance into monasticism is not impulsive activism rebranded as solitude; it is a long discernment ordered to fidelity.
St. Benedict’s Rule explicitly insists that admission should not be “easy,” but rather that the community “try the spirits” and observe perseverance through difficulty, injuries, and the real friction of monastic life.
The Rule also presents the monastic life as “a school of the service of God,” where one learns to “fight under the Lord Christ our true King” by renouncing self-will through obedience.
This is directly relevant to pro-life activism because defending life requires endurance—intellectual, emotional, and spiritual. Monasticism forms that endurance by training the will toward Christ and by testing for genuine seeking of God and eagerness for God’s work, obedience, and humility.
Even when monasticism is cloistered, Catholic pro-life witness is not only ideological; it is also practical solidarity. Pope Francis praised pro-life initiatives that promote and defend life “from the moment of conception,” including “concrete solidarity” enabling births that might otherwise not happen, and he urged Christians to act “with closeness, proximity” so women feel respected and supported.
Monastic communities often cannot provide the same services as lay pro-life centers, but their vocation can still participate in the same charity through prayerful support and spiritual intercession for mothers and families, and through a lived witness that sustains the moral imagination and courage of those working outward.
Catholic monastic vocation can be a direct response to pro-life activism because consecrated life is meant to be a prophetic witness rooted in deep spirituality and holiness, and because the Church explicitly links consecrated persons to proclaiming the Gospel of life and supporting the Church’s mission through contemplation and intercession.
In other words, for someone called to monasticism, protecting the unborn is not abandoned; it is transfigured into a different kind of defense: a “being” of fidelity to Christ that strengthens the Church’s “doing” for human life.