Graham Leach and Lobi Meneses have encountered angry looks, abusive language and food hurled at them during the last 12 months.
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However they aren't fazed - it's all par for the course for the 18 and 20-year-old "pro-lifers" who hold prayer vigils outside Brisbane's family planning clinics, brothels and adult shops.
A picture of the devout Catholics was taken last Tuesday during a rosary session outside Annerley's Adult Wonderland, sending Reddit into a confused spin as users tried to work out what the young men were doing.
The silent prayer upset two female staff who were preparing for the 9pm close and felt the men's presence was unnerving.
Mr Leach contacted Fairfax Media, saying he and housemate Lobi Meneses had been "praying for the dignity of human life and human sexuality".
"We believe things like pornography are degrading to the beauty of sexuality so we're praying for an end to that and that people might embrace love in its fullness, and not abuse it," Mr Leach said.
He said the decision to pray outside the shop occurred because they were at a nearby McDonald's waiting for a friend to give them a lift.
According to the 2013 Census, 22 per cent of young Australians said they had "no religion". Mr Leach and Mr Meneses, who belong to a Catholic group named Frassati Australia, feel society is heading downhill as it becomes more indifferent towards faith.
"But I think we'll be the generation to turn it around," Mr Leach said.
They protest through prayer, and recently joined 40 Days For Life vigils outside family planning clinics in Spring Hill, Bowen Hills and Greenslopes.
Mr Leach said it wasn't unusual for his friendship group to head to mass on a Friday and "go to the abortion clinic and pray a rosary and then hang out".
Mr Meneses insisted their protest style is non-confrontational. They don't shout or carry signs, he said, but sometimes they will sing hymns. He conceded it sometimes upset women, their relatives, friends and partners.
"I find it hard to comprehend why two people standing outside praying is an offensive act," said Mr Meneses, who said he had cut his hair since the Reddit photo was posted.
During a one-month walk from Brisbane to Melbourne, they were in a group wearing fluoro pro-life t-shirts when angry people in a Sydney park started throwing prawn shells at them.
"We actually had a girl in our team who was strongly allergic to prawns so that was pretty dangerous. Mostly it's just passive-aggressive people shouting at us for a few moments and then they're off," he said.
The owner of Adult Wonderland Annerley, who did not want to be named, said the prayer session was the first incident in a decade which concerned her.
"As much as I don't have an issue with them expressing their points of view, they did make two women very nervous and it was late at night, it was dark. You can understand how women can get nervous," she said.
"We've never had a problem with graffiti, we've never had a problem with customers, we've never had any problems in this store. We're just a professional business."
