Photos: Thousands take part in Italy’s pro-life march

Rome, Italy, Jun 22, 2024 / 16:35 pm (CNA).

Thousands of people from across Italy braved the summer heat to join the national Demonstration for Life in Rome on the afternoon of June 22.

“Let’s Choose Life” was the motto of the annual procession, which began at 2 p.m. in Rome’s Piazza della Repubblica, close to the city’s main Termini train station.

The slow march continued almost one mile down the Via Nazionale before reaching the area of the ancient Imperial Forum, where a rally with speeches and musical performances was held.

“There is no compromise on human life!” Pope Francis said in a message sent to organizers ahead of the march.

He thanked participants for their “commitment and public witness in defense of human life from conception to natural death,” and urged them to “go forward with courage despite every adversity.”

“The stakes, namely the absolute dignity of human life, the gift of God the Creator, are too high to be the object of compromise or mediation,” Francis wrote.

The pope also invited families to bear witness to “the beauty of life and of the family that welcomes it,” in order to build “a society that rejects the culture of waste at every stage of existence: from the most fragile unborn child to the suffering elderly, passing through the victims of trafficking, slavery and every war.”

Massimo Gandolfini, one of the spokespersons for the annual protest against abortion, said earlier this year that the organization is calling on Italy’s political leaders to create “structural public reforms to encourage the marriage of young couples, incentivize the birth rate and support parenting by mothers and fathers by reshaping taxation and social services to be family-friendly.”