‘Rosary bishop’ says Pope Francis’ May prayer marathon feels like ‘divine confirmation’

“Abortion is a crime disguised as a solution” and “The size of your body doesn’t take away your rights” are among the signs held high by pro-life marchers in Madrid, Spain, on Sunday, March 10, 2024. / Credit: Nicolás de Cárdenas/ACI Prensa

ACI Prensa Staff, Mar 11, 2024 / 17:00 pm (CNA).

In a festive atmosphere, thousands of people took to the streets of Madrid, Spain, on Sunday to participate in the annual March for Life with the theme “Yes to Life” in an event that featured powerful testimonies.

“It’s time to unmask the lies, horrors, businesses, and ideologies that sustain the culture of death and assume responsibility for repairing, healing, and making possible the culture of life and true progress,” the organizers of the pro-life event emphasized in their manifesto for the event.

Before the start of the march, the president of the Spanish Federation of Pro-Life Associations, Alicia Latorre, told the media that the objective of the march is to say “yes” to life especially “at this time when there are special attacks, not only by the laws but also against those who defend life.”

Latorre charged that “they want to turn into rights acts that are objectively perverse and that benefit no one. Not only do they take the lives of the unborn or the sick who are at the end of their life, but they also scar every person who participates in these acts and also society.”

Some of those attending the march carried banners that read “Abortion is a crime disguised as a solution,” “The size of your body doesn’t take away your rights,” “Life is valuable from its beginning to its natural end,” and “Praying is not harassment.” A group of participants marched behind a banner with the line from Luke’s Gospel “Blessed is the fruit of your womb.”

At the end of the march route, a stage was set up on Paseo de la Castellana, Madrid’s main thoroughfare, where the manifesto was read and two powerful testimonies were given.

‘Just because life isn’t easy doesn’t make it any less beautiful’

Paloma Zafrilla is the sister of Carlos, a young man who is 96% disabled. “He’s like a 6-month-old child,” Zafrilla told the assembled crowd. “He is 26 years old, but he doesn’t walk, he doesn’t talk, he doesn’t communicate. He is exactly like a baby. What he does do is smile and complain when something is bothering him,” she explained.

When her brother was diagnosed at 7 months old, his parents were pressured to not have more children “because they didn’t know how they might turn out, if the diagnosis were to be repeated” and they even told them “that it was very selfish to bring children into the world who could live with this misfortune, with this tragedy,” Zafrilla said.

“They even told me how could we take care of little Carlos, that in the end there was no quality of life. I can only assure you that there is no greater life than what is in my house. And especially everything is due to my brother,” she recounted, while also acknowledging that living with a disabled person isn’t easy.

Nevertheless, she added: “Just because life isn’t easy doesn’t make it any less beautiful, of course. And in this case it is quite the opposite. It’s much more fun. And it makes you look at everything with a much more special perspective,” she said to the resounding applause of those present.

Before concluding her remarks, Zafrilla observed that “a life is never less of a life according to what your abilities are, because we are not machines and our value is not based on what we produce.”

‘Half a heart trotting like a horse’

Clara and Diego, along with their three children, also gave their testimony. Their youngest child, Felipe, was diagnosed at 20 weeks with congenital heart disease (hypoplastic single ventricle syndrome). His mother stated that she and her husband were told that the boy wasn’t going to make it to birth. 

During the first ultrasound at 6 weeks, Clara recounted, they heard the baby’s “half heart trotting like a horse.” When the parents were told of the diagnosis, they were given “a short and bad, catastrophic life prognosis,” she said.

Throughout the pregnancy, the doctors asked them if they were prepared “because it was going to be quite a complicated life,” to which Clara commented: “I think we can all say that we have complicated lives, regardless of whether there is an illness or not. And in this case, yes, it has been complicated, but full of joy.”

However, the terrible outcome didn’t materialize and the determination of Felipe’s parents made the doctors work hard to save the child. “They went all out,” Clara acknowledged, to the point that this case led to the first child organ transplant being performed in 2021 with the donor in asystole, a type of cardiac arrest and the blood type being incompatible.

Regarding her older children, Clara says proudly: “They are prepared for the suffering, the illness, and the death they know can come. They are prepared for that as well as going to the park.”

Clara concluded her remarks by encouraging everyone to overcome the fear that arises in these situations: “It paralyzes you. But any decision based on love, which is to pursue life, is well made. You are a good mother and you are a mother, even if your eyes don’t see that ultrasound because they don’t want to show it to you, even if your ears don’t hear it, you’re still a mother.”

The event concluded with releasing balloons into the sky and a live ultrasound of a baby at 25 weeks, whose beating heart was all that could be heard.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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CNA Staff, Dec 9, 2020 / 08:00 am (CNA).- The Church in Belarus appealed for prayers Tuesday after police detained two Catholic priests.

Catholic.by, the website of the Catholic Church in Belarus, said Dec. 8 that police had seized Fr. Viktar Zhuk S.J… […]

London, England, Sep 1, 2017 / 10:52 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, who served as Archbishop of Westminster for nine years, from 2000-2009, died Friday at the age of 85 after a brief hospitalization. He was well known for his efforts to promote unity between Catholics and Anglicans.

“I am writing to let you know the sad news that Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor died peacefully this afternoon, surrounded by his family and friends,” Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster wrote to his archdiocese Sept. 1.

“Please pray for the repose of his soul. Pray, too, for his family, and those many friends and colleagues from the Diocese and far beyond who mourn his loss.”

Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor was admitted to hospital last month. After his admission, he had written to Cardinal Nichols, his successor at Westminster, asking him to share the news of his illness so that the clergy of England and Wales might pray for him.

“As you will know so clearly, for Cardinal Cormac these loving prayers are a source of great strength and comfort as he calmly ponders on all that lies ahead, all in God’s good time,” Cardinal Nichols wrote Aug. 19.

In a letter to Cardinal Nichols published the day of his death, Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor had written: “At this time, the words I pray every night are never far from my thoughts: ‘Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit’ … I have received many blessings in my life, especially from my family and friends. I thank God for the many priests, religious and lay faithful who have helped and sustained me in my Episcopal life.”

“Above all, as I now commend myself to the loving mercy of God, I ask them all to pray for me as I remember and pray for them,” the cardinal had written.

Born in Reading Aug. 24, 1932 to an Irish family, Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor studied at the Venerable English College and the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome starting in 1950, and was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Portsmouth Oct. 28, 1956.

After 15 years as a parish priest, he was appointed rector of the Venerable English College at the end of 1971. As rector, he was also the host to Donald Coggan, the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, who visited Bl. Paul VI in Rome in 1977. It was only the third time that an Archbishop of Canterbury and a Pope had met in Rome since the Church of England split from the Holy See.

In November 1977 Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor was appointed Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, where he served until he was transferred to the Archdiocese of Westminster in 2000. He was made a cardinal by St. John Paul II the following year.

While head of the Westminster archdiocese, he also served as president of the English and Welsh bishops’ conference, and was a member of several Vatican dicasteries.

His retirement as archbishop, at the age of 76, was accepted by Benedict XVI in April 2009.

Although unusual for a retired bishop, he was appointed a member of the Congregation of Bishops and the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples in October 2009. He served in these congregations until his 80th birthday.

While Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, he served for 18 years as Co-Chairman of the Anglican and Roman Catholic International Commission. He was also chairman of the English and Welsh bishops’ Committee for Christian Unity from 1983 and chairman of the Department for Mission and Unity from 1994.

In recognition of his work for Christian unity throughout his episcopate, the cardinal was awarded an honorary doctorate of divinity by George Carey, Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, in 2000.

He was criticized when it was discovered that as Bishop of Arundel and Brighton he had failed to report a priest, Fr. Michael Hill, who was convicted for child sexual abuse in 1997. After this incident, Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor invited the judge Lord Nolan in 2000 to investigate the issue of pedophile priests and child protection in the Catholic Church in England and Wales.

The Nolan Report was published in 2001. As a result of the report, the Church in England and Wales formed the Catholic Office for the Protection of Children and Vulnerable Adults to centrally manage applications through the Criminal Records Bureau ensuring thorough background checks of anyone working with children or vulnerable adults.

In 2002, Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor launched a spiritual renewal program in Westminster which during its three years brought together 20,000 people in regular weekly faith groups throughout the diocese.

It was also in 2002 that he became the first member of the Catholic hierarchy to deliver a sermon to an English monarch since 1680. At the invitation of Queen Elizabeth II, he gave a homily for members of the royal family during the Anglican morning service at Sandringham, the queen’s country residence in Norfolk.

Justin Welby, the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, said Friday that Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor’s death “represents a loss to his innumerable friends, to the church and to the country … his humility, sense and holiness made him a church leader of immense impact.”

“His words and his life drew people to God. His genial warmth, pastoral concern and genuine love for those in his care will be missed, but also celebrated with thanks. May he rest in peace and rise in glory.”

Funeral arrangements for the cardinal have yet to be announced.

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