Thousands march for life in London

Joe Bukuras   By Joe Bukuras for CNA

September 5, 2023 Catholic News Agency News Briefs 0 Print

 

Law enforcement estimated 7,000 attended the March for Life in London, England. / March for Life UK

Boston, Mass., Sep 5, 2023 / 13:50 pm (CNA).

Thousands of people stood up for the unborn on Saturday at the March for Life in London, England.

The ninth annual march processed through the city of Westminster in London, and ended at the Houses of Parliament.

Law enforcement estimated about 7,000 people attended the march according to a press release from March for Life UK.

In 2021, there were 214,256 abortions in England and Wales, according to the UK government’s website. Abortion was legalized in England, Scotland, and Wales, under the Abortion Act in 1967. In 2022, Parliament voted to permanently allow women in England and Wales to self-administer both abortion pills, mifepristone and misoprostol, without first visiting a hospital or clinic.

At-home abortions were previously allowed under a temporary status.

A law passed in February this year makes it illegal for any person within 150 meters of an abortion clinic to influence a woman’s decision to “access, provide or facilitate the provision of abortion services at an abortion clinic.”

The March for Life included training sessions on how to engage with the public on the issue of abortion were offered. Attendees sang songs and pro-life chants and held signs as they marched for life, the organization said.

“Abortion destroys the freedom to live,” one sign said. “Life from conception, no exception,” another sign said. Many signs shown in photos online included religious imagery, including depictions of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

A number of counter-protesters were present as well. One video circulating on social media shows a counter-protester making a vulgar hand gesture to a pro-life attendee who appears to be a priest.

He can be heard responding “I love you.”

Religious leaders from different denominations participated in the rally including those from the Catholic Church. Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster John Sherrington, Bishop Richard Moth of the Diocese of Arundel & Brighton, Bishop John Keenan of the Diocese of Paisley in Scotland, and the ordinary of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham Monsignor Keith Newton were in attendance.

With a theme “Freedom to Live,” the human rights demonstration was co-directed by Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, who was arrested in December 2022 for praying outside a Birmingham abortion clinic.

Vaughan-Spruce in February was acquitted of charges related to a local order that censors speech in the area around abortion clinics.

She was arrested for violating the same order by praying in front of an abortion clinic weeks later.

Vaughan-Spruce told CNA on Tuesday that she is still waiting to hear if charges will be pressed against her and that she is still praying outside the abortion clinic on a weekly basis.

“On the second time I was arrested I was told my prayers were an offense. I’ll tell you what is offensive. That our country has the highest ever abortion figures, 100,000 of them annually being repeat abortions and the only response we see happening in our government is a clamp down on those who peacefully offer alternatives to pregnant women,” Vaughan-Spruce said in a speech at the march.

Father Sean Gough  — a Catholic priest of the Archdiocese of Birmingham — also addressed a group of young people at the march. Gough was charged and later acquitted this past year for breaking a local censorship order on free speech for holding a sign that said “praying for free speech” near a Birmingham abortion clinic.

March for Life UK said in its release that a young woman’s talk about the regret she experienced after having three abortions were “the most moving words of the day” even though pro-abortion counter protesters were trying to “shout her down.”

“I think I can speak for every post-abortive woman [standing] here today that abortion didn’t grant us freedom, but made us captives in one way or another,” the young woman, Ellie, said.

The March for Life in the UK will be back for its 10th anniversary next year. Co-director of the march, Ben Thatcher said at the event that his hope is for the march to reach 10,000 attendees, according to the press release.

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What a missionary to North Korea told the Knights of Columbus convention

August 2, 2017 CNA Daily News 0

St. Louis, Mo., Aug 2, 2017 / 03:20 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Service to the poor on the peripheries of society was a theme of the 2017 Knights of Columbus States Dinner held Tuesday evening in St. Louis.

“I stand before you in deep gratitude for your love and concern for hearing the cry of the poor,” Fr. Gerard Hammond, M.M. told those in attendance at the States Dinner at the annual Knights of Columbus international convention Aug. 1.

“May we always embrace those who need our mercy and compassion.”

Fr. Hammond, a Maryknoll missionary to North Korea, received the Gaudium et Spes Award from Supreme Knight Carl Anderson at the dinner.

The award, named after Vatican II’s pastoral constitution on the Church in the modern world, is the highest honor bestowed by the Knights of Columbus and is given to persons “for their exemplary contributions to the realization of the message of faith and service in the spirit of Christ.”

St. Theresa of Calcutta was the first person to receive the award in 1992. On the award medal is an image of Venerable Fr. Michael McGivney, founder of the Knights of Columbus, comforting a widow and an orphan.

The Knights of Columbus is a worldwide Catholic men’s organization founded in 1882 by Fr. McGivney “to strengthen the faith of Catholic men” and to “protect their families,” in the words of Supreme Knight and CEO Carl Anderson. Since its founding it has grown into an international organization with over 1.9 million members.

This week, around 2,000 Knights from North and South America, Africa, Asia, and Europe meet in St. Louis for the 135th international convention. The theme of this year’s convention is “Convinced of God’s Love and Power.”

Fr. Hammond received his award for his missionary work in North Korea. He has made 50 trips into the country since 1995 to treat patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis.

Although he is not allowed by the North Korean government to proselytize, he still tries carry out his priestly mission through serving the sick as an “apostle of peace” and to bring “hope for the voiceless.”

Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, introducing Fr. Hammond at the dinner, said that in the spirit of Gaudium et Spes, Fr. Hammond “has taken upon himself the ‘griefs and anxieties’ of those who are ‘poor and afflicted,’ as he seeks to share with them, through compassionate action, the ‘joys and hopes’ of faith in Jesus Christ.”

Fr. Hammond has “exemplified the call of Pope Francis to go to the peripheries,” Archbishop Lori said.

“God’s heart has a special place for the poor, so much so that he himself ‘became poor’,” the archbishop said. “The entire history of our redemption is marked by the presence of the poor.”

Later on Tuesday evening, Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, Archbishop Emeritus of Krakow and former personal secretary to Pope St. John Paul II, praised the Knights for spreading the messages of mercy and the Gospel all over the world.

“The Knights of Columbus embraced the message of Divine Mercy proclaimed by the Pope from Kraków, and they proclaim this message in a world affected by various forms of injustice and violence,” he said in his remarks at the dinner.

Pope Francis has taught us to see to see “the other,” our neighbor,” as a “gift,” Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, president of the U.S. bishops’ conference, said on Tuesday at the dinner.   

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, he said that the two men who passed by the wounded man were “looking to self-interest, looking to other things.” The Good Samaritan, however, “tosses aside any consideration except love of neighbor. His help and generosity is excessive.”

Furthermore, he said, Christ teaches that “there is no more boundary when it comes to ‘who are you neighbor to’?” The Knights of Columbus live this teaching out, he said, helping everyone – the immigrant, the refugee, or the Christian displaced from their home.

Cardinal DiNardo also urged those in attendance to join in solidarity with Eastern Rite Catholics who are fasting before the Great Feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God. He asked Latin rite Catholics to pray and fast for persecuted Christians in the days leading up to the Assumption.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Vatican sent a message to the convention assuring those in attendance of the “good wishes” and prayers of Pope Francis.

“The Holy Father has often observed that in our own day a new world war is being fought piecemeal, as an ungodly thirst for power and domination, whether economic, political, or military, is leading to untold violence, injustice and suffering in our human family,” Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, said in his written message delivered at the opening business session of the convention.

Pope Francis, he said, “has asked Christians everywhere, truly convinced of the infinite power of God’s love, to reject this mentality and to combat the growth of a global culture of indifference that discards the least of our brothers and sisters.”

Cardinal Parolin asked the Knights to “respond generously to this challenge” through working for the “sanctification of the world from within” in their lay vocation.

He also noted Pope Francis’ appreciation for the Knights upholding “the sanctity of marriage and the dignity and beauty of family life,” as well as the organization’s aid to persecuted Christians in the Middle East.

[…]

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