March for Life: the day the pro-life movement came to London [CatholicHerald]

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  1. World Press

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    March for Life: the day the pro-life movement came to London

    by Corinna Turner
    posted Monday, 7 May 2018

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    The March for Life came to London for the first time this year – and made itself heard

    March for Life 2018 was an event filled with firsts, not least that it was in London! As Bishop John Keenan said: “Well done to Birmingham for beginning it in 2012. The move to London shows that the pro-Life movement has taken on prominence. This is truly an international march.” An estimated 4,000 people (a record!) marched in glorious weather, finishing—for the first time—outside the very place where the abortion laws were made—and where they could be struck down.

    The March was preceded by the first ever All Night Vigil for Life at the Dominican Rosary Shrine. At the opening Mass, Abbot Christopher Jamison OSB drew the connection between the English Martyrs (whose feast day it was), the modern martyrs—such as the 21 Coptic Christians martyred in Libya in 2014—and the slaughter of the unborn.

    A torch-lit Eucharistic rosary procession and a talk on Our Lady of Guadeloupe followed. At midnight a good turnout of stalwarts settled in for the duration as Silent Adoration continued through the night. As the morning sun bathed the Exposition throne and its Divine Occupant in glorious light, the Vigil concluded with Benediction followed by Mass.

    It was time to head off to a LifeFest taking place entirely undercover (another first!) in the luxurious De Vere Connaught rooms. Naturally, since we had a roof this year, the rain stayed away—but no one was complaining! A morning programme bursting with talks, workshops, and activities wrapped up at midday, as everyone—or at least as many as could fit!—crowded into the Grand Hall.

    There was silence as Christie Spurling, CEO of N-Gage, who was conceived in rape, addressed the crowd—but as Clare McCullough from the Good Counsel Network told us later, sometimes police will tell a woman pregnant after rape that unless she has an abortion, they will not believe she has been raped!

    There was silence as Charlotte Fien, (the first person with Down Syndrome to address a March for Life), spoke about how Ireland is one of the only countries in the world where people with her condition are safe in the womb—90% of mainland UK babies with Down Syndrome are aborted up to birth.

    The first celebrity to attend the march was up last, Joy Villa, who recently scandalised mainstream culture by wearing a pro-life dress to the Grammies: “Today we are going to rock London for Life! Let them see how loving and joyful we are and let their hearts and minds be changed!”

    Then it was time to march—for the first time—through the busy, sun-soaked streets of London. “We’re here to stand for life and because Jesus wants us to be here,” said Sr Faustina of the Franciscans of the Renewal.

    “I believe in true justice and that everyone has a right to life,” said Fiona Johnston, who’d travelled down from Newcastle. “Everyone has the entitlement to feel the sun, the wind, to see the flowers, the mountains and the sky, and to feel love. I notice everyone who is for abortion has already been born.”


    Click here for the rest of the article:
    http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/com...the-day-the-pro-life-movement-came-to-london/