Members of an Italian pro-life and pro-family organization marched in the “Demonstration for Life” May 20, 2023, with a banner saying “There’s life in the mother’s womb. Let’s care for it. #stopabortion” / Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Rome Newsroom, May 20, 2023 / 12:48 pm (CNA).
Thousands of individuals, families, and young people braved the cool, rainy weather to march in Italy’s national “Demonstration for Life” in Rome on Saturday afternoon.
The walk May 20 started at Rome’s Piazza della Repubblica, close to the central Termini train station, and slowly wound its way past the Basilica of St. Mary Major, down the thoroughfare of Merulana Street, to the square in front of the Basilica of St. John Lateran. The route was about 1.2 miles.
Formerly called the “March for Life,” the name was changed last year when new leadership took over the event.
The president of the organizing group, Massimo Gandolfini, told EWTN News earlier this month that the demonstration is not associated with a specific political party.
“We do politics with a capital ‘P’,” the neurosurgeon and adoptive father of seven said. “That is, defense of life, defense of the natural family, defense of the educational freedom of parents. This is our politics…”
He said the goals of the organization include establishing a national day for unborn life and a government fund to help pregnant women in difficulty. They also hope to cultivate more recognition of the beauty of motherhood in the culture.
Gandolfini added that the organizers are opposed to the legalization in Italy of euthanasia, assisted suicide, and surrogacy.
“We are strongly opposed to all of these because first of all there is the right of the child,” he said.
The event concluded with speakers and a rally outside the Basilica of St. John Lateran.
Members of an Italian pro-life and pro-family organization marched in the “Demonstration for Life” May 20, 2023, with a banner saying “There’s life in the mother’s womb. Let’s care for it. #stopabortion”. Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Participants braved the rain to march in Italy’s national “Demonstration for Life” in central Rome on May 20, 2023. Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Young women hold signs saying “every child deserves a birthday” and “the unborn baby is one of us” at Italy’s national “Demonstration for Life” in Rome May 20, 2023. Daniel Ibanez/CNA
A crowd of people participated in Italy’s national “Demonstration for Life” in central Rome on May 20, 2023. Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Marchers in Italy’s national “Demonstration for Life” in central Rome on May 20, 2023. Daniel Ibanez/CNA
EWTN News interviews two young men at Italy’s national “Demonstration for Life” in central Rome on May 20, 2023. Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Young religious sisters attended Italy’s national “Demonstration for Life” in central Rome on May 20, 2023. Daniel Ibanez/CNA
“We choose life” was the motto of Italy’s national “Demonstration for Life,” held in central Rome on May 20, 2023. Daniel Ibanez/CNA
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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 8, 2022 / 12:00 pm (CNA).
An abortion clinic outside Washington, D.C., is preparing to open its doors to women seeking abortions into the third trimester of pregnancy.The co-owner identifi… […]
St. Hedwig’s Cathedral in Berlin, Germany. / Cedric BLN via Wikimedia (Public domain).
CNA Newsroom, Jun 19, 2023 / 16:40 pm (CNA).
Ahead of a crucial meeting on the German Synodal Way, one diocese has signaled its opposition to plans for turning the controversial event into a permanent Synodal Council — a new controlling body of the Church in Germany.
The official for the Synodal Way in the Diocese of Regensburg, cathedral chapter Josef Kreiml, warned that the preparatory work for a German Synodal Council contradicts a clear instruction from the Vatican, reported CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner.
The prelate also said that the concept of synodality underlying the Synodal Way isn’t in line with either canon law or the ideas of Pope Francis.
The bishops of Germany’s 27 dioceses are expected to make landmark decisions at their meeting in Berlin on June 19-20 regarding the establishment and funding of the so-called Synodal Committee, which is to then establish a permanent German Synodal Council by 2026.
Some bishops had reportedly considered blocking the move by not providing funds for the body, which could prevent a permanent superstructure overseeing the Church in Germany modeled on the German Synodal Way.
The German Synodal Way was a multi-year process initiated by Cardinal Reinhard Marx and co-organized by the German Bishops’ Conference and the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), a lay body financed by the German bishops. Its official purpose was to discuss four main issues: the way power is exercised in the church, sexual morality, the priesthood, and the role of women.
The process was criticized by many cardinals and bishops from around the world, as well as by Pope Francis, who warned of disunity and schism in his 2019 letter to German Catholics.
The Vatican has issued a statement saying that the Synodal Way does not have the authority to oblige bishops and the faithful to accept new forms of governance and new orientations in doctrine and morals.
Citing these statements, Kreiml said that the Synodal Way had greatly interfered with the forms of ecclesial governance and had disregarded the general law of the Church, its sacramental constitution, and the proper duties of the bishops.
He urged the German bishops to respect the unity of the Church and to follow papal guidance on synodality.
Pope Francis and other Church leaders have expressed serious concerns about plans to create a permanent synodal council for the German Church.
Such a body would function “as a consultative and decision-making body on essential developments in the Church and society,” according to a Synodal Way proposal.
More importantly, it would “make fundamental decisions of supra-diocesan significance on pastoral planning, questions of the future, and budgetary matters of the Church that are not decided at the diocesan level.”
Warning of a threat of a new schism from Germany, the Vatican already intervened in July 2022 against a German synodal council.
In January 2023, the Vatican asserted “that neither the Synodal Way, nor any body established by it, nor any bishops’ conference has the competence to establish the ‘synodal council’ at the national, diocesan, or parish level.”
A Soviet-style council in Berlin?
In June 2022, Cardinal Walter Kasper, a theologian considered close to Pope Francis, said there could be no Synodal Council, given Church history and theology.
“Synods cannot be institutionally made permanent. The tradition of the Church does not know a synodal Church government,” he said. “A synodal supreme council, as is now envisaged, has no basis in the entire history of the constitution. It would not be a renewal but an unheard-of innovation.”
Cardinal Walter Kasper. . CNA/Bohumil Petrik.
The president emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, who was bishop of the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart from 1989 to 1999, said the German process had invited comparisons to communist structures in the Soviet Union. “It was a political scientist, not a theologian, who recently expressed this notion somewhat strongly, referring to such a Synodal Council as a Supreme Soviet,” Kasper said.
The cardinal continued: “‘Soviet’ is an old Russian word that means exactly what we call a ‘Rat,’ a council in German. Such a Supreme Soviet in the Church would obviously not be a good idea. Such a council system is not a Christian idea, but an idea coming from quite a different spirit or un-spirit.”
The German theologian and prelate also warned this “would choke off the freedom of the Spirit, which blows where and when it wants, and destroy the structure that Christ wanted for his Church.”
Further concerns were raised by a professor of theology from the University of Vienna in June.
The dogmatist Jan-Heiner Tück warned that a German Synodal Council would transfer leadership authority “from sacramentally ordained persons to bodies, a conversion of power that shows a clear closeness to synodal practices in the Protestant Church in Germany.”
Aug. 17 rally in support of the Hyde amendment in Raleigh, North Carolina / Erin Paré/Twitter
Washington D.C., Oct 18, 2021 / 17:30 pm (CNA).
A Senate committee introduced nine budget bills on Monday that would roll back several pro-life policie… […]
3 Comments
Life is sacred and a precious gift. Long live life.
The most dangerous place in the world for a child today is within her own mother’s womb.
Godspeed to these people who are taking to the streets in Italy.
Considering the billion-plus children around the world whose deaths we have advocated for, sponsored and/or financed, it’s hard to fault the Iranian ayatollahs’ characterization of America as “the great Satan.”
You Catholics who vote for Democrats, look to your souls.
Life is sacred and a precious gift. Long live life.
More and more, I’m seeing the motto “pro-life and pro-family”. Yes!
The most dangerous place in the world for a child today is within her own mother’s womb.
Godspeed to these people who are taking to the streets in Italy.
Considering the billion-plus children around the world whose deaths we have advocated for, sponsored and/or financed, it’s hard to fault the Iranian ayatollahs’ characterization of America as “the great Satan.”
You Catholics who vote for Democrats, look to your souls.