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
If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!
Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
Bishop Robert Brennan blesses the altar at Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Brooklyn, New York, with holy water on Nov. 4, 2023, in response to the filming of an indecent music video in the church. Assisting the bishop is Monsig… […]
Students participating in the CEDE workshop for St. John’s College High School gather for a group photo at the basilica at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., in November 2022. / Credit: Photo courtesy of CUA
CNA Staff, Apr 20, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).
When Luke Burgis moved to Silicon Valley to start a business, he never expected he would become a seminarian and then go on to launch entrepreneurship programs for Catholic students.
Burgis had attended NYU, worked on Wall Street, started several businesses in Silicon Valley, and moved to Las Vegas before deciding he wanted more meaning in his life. With the encouragement of a friend, he rekindled his Catholic faith. After five years in seminary, he ultimately discerned he would not become a priest, but he still found himself in need of deeper meaning in his work.
So he founded Catholic Entrepreneurship and Design Experience (CEDE, pronounced “seed”) in 2020 to help students across the country connect their working lives with their faith.
Four years later, CEDE is a thriving organization based at Catholic University of America (CUA) in Washington, D.C., with programs and educational materials across the world. Burgis is the entrepreneur-in-residence and assistant clinical professor of business at CUA. He has developed educational materials shared with Catholic schools and home-school communities in addition to teaching business classes at CUA.
“I didn’t understand how I could actually live out my values and be a Catholic in the business world that I was in, even after I’d had that reconversion experience,” Burgis said when asked what inspired him to found CEDE.
“But I knew that there was some gap that we had to close in Catholic education between the theoretical or the principles of Catholic social teaching and the way that it actually plays out on the ground, if you’re trying to start something,” he explained. “We launched CEDE to try to reintegrate these disciplines.”
This year, Burgis is launching a new project for CEDE — a summer entrepreneurship program for high school students. The 10-week virtual Startup Venture Challenge will teach high schoolers how to start a business.
“CEDE introduces students to basic principles of entrepreneurship within the context of Catholic social teaching and helps them understand that ultimately they are the entrepreneurs of their own lives, whether they ever start a business or not,” Burgis said.
“We’re trying to train young Catholics to think more like an entrepreneur, which means finding creative ways to solve problems or to see solutions where other people only see problems,” he said. “We think that that’s really important for all Catholics, period, and that if we had a more entrepreneurial Church, we would have a more adaptive and creative Church.”
Luke Burgis speaks at a CEDE Workshop in November 2022. Credit: Photo courtesy of CUA
But being a “Catholic entrepreneur” isn’t necessarily about starting a business, Burgis noted.
“Our goal here is not really to create more business owners,” he explained. “Our goal is to help more young Catholics in Catholic schools be equipped and confident to go out into the world, whatever their vocation is.”
Burgis wanted to connect what he learned about business with Catholic teaching.
“[At NYU] I just learned: ‘Here’s what profit is. Profit is good. Pursue it,’” he recalled. “Most of my classmates simply wanted to make as much money as they could.”
“When I left seminary, I realized that there was a real disintegration or gap between what I had learned at my Catholic schools … and what things actually look like in practice when you’re actually out there in the world trying to do things,” he explained.
CEDE’s model of education is about “experiential learning,” “creative problem-solving,” and independence and “differs” from the rules-based form of education many American students are accustomed to, Burgis said.
“That’s much of what being an entrepreneur feels like,” he said of the model. “You’re not given a roadmap, you’re not told what to do, you have to figure things out, and you have to make decisions and take responsibility for those decisions.”
Burgis said it will feel like “a challenge.”
“You’re being challenged, being given this mission,” he said. “We want to empower the students to accomplish that mission by working together and finding creative ways to solve problems on their own without being told how to do it. We actually want to make them a little uncomfortable.”
Students don’t need to have business ideas to join, as the first three weeks will be spent building up an idea. The full schedule involves a discernment stage, launching, testing, and then a resources and community stage.
“We want them to feel what it feels like to have a fire ignited within themselves, to exercise their own creativity, to take ownership of it, to take total responsibility, and to be proud of that, and to be able to serve others through their gifts and talents,” Burgis said.
The program runs from June 10 to Aug. 12 and is fully virtual and amenable to the students’ work schedules. The cost is $250, with scholarships available. Applications are open for teenagers ages 14–18.
American Flag. / Kim Hill via Flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0) filter added.
Washington D.C., Jul 5, 2021 / 07:00 am (CNA).
The Pledge of Allegiance didn’t always include the words “under God.”When it was first composed, the pledge made no reference to God… […]
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.