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.
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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A post-plenary press conference at the London headquarters of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, Nov. 19, 2021. / Mazur/catholicnews.org.uk.
London, England, Nov 19, 2021 / 13:00 pm (CNA).
The bishops of England and Wales urged Catho… […]
Pope Francis praying at the general audience on St. Peter’s Square / Daniel Ibáñez / CNA
Rome Newsroom, Nov 23, 2022 / 02:37 am (CNA).
Pope Francis used the example of several Catholic saints to explain the concept of spiritual consolation during his weekly audience on Wednesday.
“What is spiritual consolation?” he said Nov. 23. “It is a profound experience of interior joy, consisting in seeing God’s presence in everything. It strengthens faith and hope, and even the ability of doing good.”
The pope continued his teachings on the theme of discernment at his public audience in St. Peter’s Square, where he contrasted last week’s reflection on spiritual desolation with consolation, as experienced by several of the Church’s saints.
“The person who experiences consolation never gives up in the face of difficulties because he or she always experiences a peace that is stronger than any trial,” Francis said. Consolation “is, therefore, a tremendous gift for the spiritual life as well as life in general.”
Pope Francis arriving for the general audience on St. Peter’s Square, Nov. 23, 2022. Daniel Ibáñez / CNA
The pope began his explanation by drawing from the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, who wrote about rules for the discernment of spirits.
Francis said “consolation is an interior movement that touches our depths. It is not flashy but soft, delicate, like a drop of water on a sponge.”
He went on to describe consolation as not “a passing euphoria,” nor something which tries to force our will or inhibit our freedom. “Even the suffering caused, for example, by our own sins can become a reason for consolation,” he added.
St. Augustine was consoled when he spoke with his mother, St. Monica, about the beauty of eternal life, the pope said. And St. Francis of Assisi experienced perfect joy despite the difficult situations he had to bear.
“Let’s think of the many saints who were able to do great things not because they thought they were magnificent or capable, but because they had been conquered by the peaceful
sweetness of God’s love,” Pope Francis said. “This is the peace that St. Ignatius discovered in himself with such amazement when he would read the lives of the saints.”
The pope also quoted St. Edith Stein, who is also known by the name she took in religious life: Teresa Benedicta of the Cross.
A year after her baptism as a Christian, following her conversion from Judaism, St. Edith Stein wrote about her interior feeling of peace: “As I abandon myself to this feeling, little by little a new life begins to fill me and — without any pressure on my will — to drive me toward new realizations. This living inpouring seems to spring from an activity and it gives a strength that is not mine and which, without doing me any violence, becomes active in me.”
Francis emphasized the importance of action following consolation.
“Consolation is such peace, but not to sit there enjoying it, no, it gives you peace and draws you to the Lord and sets you on a path to do things, to do good things,” he said.
“In a time of consolation, when we are consoled, we get the desire to do so much good, always. Instead, when there is a time of desolation, we get the urge to close in on ourselves and do nothing. Consolation pushes you forward, in service to others, to society, to people.”
He recalled when St. Therese of the Child Jesus, at the age of 14, visited the Basilica of the Holy Cross of Jerusalem in Rome.
The girl from Lisieux, France, “tried to touch the nail venerated there, one of the nails with which Jesus was crucified,” the pope said. “Therese understood her daring as a transport of love and confidence. Later, she wrote, ‘I truly was too audacious. But the Lord sees the depths of our hearts. He knows my intention was pure […] I acted with him as a child who believes everything is permissible and who considers the Father’s treasures their own.’”
This, Pope Francis said, is a “splendid description of spiritual consolation.”
“We can feel a sense of tenderness toward God that makes us audacious in our desire to participate in his own life, to do what is pleasing to him because we feel familiar with him, we feel that his house is our house, we feel welcome, loved, restored,” he added.
Consolation gives one the strength to continue in the face of difficulty, Francis said, pointing to St. Therese’s request to the pope to enter the Carmelite order even though she was too young.
According to the pope, St. Bernard teaches us about consolation and discernment, especially the pitfall of “false consolations.”
“If an authentic consolation is like a drop on a sponge, is soft and intimate, its imitations are noisier and flashier, like straw fires, lacking substance, leading us to close in on ourselves and not to take care of others,” Francis said. This is where discernment comes in.
“False consolation can become a danger if we seek it obsessively as an end in itself, forgetting the Lord,” he pointed out. “As St. Bernard would say, this is like seeking the consolations of God rather than the God of consolations.”
There is a risk of treating our relationship with God in a childish way, he concluded, “of reducing it to an object that we use and consume, losing the most beautiful gift which is God himself.”
Our Lady of Fatima statue in Fatima, Portugal. / Photo courtesy of Shrine of Fatima
ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 7, 2023 / 16:00 pm (CNA).
“I opened my eyes and I could see perfectly,” said Jimena, a 16-year-old Spanish World Youth Day pilgrim who sai… […]
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.