Hope Pregnancy Center in Philadelphia had four windows and three glass doors smashed sometimes between Friday, June 10 and Saturday, June 11, 2022. / Courtesy Hope Pregnancy Center
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A pro… […]
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) speaks in front of the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., on June 9, 2022. / Screenshot taken from Twitter video by Ford Fischer
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Pope Francis waves to the crowd of sone 25,000 people gathered for his Regina Caeli address in St. Peter’s Square in Rome on May 22, 2022. / Vatican Media
Vatican City, May 22, 2022 / 08:20 am (CNA).
Pope Francis praised a pro-life event in Rome and offered comments defending the dignity of life on Sunday.
According to the website for the national Scegliamo la vita (Let’s Choose Life) event, the May 22 gathering intended to affirm the dignity of human life from conception to natural death. Videos and photos on the event’s Facebook page shows crowds marching and singing with signs and music.
The pope greeted participants in the event after praying the Regina Caeli in St. Peter’s Square in Rome.
“I thank you for your dedication in promoting life and defending conscientious objection, which there are often attempts to limit,” he said.
“Sadly,” the pope continued, “in these last years, there has been a change in the common mentality, and today we are more and more led to think that life is a good at our complete disposal, that we can choose to manipulate, to give birth or take life as we please, as if it were the exclusive consequence of individual choice.”
Pope Francis flatly rejected that view.
“Let us remember that life is a gift from God!” he said. “It is always sacred and inviolable, and we cannot silence the voice of conscience.”
Pope Francis’ pro-life comments came after he offered a reflection on Jesus’ words to the disciples at the Last Supper in Sunday’s Gospel reading from John, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.” The Holy Father said that “no one can leave others peace if they do not have it within themselves, emphasizing that the peace that Jesus is referring to comes from the Holy Spirit and is a “gift of God.”
Pope Francis’ comments defending life come at a time when the highest court in the United States nears the possible overturning of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark decision that legalized abortion nationwide.
In early May, a draft of a Supreme Court opinion that showed the court was poised to overturn Roe was leaked by the news outlet Politico.
Shortly after the leak, pro-abortion advocates began protesting at the court, in front of justices’ homes, and even in Catholic churches around the country. Additional security measures have been taken to protect the justices and the court itself, as a fence has recently been built surrounding the court.
However, if Roe is overturned, abortion will not be outlawed nationwide. The Mississippi abortion case in consideration, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, would give states the exclusive right to legislate on abortion.
Still, some states have “trigger laws” which automatically outlaw abortion if Roe is overturned. You can learn more about which states have those laws here.
Ultrasound image. / Courtesy of Matter of Life
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Vandalism at St. John XXIII parish in Fort Collins, Colo., May 7, 2022. / Eileen Pulse
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Co-chairs of Harvard Right to Life, Olivia Glunz (right) and Ava Swanson (left) led a pro-life demonstration on Harvard University’s campus on May 4, 2022, in response to a pro-abortion rally on campus. / Joe Bukuras/CNA
Cambridge, Massachusetts, May 6, 2022 / 17:03 pm (CNA).
Being a pro-life student on most secular campuses was never easy, but it has taken a dramatically more intense turn now that a May 2 draft ruling of the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization which suggested that the Supreme Court was poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, has been leaked to the public.
In response, angry students have been shown in videos posted online shouting profanities and insults at their pro-life schoolmates.
Those same, raw emotions were on display May 4 at Harvard University, one of the world’s premiere academic institutions. That afternoon, about three dozen members of the school’s pro-life group, Harvard Right to Life, were subjected to a slew of insults and obscenities when they staged a counter-demonstration in response to a rally of about 70 students protesting the possible overturning of the Roe decision.
One passerby called the group the “Harvard Virgins Club.” In response to another verbal attack, a member of the pro-life group responded, “We love you so much!”
“No you don’t!” the passerby shouted back. “You don’t love me at all! You want me to be a Jesus freak like the rest of you!”
A pro-lifer responded back, “God bless you sir!” An additional pro-lifer said, “We love you guys! We love you!”
Despite the rough treatment, pro-life students told CNA they won’t be intimidated.
Olivia Glunz, a 19-year-old freshman and co-chair of Harvard Right to Life, told CNA that now that the Dobbs’ draft decision has been leaked, she thinks there will be significant pushback directed at pro-life voices on campus.
“But at the same time,” she added, “I think it’s more important to speak out now.”
Glunz said that the leaked decision will give the pro-life movement motivation. Those who may have been too afraid to speak up about their pro-life beliefs may now be more inclined to speak up, she added.
That motivation is exactly what pushed Glunz to lead the Harvard Right to Life’s May 4 demonstration, which she says is the student pro-life group’s first “public facing” event on campus since before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Glunz, of Yardley, Pennsylvania, told CNA that she felt uncomfortable being screamed at and insulted, but added that she wasn’t surprised, either.
Glunz said that the visceral reactions from pro-choice students towards their signs and chants “cemented” her pro-life convictions. She added, “I think comparing the anger of the other side to our joy and cheer was really telling.”
The “joy and cheer” that Glunz was referring to consisted of positive chants such as “Love them both,” and the singing of Civil War hymns like “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”
Ava Swanson, a 20-year-old sophomore and co-president of Harvard Right to Life, told CNA that being pro-life at the Ivy League school entails “tip-toeing around a lot” because many pro-life students are “really worried” about what their friends will think if they discover their pro-life views.
Some students have told Swanson they could never be friends with a pro-lifer, but she noted that in some cases they have been open to discussing the issue once they’ve learned she is opposed to abortion.
© Catholic World Report