(Rome) This year's March for Life took place in Rome on Saturday. Tens of thousands of participants once again put a strong appearance for the right to life of unborn children. Since the March for Life in Italy has evolved into a major event within a few years, the mainstream media have moved to a new strategy. Since it is not possible to make fun of the March for Life because of lack of success, it is silenced - because it is too successful.
Daily newspapers and television, which, when politically appropriate, report about rallies from a handful of people, conceal the Seventh March for Life with thousands of participants. They have concealed it in advance, so that as few citizens as possible can know about it and come up with the idea to take part in it, and they conceal it afterwards. Success and failure are also driven by this. At least an attempted influence is also to be seen in it.
March for life Media Out, march for immigration media In
While the March for Life is largely ignored in the reporting, a simultaneous March for the Immigration in Milan found the greatest media attention. In Milan - no matter what the media acrobatics - hardly any more people took part than the march in Rome. The difference? The march for boundless immigration, organized by numerous leftist groups and some left-catholic associations, obviously fits better into someone's mind. This is not an ideological antithesis, one would like to make believe that the proponents of life are against the advocates of the immigration. It is to understand that life itself is always holy and unconditionally holy,
Thus, too, Catholicism is by no means is Catholic. The director of the Italian National Broadcasting Service frequents certain Catholic circles who were involved in the pro-immigration march in Milan, but could not be seen in the pro-life march in Rome. Correspondingly, the reporting failed. The millions of children murdered since the legalization of abortion are considered taboo in these circles.
When the march is concealed for life, this has nothing to do with the media (and those who have influence on the media). It starts in the Church itself. Behind the scenes, the legalization of euthanasia appears to be a matter of fact. Since then, the Church has been silent, as has been the case for years on the subject of abortion. If she has to talk about it, then it does not receive too much notice in the public. Above all, she does not go out into the streets for the unborn children: one should not exaggerate "the love of life", for the question is decided that the Zeitgeist is the same, the fight against it an overwrought thing of past times. Certain faithful and traditional Catholics remain, who do not want to accept the modern taboos.
Pope and bishops remain silent on abortion in Western Europe
As in the German-speaking world, the Church is also silent on abortion in Italy. This silence, of course, contains the necessary minimum, here and there a fleeting clue to signal that the Church still thinks as she always thought. Is this true? Is she really doing that yet? Doubts are appropriate. A real concern is that neither Pope Francis nor most West European bishops are concerned about the law of life. The homoeopathic dosage with which they employ themselves is lacking any initiative spirit, which is expressed elsewhere. It seems to be more a matter of appeasing those Catholics who have preserved an idea of the holiness of life. If these have occasionally dared to criticize, they may be referred to by this and that only casually.
Cardinal Caffarra: "With abortion and homosexuality, Satan challenges God"
In the run-up to the March for Life, the Rome Life Forum took place last Friday. Cardinal Carlo Caffarra said that "Satan challenges God with abortion and homosexuality". The history of mankind is a constant clash between these two forces. The final victory has already been decided, but up to that point, each man should decide, on the basis of his free will, in this struggle for one side or the other.
Today the consciousness has evaporated, "abortion is an obvious sign of the anti-creation," so says Cardinal Caffarra. The diabolic rebellion against God, which manifests itself in abortion and homosexuality, is a "sign of the apocalyptic times" that we experience, according to the Cardinal. We are not to talk about it at all. One must only have to accept and remain silent.
Riccardo Cascioli, the chief editor of Nuova Bussola Quotidiana , wrote in connection with the March for Life :
"It is no coincidence that there are voices about the establishment of a Vatican Commission even for the review of Humane Vitae. In the case of the two episcopal synods over the family, more than one bishop has raised such a demand. It is no coincidence that at the head of the Pontifical Academy for Life, Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia was put in charge, a bishop who immediately set about destroying the work of John Paul II. Even the embassies of the Italian Episcopal Conference on the Day of Life avoid talking about abortion, although the day was introduced as a direct response to the abortion legalization of 1978."
Cardinal Burke and Auxiliary Bishop Athanasius Schneider
Among the participants of the March, Cardinal Raymond Burke and Auxiliary Bishop Athanasius Schneider were again present this year. Pope Francis sent a greeting message, which can be seen as progress, in view of the coldness with which it has encountered in the past several years of the right to life initiative. At first the March for Life took place on Sunday and was led to St. Peter's Square to participate in the Regina Coeli with the Pope. Francis greeted various groups, but not the March for Life. In the meantime, a decoupling of the two events took place. Obviously the Vatican entertains a meticulous distinction between a brief papal greeting from the State Secretariat and a personal greeting from the Pope in Saint Peter's Square,
Despite the opposition of the abortion lobby, the March for Life quickly became the most important date for the Life movement and the most visible event for the unborn children in Italy. Delegations came to Rome from 20 countries on Saturday to emphasize the international importance of the commitment to the right to life.
Coda Nunziante: "A nation that does not promote life is a nation that dies"
This year the march was under the motto "Uncompromising for Life". The President of the Organizing Committee, Virginia Coda Nunziante, said in her speech:
"This place, so abundantly occupied, wants to reveal the beauty of life, but, with a firm determination from our politicians, to demand that our rulers stop financing our suicide with our taxes. Instead of killing our children, we ask for concrete help for the families so that they can raise their children. We are convinced that the economy would also recover. A nation that does not promote life is a nation that dies. And that is the demographic prediction that our country is making true."
She also referred to the 100th anniversary of Fatima Apparitions.
Coda Nunziante quoted from a letter that Sr. Lucia dos Santos had written to Cardinal Caffarra in the 1980s. In this letter, the visionary of Fatima said that the final battle between God and the devil will be on the subject of life and family. Coda Nunziante cited it for the March for the Life."Fatima is the most extraordinary event of our era. The Mother of God has come and asked us not to offend God any longer. In the hundred years since, however, the situation has deteriorated decisively, because almost all states have laws against life, against the family, and against the nature of man."
"We face this challenge in the certainty that with the help of God, life will always win over death."
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Photo: NBQ
Photo: NBQ
Trans: Tancred verkron99@hotmail.com