WASHINGTON (OSV News) – Tens of thousands of pro-life advocates descended upon the US capital for the 50th March for Life on Januart 20 — the first national march since the overturn of the US Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that initially prompted the annual demonstration.

Standing on the event stage at the National Mall, with the US Capitol visible in the background, Jeanne Mancini, March for Life president, told attendees at a rally prior to the march that “the country and world changed” when Roe was reversed in June 2022. But she said the annual March for Life would continue in Washington until abortion is “unthinkable”.

“While the March began as a response to Roe, we don’t end as a response to Roe being overturned,” Mancini said. “Why? Because we are not yet done.”

The march took place on a sunny and unseasonably warm day in Washington. A headcount of attendees was not immediately available, as the National Park Service does not release crowd size estimates.

The national March for Life first took place in Washington in 1974 in response to the Roe decision legalising abortion nationwide the previous year. The protest has taken place in Washington each year since, with a smaller-in-scale event during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021.

The 2023 event was the first national March for Life since the high court’s June 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that overturned Roe and returned the matter of regulating or restricting abortion to state legislatures.

At the pre-march rally, the Christian band “We Are Messengers” performed, followed by a number of speakers, including Jonathan Roumie, known for his role as “Jesus” in the television series “The Chosen”, former Indianapolis Colts Head Coach Tony Dungy, Democratic Connecticut State Rep. Trenee McGee, and Gianna Emanuela Molla, the daughter of St Gianna Beretta Molla. Canonized in 2004, St. Gianna gave her life for Giana Emanuela, choosing to move forward with her fourth pregnancy even after doctors discovered a tumour in her uterus.

Molla told the rallygoers that she thanks her “saint mom” for the gift of life. “I would not be here now with all of you if I had not been loved so much,” she said.

Roumie told the crowd – “God is real and he is completely in love with you,” he said, adding that each person is individually loved by God.

“Remember my dear friends, we know how the story ends: God won,” Roumie said.

The rally also featured some lawmakers from the US House of Representatives. Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, a Catholic Republican and co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, said at the rally, “Future generations will someday look back on us and wonder how and why a society that bragged about its commitment to human rights could have legally sanctioned” abortion.

“The injustice of abortion need not be forever, and with your continued work and prayers, it will not be,” Smith said.

Prior to speaking to the sea of pro-life marchers on the National Mall, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, who argued the Dobbs case before the Supreme Court, told OSV News that “empowering women and promoting life” were the next steps post-Roe.

“Some of the things that we’re talking about in Mississippi and promoting legislation on are workplace flexibility options, particularly for mothers,” she said. “We lose young mothers because they don’t have any options. They don’t have that flexibility. We’ve got to have childcare. It’s got to be affordable, accessible and quality.”

Fitch said she wants to see the pro-life movement do “some heavy lifts” to push laws enhancing child support enforcement and reforming the adoption or foster care systems.

“(These systems) are failing our children; they’re broken,” Fitch said. “We’ve got to make those (changes) happen and put those children in these loving families.”

Speaking with OSV News at the march, Kristan Hawkins, president of the pro-life group Students for Life of America, said the next front of her organisation’s activism will focus on fighting the spread of medication abortion. Hawkins said the pro-life movement should also focus on broadening the social safety net and its remaining goals at the federal level, such as stripping Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest single abortion provider, of taxpayer funds.

“We’re walking and running and chewing gum all at the same time,” she said.

“There is a lot for us to do as a nation, especially raising awareness among its citizens,” Isalyn Aviles Rodríguez, who came to the march from Miami, told OSV News. Rodríguez said she was motivated to march because “the nation needs to know that children are part of God’s plan from conception until natural death”.

As in prior years, the March drew teenage advocates for life as well. Angeline Moro, 14, from Trenton, New Jersey, attended the event to learn how to raise her voice in defence of the most vulnerable.

“We all need to have a chance to live,” Moro said.

At various events leading up to the march, pro-life advocates joined together in prayer and solidarity.

At the January 19 opening Mass for the annual National Prayer Vigil for Life, the night before the march, Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington, Virginia, said in his homily that the pro-life movement has “much to celebrate” because Roe v. Wade “is no more”.

But, he added, a “new important phase” for the cause of life “begins now”.

“Our efforts to defend life must be as tireless as ever” not only to change laws but also hearts “with steadfast faith in the grace and power of God to do so”, said Bishop Burbidge, chairman of the US of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities.

The event, held at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, drew between 6000 and 6500 people, with most of the congregation filling the Great Upper Church. Dozens also viewed the Mass via screens in the lower level of the basilica.

Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the US, read a message from Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, issued on behalf of Pope Francis, who imparted his blessing on all those participating in the March for Life.

“His Holiness trusts that Almighty God will strengthen the commitment of all, especially the young, to persevere in their efforts aimed at protecting human life in all its stages, especially through adequate legal measures enacted at every level of society,” the message said.

The Mass was followed by a “Holy Hour for Life” at the basilica, which launched a series of Holy Hours of Eucharistic devotion throughout the night in dioceses across the country.

The thousands of attendees at various events streamed into the National Mall, where they assembled at the noon rally and prepared to begin marching an hour later.

With the overturn of Roe, organizers had planned for a reworked march route, resulting in a new final destination: the East Front of the US Capitol, symbolising the movement’s new goals. However, restrictions on the use of sticks for signage put in place by the US Capitol Police after the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol resulted in the route instead passing by the West Front. For the 50th time, the national march ended in the same spot: before the steps of the US Supreme Court.

Morgan Ehlis, a student from the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota, told OSV News that being in Washington with “like-minded people” was an “overwhelming experience”.

“I’m grateful to be pro-life,” said Ehlis. “It’s swimming upstream for sure, but (this is a) big support group we have.”

Photo: Pro-life advocates gather for the 50th annual March for Life in Washington on January 20, 2023 (OSV News photo/Gregory A. Shemitz)

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“I’m haven’t received any communication from the Vatican, I haven’t seen anything,” he said. “I’m not even being told about this myself.”

Pavone said he learned about it from Catholic News Agency in an email asking him for comment about the Vatican returning him to the lay state.

On December 17, CNA broke the story that “Father Pavone has been dismissed from the clerical state for ‘blasphemous communications on social media’ and ‘persistent disobedience of the lawful instructions of his diocesan bishop'”.

The news outlet said it had obtained a December 13 letter about the matter – “confirmed by multiple sources as authentic” – that Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio, sent to the US bishops.

Shortly after the CNA story, The Associated Press, The New York Times and several other media outlets reported the news. In an updated news story on December 18, AP published the full text of the nuncio’s letter.

It said the head of Priests for Life head “was dismissed from the clerical state by the Holy See” on November 9. “This action was taken after Father Pavone was found guilty in canonical proceedings of blasphemous communications on social media, and of persistent disobedience of the lawful instructions of his diocesan bishop.”

The letter also said the priest “was given ample opportunity to defend himself in the canonical proceedings, and he was also given multiple opportunities to submit himself to the authority of his diocesan bishop. It was determined that Father Pavone had no reasonable justification for his actions”. There is “no possibility of appeal” for “Mr Pavone”, it said.

Ahead of his Twitter broadcast, Pavone tweeted: “So in every profession, including the priesthood, if you defend the #unborn, you will be treated like them! The only difference is that when we are ‘aborted’, we continue to speak, loud and clear.”

Pavone and his ministry have not been without controversy over the years, and some of the biggest headlines and scrutiny his actions have drawn came in 2016 when he placed the body of an aborted foetus on an altar and broadcast it on Facebook Live on the eve of the presidential election to get people to vote for Republican Donald Trump.

Shortly after the broadcast, the Diocese of Amarillo, Texas, where he was incardinated as a diocesan priest in 2005, announced it was investigating the incident.

“We believe that no one who is pro-life can exploit a human body for any reason, especially the body of a foetus,” Amarillo Bishop Patrick Zurek said in a statement issued after the controversial broadcast. The use of an aborted foetus for political purposes by one of the diocese’s priests violated “the dignity of human life”, he added.

During Trump’s run for re-election in 2020, then-Father Pavone campaigned for him and told CNA at the time that canon law’s prohibitions against political involvement by clergy did not apply to him because he was campaigning against abortion and for the pro-life cause.

He did eventually end his role as a co-chair of Trump’s 2020 pro-life coalition and as an advisory board member of Catholics for Trump, telling CNA he stepped down “at the request of ‘the competent ecclesiastical authority'”.

In his live broadcast on Twitter on December 18, Pavone said he will not apologise for actively supporting Trump, “who got us to this point where we are now”. He was referring to the Trump’s appointees to the US Supreme Court joining in the majority vote June 24 that overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that made abortion legal nationwide.

In his Twitter broadcast, he took issue with being accused of “blasphemous communications” on social media.

He admitted getting angry with a “rabid (Joe) Biden supporter” during a conversation they two were having on Twitter and he tweeted the “GD” word: “You and these goddamn baby-killing politicians.”

“I shouldn’t have used that word – I don’t usually use that word – in response to that guy,” Pavone told his listeners. “I was very angry, so I (went) to confession” afterward.

“Father Frank is damning people to hell? I don’t think so,” he said, citing several examples of “extending the mercy of God” to those who have supported abortion.

In his pastoral work with Rachel’s Vineyard, a post-abortion retreat ministry, he has extended “the mercy of God” to countless women who regret their abortions, he added. “Don’t talk to me about damning people to hell.”

Originally ordained for the Archdiocese of New York by Cardinal John O’Connor in 1988, then-Father Pavone took over the helm of Priests for Life a couple of years after its 1991 founding.

In 2005, Father Pavone told Cardinal Edward Egan, then New York’s archbishop, that he wanted to pursue his pro-life ministry full time and had been invited to do so by Bishop John Yanta of Amarillo, Texas, who served on the Priests for Life board of advisers. Father Pavone was incardinated into the diocese that year.

In 2011, Bishop Zurek, Bishop Yanta’s successor, suspended Father Pavone from active ministry outside the diocese.

The priest appealed to the Vatican and in 2012, what’s now the Dicastery for the Clergy, issued a decree allowing Father Pavone to minister outside the diocese, but said he would still have to obtain specific permission to do so from Bishop Zurek.

In 2014, New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan cut ties with Father Pavone and his group Priests for Life, saying the priest refused to allow an audit of the group’s finances. Priests for Life was based in Staten Island, New York.

In 2017, Priests for Life announced it had relocated its headquarters to Titusville, Florida.

In April 2020, Father Pavone told CNA he was no longer “under the authority” of the Amarillo Diocese and would not say what diocese he had moved to.

Photo: Then-Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, speaks in front of the US Supreme Court during the 47th annual March for Life in Washington on January 24, 2020 (CNS photo/Gregory Shemitz, Long Island Catholic)

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Co-sponsored by the Institute for Excellence in Writing, the essay contest has categories for fifth grade through eighth grade and ninth grade through 12th grade. A writing prompt is given for each category along with other guidelines for the contest at www.prolifeessay.com. Essays were due by midnight November 7.

The essay contest was launched soon after a group of home-school mothers and educators, including American Life League president Judie Brown, founded the Culture of Life Studies Program in 2014.

Last held in 2019, the contest was reinstated this year following the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 24 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that overturned Roe v. Wade, returning the issue of abortion to the states.

The Dobbs case was a challenge to a Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks. The court affirmed the law 6-3 but also voted 5-4 to overturn Roe as well as 1992’s Casey v. Planned Parenthood ruling, which affirmed Roe.

“We have read many amazing essays over the years, which have helped us gear our lessons and social media posts to help students and parents understand the sanctity of life, the value of all human beings, and the importance of treating others with respect,” said Susan Ciancio, executive editor of the Culture of Life Studies Program.

“These essays not only help us sustain the moral courage to stand up for our beliefs, but they encourage other young people to speak up as well,” she said in a statement accompanying an announcement on the contest.

Despite the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe, abortion remains legal in many states, Ciancio noted, pointing out that some governors have erected billboards urging women to come to their states for abortions.

“Kids are bombarded by lies about how women ‘need’ abortions or those facing ectopic pregnancies will not receive treatment,” she added. “It’s our job as educators and parents to not only teach them the truth, but to teach them to proudly stand up for that truth. That’s why it is so important to encourage students to articulate their thoughts and learn to defend pro-life principles.”

In the 2019 contest, a first-place winner in the fifth- and sixth-grade category wrote: “If the mother does not feel supported, intense fear and anxiety may make her think she has no other choice but to abort. The mother might mistakenly think that, after an abortion, she will feel free again.”

In the 2018 contest, a young woman wrote her essay about suffering, saying “When we say yes to a cross, Jesus never makes us carry it alone. He helps us. He makes it lighter. He uses it to sanctify us.”

The Culture of Life Studies Program aims “to build a culture of life, one student at a time, through broad-ranging pro-life curriculum for children in preschool through high school,” according to a news release.

The programme’s Catholic, pro-life, home and classroom materials, resources, and training are available for educators, schools, dioceses and families. The website is cultureoflifestudies.com.

Photo: A pro-life sign is displayed during the 2019 annual March for Life rally in Washington, DC, on January 18, 2019 (CNS photo/Tyler Orsburn)

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The ruling marks a historic day for the United States after almost five decades during which “America has enforced an unjust law that has permitted some to decide whether others can live or die”, said Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles and Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore.

The prelates issued a joint statement as USCCB president and chairman of the bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, respectively.

The 5-4 ruling to overturn Roe came in the court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which was a challenge to a Mississippi law banning most abortions after 15 weeks.

However, Chief Justice John Roberts, while agreeing with the opinion on the Mississippi law, disagreed with the majority’s decision that overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and the 1992 ruling in Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

The latter case affirmed Roe and prohibited regulations that created an “undue burden” on women seeking an abortion.

Archbishops Gomez and Lori said the new ruling marks a “time to begin the work of building a post-Roe America”.

“We thank God today that the court has now overturned this decision,” they said. “We pray that our elected officials will now enact laws and policies that promote and protect the most vulnerable among us.”

The archbishops recalled the lives of tens of millions of children who have lost their lives since 1973, saying the USCCB mourns their loss and that their souls have been entrusted to God.

“Our hearts are also with every woman and man who has suffered grievously from abortion,” they said. “We pray for their healing, and we pledge our continued compassion and support. As a Church, we need to serve those who face difficult pregnancies and surround them with love.”

Archbishop Gomez and Archbishop Lori also credited the people who for five decades have worked peacefully together “to educate and persuade their neighbours about the injustice of abortion”, to provide care and counselling to women, and to work for alternatives to abortion such as foster care and public policies that support families.

The Pontifical Academy for Life, under its president, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, joined the USCCB leaders in welcoming the Supreme Court’s opinion, saying it points the way for the world to follow.

“The court’s opinion shows how the issue of abortion continues to arouse heated debate,” an academy statement said. “The fact that a large country with a long democratic tradition has changed its position on this issue also challenges the whole world.”

“The protection and defence of human life is not an issue that can remain confined to the exercise of individual rights but instead is a matter of broad social significance,” it continued. “After 50 years, it is important to reopen a non-ideological debate on the place that the protection of life has in a civil society to ask ourselves what kind of coexistence and society we want to build.”

Archbishop Paglia added, “In the face of Western society that is losing its passion for life, this act is a powerful invitation to reflect together on the serious and urgent issue of human generativity and the conditions that make it possible; by choosing life, our responsibility for the future of humanity is at stake.”

Several state Catholic conferences and individual bishops echoed the USCCB leaders’ sentiments in welcoming the court’s decision.

The eight prelates of the New York State Catholic Conference said they were “overjoyed with the outcome of the court”.

They also acknowledged “the wide range of emotions associated with this decision” and called on “all Catholics and everyone who supports the right to life for the unborn children to be charitable, even as we celebrate an important historical moment and an answer to prayer”.

Saying the court’s ruling was “a judicial victory, not a cultural one”, the New York bishops called for building a “culture of life” by enacting family-friendly policies that welcome children, support mothers, cherish families and empower them to thrive.

Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin of Newark, New Jersey, said in a statement the ruling recognizes “that even the most helpless and dependent human beings have a right to life and possess inherent dignity and worth.”

Pointing to the words of Pope Francis, Cardinal Tobin said, “Abortion is not a religious issue; it’s a human rights issue”.

“We recognise that a woman’s decision to have an abortion is often tragic and panful,” he said. “A woman who takes this desperate action is often under great duress and is encouraged by social structures that are patently sinful.

“As people who care deeply for all women struggling with unplanned or unwanted pregnancies, we must ensure that life-giving options are available, and our support does not end simply with the birth of a child.”

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                  Catherine Gillies

The increased funding is also welcomed as being valuable in coping with the increased strain that the Government-funded, free Telehealth abortion-on-demand service places on our communities, the facilitators state. Post-abortion healing facilitator and chartered accountant Catherine Gillies said that it is an anomaly that the Government is pushing increased abortion services, yet tries to address mental health issues, when the former feeds the latter.

She said that where informed consent laws are introduced, abortion rates fall, as people who are fully informed about the impacts of abortion realise that it is neither a quick fix, nor an easy fix. It is also permanent.

A statement from Ms Gillies noted that, while the abortion liberalisation debate in New Zealand was centred around the rights of women, the fact that abortion is always “bad medicine” was completely ignored. Decades of research from around the world, the statement continued, involving hundreds of thousands of women, has consistently resulted in evidence that the long-term physical and psychological impact of abortion indicates that it’s a medical procedure with particularly poor outcomes.

The statement added that the on-going social cost of caring for women (and extended families) after an abortion must make it one of the least cost-efficient “health” expenditures that there is.

One study noted by the statement found that every abortion shortens a woman’s life expectancy by ten years. Many practioners have worked with abortion-related intergenerational trauma.

Ms Gillies believes that social costs should be factored into the Government Budget. “The reality is, the on-going fiscal drain in a state-funded health system should not be understated, because every tax dollar could be spent elsewhere, in another government department.”

Her statement also noted correlations between abortion and increased rates of long-term mental and physical health problems; fertility issues and the health of future children; relationship break downs; six times more likely of death by suicide; 14 times more likely of death by homicide; 5-fold higher rates of addictions.

The statement from Ms Gillies added that it is hoped that the increased Pharmac budget of $191million will be utilised for valuable life-enhancing drugs, previously denied to New Zealanders, rather than an increased supply of abortion and euthanasia drugs.

Hope Alive facilitates healing programmes for people wounded by abortion, and actively engages in supporting life at all stages. Building communities of love and support will hopefully eliminate
requests for abortion or euthanasia drugs.

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They urged this action “until public repentance takes place and sacramental absolution is received in confession”.

“The burden from their decision does not rest upon the shoulders of priests, deacons or lay extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist,” they wrote. “It rests upon the consciences and souls of those politicians who have chosen to support this evil and unjust law.”

The Reproductive Health Equity Act is considered one of the nation’s most permissive abortion measures. Gov. Jared Polis quickly signed it into law on April 4 just after it finally passed the state House and Senate.

It permits on-demand abortion for a full 40 weeks of a pregnancy; allows abortion based on discrimination of sex, race or children with disabilities such as Down syndrome; and removes the requirement that parents of minors be notified if their minor receives an abortion.

It also enshrines in law that “a fertilised egg, embryo, or foetus does not have independent or derivative rights” under state laws and prohibits any regulation of abortion based on concerns regarding the health of the woman or baby.

Signing the letter were: Archbishop Samuel Aquila of Denver, Bishop Stephen Berg of Pueblo, Bishop James Golka of Colorado Springs and Auxiliary Bishop Jorge Rodriguez of Denver.

“The recently concluded 2022 legislative session was difficult for many Coloradans who watched in dismay as their state legislators rushed one of the most extreme abortion bills in the country through the chambers of the Capitol and to Governor Polis’ desk for his signature,” the prelates wrote.

As the bill moved ahead in the Legislature, “there was a strong outcry against it,” they said. “Thousands of people wrote to their lawmakers. Over 350 people testified against RHEA (Reproductive Health Equity Act) in the House and more than 215 testified against it in the Senate into the early hours of the morning”.

The four prelates were among hundreds of people who offered testimony in opposition to the bill in hearings on it.

Some lawmakers who supported the bill said it “is designed to make our state an abortion destination and ‘safe haven’,” they said. “They expect pregnant mothers to come flooding in from surrounding states for abortions if Roe v. Wade is overturned. It causes us profound sadness and distress to know that some Catholic legislators voted for this”.

“We have a strong desire to discuss the spiritual and cultural impact of laws like RHEA with politicians of both parties who say they are Catholic and who represent people in our state,” the bishops continued. “As their shepherds we want to ensure that they understand the church’s teaching on receiving holy Communion and the proper spiritual disposition for doing so.

“Efforts have already been made to speak with several of these lawmakers, but unfortunately, very few of them have accepted the invitation to meet.”

By their public votes, the bishops wrote, it was clear several Catholic lawmakers believe “pre-born babies are worth less than those who have had the gift of being born, according to this morally bankrupt logic”.

The bishops thanked Sens. Barbara Kirkmeyer, Kevin Priola and Jim Smallwood and Rep. Andres Pico, who are Catholic and voted “to protect the unborn and against allowing our state to strip them of their God-given right to life”.

“Voting for RHEA was participating in a gravely sinful action because it facilitates the killing of innocent unborn babies, and those Catholic politicians who have done so have very likely placed themselves outside of the communion of the Church,” they wrote.

The prelates quoted from “The Mystery of the Eucharist in the Life of the Church”, a 26-page statement approved by the body of US bishops last November.

It did not call for barring Catholic politicians who support abortion from Communion, but it was addressed to all Catholics in the United States and explained “the centrality of the Eucharist in the life of the Church”.

“To receive the body and blood of Christ while in a state of mortal sin represents a contradiction,” Colorado’s bishops wrote, quoting the document. “The person who, by his or her own action, has broken communion with Christ and his Church, but receives the Blessed Sacrament, acts incoherently, both claiming and rejecting communion at the same time.”

“Moreover,” the bishops said, “receiving the Eucharist in a state of mortal sin is sacrilegious because it is ‘a failure to show the reverence due to the sacred body and blood of Christ’.”

“Finally,” they said, “when other Catholics see public figures receiving Jesus in such a spiritual state, their resolve to be faithful to the Gospel can be weakened. A Catholic politician or public figure leading or encouraging others to do evil is a failure to respect the souls of others and is what the Church defines as ‘scandal’,” as the document stated.

“We pray that this letter and our request to refrain from receiving Jesus in the Eucharist spurs sincere reflection and conversion in the hearts of those who have participated in allowing this grave act of injustice to become law,” they said.

This request was not one they made “lightly”, they said, but was made out of their “duty to safeguard the faith and care for the souls of all the faithful – including these politicians”.

“We are always willing to engage in conversation with any Catholic politician to whom this applies,” they concluded, “and we want you to know that we regularly pray for all who hold public office.”

Photo: CNS

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“We readily identify things like abortion and capital punishment as life issues, which Catholic teaching identifies as absolutely wrong under any circumstance,” he said.

“But protecting the earth, our common home, or making food, water, shelter, education and health care accessible, or defence against gun violence . . . these are life issues too,” he said.

The archbishop made his comments in a letter to the faithful of the archdiocese released on May 25, a day after a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 schoolchildren and two teachers dead and another 17 people injured.

The gunman, later identified as Salvador Ramos, 18, was killed by law enforcement.

The Texas tragedy came 10 days after a mass shooting at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket that targeted Black people. Suspect Payton Gendron of Conklin, New York, also 18, has been charged with first-degree murder.

“Pity the grocery shoppers in Buffalo, the school kids in Texas, their grieving families, and everyone now more afraid than ever of doing those simple, everyday things,” Archbishop Jackels said.

“You’ve got to wonder about reasons for refusing reasonable limits on gun ownership, which are inspired by the common good and offering protection from harm,” he said.

In writing about life issues and the Eucharist, the archbishop did not mention San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, who declared on May 20 that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif, is not “to be admitted” to Communion because of her stand on legalised abortion.

Archbishop Jackels said that “some people want to repair the scandal of pro-choice Catholic politicians by refusing them the Eucharist”, but he called this “a misguided response for at least two reasons”.

“As Jesus said, it’s the sick people who need a doctor, not the healthy, and he gave us the Eucharist as a healing remedy,” he explained. “Don’t deny the people who need the medicine.”

“Also, to be consistent,” he said, “to repair the scandal of Catholics being indifferent or opposed to all those other life issues, they would have to be denied Holy Communion as well.”

“Better, I think, to put the Eucharist in the hands of such Catholics in hopes that one day soon they would put their hands to work on behalf of life, in defence of all life,” Archbishop Jackels concluded.

Photo: Archbishop Michael Jackels of Dubuque, Iowa, is pictured in St Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican on June 29, 2013 (CNS photo)

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“I applaud Archbishop Cordileone’s patient and persevering efforts to enlighten Speaker Pelosi about the moral gravity of her extreme efforts to promote, to advocate and to initiate legislation to enshrine legalized abortion into federal law,” said Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City.

In a statement released shortly after the San Francisco’s prelate’s announcement, he said: “I fully support both the pastoral and courageous actions that Archbishop Cordileone has now taken in an effort to awaken Speaker Pelosi’s conscience and at the same time to protect Catholics in the Archdiocese of San Francisco and throughout the country from being confused by Speaker Pelosi’s radical support for abortion, while claiming to be a faithful Catholic.”

“I pray that Speaker Pelosi will have a change of heart,” added Archbishop Naumann, former chairman of the US bishops’ pro-life committee.

Denver Archbishop Samuel Aquila called Archbishop Cordileone’s action a “courageous, compassionate and necessary decision”.

“I know Archbishop Cordileone to be a shepherd with the heart and mind of Christ, who truly desires to lead others towards Christ’s love, mercy and promise of eternal salvation,” he said.

“As Archbishop Cordileone writes, ‘conversion is always better than exclusion, and before any such action can be taken it must be preceded by sincere and diligent efforts at dialogue and persuasion,'” he continued. “He has made every attempt to try and avoid this step.”

“As I have previously written and Archbishop Cordileone makes clear as well, this issue is not about politics or simply enforcing Church rules, but rather about love – love for the individual and love for the entire community,” said the Denver prelate.

Among others who supported Archbishop Cordileone in statements or tweets were Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City and Bishops Robert Vasa of Santa Rosa, California; Michael Barber of Oakland, California; Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas; David Ricken of Green Bay, Wisconsin; Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois; Donald J Hying of Madison; James Conley of Lincoln, Nebraska; Liam Cary of Baker, Oregon; and Thomas Daly of Spokane, Washington.

Pelosi represents California’s 12th Congressional District, which is entirely within San Francisco. As of May 23, she had not responded to requests for comment from media outlets, including Catholic News Service and National Public Radio.

Critics of Archbishop Cordileone included Pelosi’s hometown daily newspaper, the San Francisco Examiner, which accused the prelate of “grandstanding” on the abortion issue “and picking a fight with the most powerful woman – and second-most powerful Catholic – in American politics.”

The paper said the archbishop’s “efforts to sow division and politicize the faith have intensified”.

“In light of Cordileone’s resurgent efforts to create discord, we repeat the call for Pope Francis to remove him and replace him with a leader who can unify rather than divide. … It is Nancy Pelosi, not Archbishop Cordileone, who reflects the true spirit of Christian care in the city of St Francis.”

The editorial praised Pelosi as someone “who has worked tirelessly to improve the lives of the poor, the suffering and the oppressed”, all of which Archbishop Cordileone likewise praised.

“Please know that I find no pleasure whatsoever in fulfilling my pastoral duty here,” Archbishop Cordileone said in his May 20 statement. “Speaker Pelosi remains our sister in Christ. Her advocacy for the care of the poor and vulnerable elicits my admiration. I assure you that my action here is purely pastoral, not political. I have been very clear in my words and actions about this.”

In early May of last year, Archbishop Cordileone issued a pastoral that focused on the unborn, Communion and Catholics in public life titled “Before I Formed You in the Womb I Knew You”. It was the first pastoral he has issued.

It emphasises that “those who reject the teaching of the Church on the sanctity of human life and those who do not seek to live in accordance with that teaching should not receive the Eucharist”.

“Conversion is always better than exclusion, and before any such action can be taken, it must be preceded by sincere and diligent efforts at dialogue and persuasion,” Archbishop Cordileone wrote in his statement this May. He noted he had sent Pelosi a separate letter about the consequences of citing her faith in justifying abortion and refusing to retract her stance on the issue.

Pelosi considers abortion health care and, as recently as May 13 in remarks on the steps of the US Capitol, she warned the Supreme Court to keep its “hands off women’s reproductive health care”. She also said if Roe is overturned, Republicans have a “dangerous and extreme agenda” that could see “an all-out assault” on more rights.

Her position on abortion “has become only more extreme over the years, especially in the last few months”, Archbishop Cordileone said. “Just earlier this month she once again, as she has many times before, explicitly cited her Catholic faith while justifying abortion as a ‘choice’, this time setting herself in direct opposition to Pope Francis.”

The archbishop opened his 1300-word letter by saying that the Pope “has been one of the world’s most vocal advocates of human dignity in every stage and condition of life”.

Photo: Nancy Pelosi (left) and Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone (CNS Photo)

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In Australia, Archbishop Anthony Fisher, OP, of Sydney described as “very encouraging” the leaked draft majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito, which said “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start.”

The draft opinion that may strike down the 1973 US abortion ruling, published by Politico on May 2, comes as Canada’s prolife movement prepares for its largest annual events: the March for Life May 12 in Ottawa, Ontario, as well as smaller gatherings in provincial capitals.

Canada’s Parliament passed legislation that decriminalised abortion on May 12, 1969.

Alito’s draft opinion stems from the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organisation, a challenge to a 2018 Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

The news from the US is “already rallying the troops,” said Father Larry Lynn, pro-life chaplain for the Archdiocese of Vancouver. “The pro-abortion people are saying, ‘this could happen here’, and ‘be on your guard’, and those sorts of things.”

He added, “I think you can mark this day as a time when a real battle has begun.”

Removing Roe v. Wade as precedent would put US abortion law back in the hands of the states, which Father Lynn called “a perfect example of subsidiarity at work, a very Catholic principle, a foundation of Catholic social justice”.

While the 1973 US ruling removed the abortion issue from the states and made it federal law, the draft majority opinion states that “Roe v. Wade was egregiously wrong in taking that power away from the states”, Father Lynn explained.

As for any political parallel in Canada, Father Lynn expressed doubt.

“I think that the political will in Canada to work against abortion is virtually nil,” he said. “All the governments since (Prime Minister Brian) Mulroney’s time have not been willing to touch it. They won’t event discuss ‘when does life begin’.”

Tabitha Ewert, legal counsel for grassroots initiative We Need a Law, agreed that there won’t be a tangible effect in the near future in Canada, but said the draft opinion is important from a social perspective.

“There won’t be any legal impact but we’re already seeing the political impact,” she said, pointing to a Bloc Quebecois motion in Parliament on May 3 seeking unanimous support for women’s right to abortion. The motion failed because it lacked unanimity.

Josie Luetke, youth coordinator for Hamilton, Ontario-based Campaign for Life Coalition, said the largest task for the pro-life movement in Canada is to “reignite the abortion debate” and “keep momentum going”, with the first opportunity at the marches for life.

“Abortion has become kind of a sacred cow in Canada that many mistakenly think cannot be challenged,” Luetke said. “If Roe is overturned, the abortion debate is certainly coming to Canada, where we’ll be advocating for protection for preborn children.”

In Sydney, Michael Quinlan, national head of the School of Law at the University of Notre Dame Australia, told The Catholic Weekly, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Sydney, that it was “important to remember what happened in Roe v. Wade”.

“The court took medical and other evidence and it formed a view in which it divided up pregnancies into different trimesters and said that states had power to legislate in particular ways in relation to particular trimesters,” Quinlan explained.

“The minority judges in that case said their concern was that sounded very much like what you’d expect a parliament to do, to get into that kind of detail. And they were completely correct about that,” he said.

The case of Planned Parenthood v. Casey later abandoned the trimester divisions in favour of “fetal viability”, which Alito said “makes no sense” as a legal standard.

“Viability is the point at which the child has a possibility of surviving if delivered unharmed,” said Australian bioethicist Margaret Somerville.

“This raises the issue of whether a right to abortion is only the right of the woman to evacuate her uterus or also includes having the child intentionally killed before delivery when it might have a chance of living – a very sensitive issue,” she said.

Noting that the World Health Organisation reports 73 million abortions worldwide annually, Somerville cautioned that prolife supporters most go beyond simply opposing abortion.

“We must offer support to vulnerable women who see abortion as their only feasible option for dealing with an unwanted pregnancy,” she said.

Archbishop Fisher said even though the US Supreme Court decision is welcome, it “will not end the scourge of abortion in the United States”, but “will give each state the opportunity to prohibit or at least restrict this horrific practice that has claimed the lives of more than 60 million unborn children since Roe v. Wade was decided”.

The draft decision, he said, also offers prolife advocates in the Australian state of New South Wales “a great sign of hope” three years after legislators in the state parliament passed legislation that decriminalised abortion.

“For us here in NSW, today’s news is a reminder that the advocacy for the dignity of all human life is an ongoing task, the fruits of which can often take the work of entire generations.”

(This story includes information from The B.C. Catholic in Vancouver and The Catholic Weekly in Sydney.)

(Photo: Pro-life supporters gather while holding signs outside the New South Wales Parliament House in Sydney on August 1, 2019 (CNS Photo))

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On March 16, the Contraception, Sterilisation and Abortion (Safe Areas) Amendment Bill, sponsored by Louisa Wall, passed its third reading in Parliament in a 108-12 conscience vote.  

The Minister of Health, in consultation with the Minister of Justice, can now recommend to the Governor-General that “safe areas” be created within 150 metres of specified abortion premises. A person convicted under the new law would be liable for a fine of up to $1000. 

Certain actions, including engaging in protest about abortion, are prohibited behaviour in a safe area when they can be easily seen or heard by a person “accessing, providing, or assisting with providing, abortion services”. Also prohibited in most circumstances is someone advising or persuading such persons to stop accessing or providing abortion services, or giving out information about abortion to that person.  

According to the Attorney General, an individual engaging in silent prayer will not risk being criminalised. 

In a post on their website, Right to Life stated that the new legislation “violates our human rights of free speech, assembly, communication and freedom of religion”. 

Among the facts that Parliament ignored when passing the law, Right to Life stated, was that an Official Information Act request revealed that New Zealand’s 20 DHBs had received no complaints of intimidation or harassment in the last two years. 

Written submissions on the bill opposed it by a large majority, with 70 per cent opposed and only 19 per cent in favour.  The Law Commission did not consider safe areas necessary. Other laws were held to be sufficient. 

What the new act does do, Right to Life stated, is “distract attention away from the real intimidation and violence that is inflicted on women and their unborn [children] in the abortion facility”, and prevents the presence of persons within a safe area offering help to a woman to choose life for her child. 

Voice for Life said that the it “intended to silence the charitable voices of pro-life dissent” outside abortion facilities. 

The passing of the legislation “was about state overreach and might-makes-right ideological domination . . . ”. 

“It also speaks to a growing twilight of authoritarianism which has begun to cast its long shadow over the people of Aotearoa New Zealand.” 

“We will continue to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves,” Voice for Life stated. 

After the law came into force, Family Life International said that its “small team is working hard to ensure that our 40 Days for Life prayer vigil outside of AMAC remains peaceful and within the law”.
 

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