(Campaign Life Coalition) — Thousands of Canadians will attend today’s annual National March for Life in Ottawa where, together, they will stand united. They will also stand firm against the fierce backlash from abortion supporters to the overturning of Roe in the U.S. last June.
“The backlash to last year’s overturning of Roe has been sharp and swift everywhere, including in Canada,” said Jeff Gunnarson, National President of Campaign Life Coalition. “The Trudeau Liberals are still threatening to strip pregnancy care centres of their charitable status. Access to chemical abortion is expanding, despite the confirmed deaths of two Canadian women from the abortion pill. Pro-life speech and expression continue to be under attack like never before.”
“‘Stand Firm’ is how pro-life Canadians respond to these attacks on human life,” Gunnarson added.
Today’s National March for Life marks 54 years since Justin Trudeau’s father Pierre decriminalized abortion, resulting in what pro-life advocates call a “genocide” against the preborn. Over 4,000,000 children have had their lives snuffed out by abortion since that day of infamy – May 14, 1969.
Gunnarson said that pro-life Canadians, encouraged by the fall of Roe, are now greatly anticipating a day in which legal protections are offered to babies inside their mothers’ wombs. A new documentary, Roe Canada, which was screened for the first time this week in Ottawa, outlines the strategy needed to secure legal protection for unborn Canadians.
READ: Trudeau promises millions more in federal funding for abortions on eve of Canadian March for Life
The president of the Pontifical Academy for Life (PAV) has described assisted suicide as sometimes being the “greatest common good concretely possible” contrary to the Catholic Church’s strenuous condemnation of the practice.
This betrayal of the Catholic faith by Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia is not for the first time, with the PAV repeatedly causing scandal under his watch by:
- recently appointing a notorious pro-abortion atheist to the organization
- claiming contraception and artificial insemination are sometimes acceptable
- insisting that priests could accompany people through assisted-suicide, and
- that Italy’s pro-abortion law is a “pillar” of the country’s social life.
SIGN: Pope Francis must remove Abp. Paglia from the Pontifical Academy for Life
“Personally, I would not practice suicide assistance,” Archbishop Paglia told an Italian journalism conference last week, “but I understand that legal mediation may be the greatest common good concretely possible under the conditions we find ourselves in.”
Accepting an anti-life Italian court ruling that specified when assisted-suicide is permitted, the archbishop claimed “it is not to be ruled out that in our society a legal mediation is feasible that would allow assistance to suicide under the conditions specified by Constitutional Court Sentence 242/2019…”
From the outset of his presentation in Perugia, Paglia also undermined the authority of the Catholic Church on matters of faith and morals, stating: “First of all, I would like to clarify that the Catholic Church is not that it has a ready-made, prepackaged package of truths, as if it were a dispenser of truth pills.”
SIGN: Abp. Paglia must be removed from the Pontifical Academy for Life
The PAV issued a statement on Monday trying to clarify the archbishop’s remarks, insisting that Paglia “reiterates his ‘no’ towards euthanasia and assisted suicide, in full adherence to the Magisterium”.
However, far from denouncing Paglia’s words, the PAV unsurprisingly supported its president. Referencing the Italian court ruling which partially decriminalized euthanasia by outlining exceptions to its illegality, the PAV stated it was in the context of this ruling that Paglia had made his comments.
In this precise and specific context, Msgr. Paglia explained that in his opinion a ‘legal mediation’ (certainly not a moral one) in the direction indicated by the Sentence is possible, maintaining the crime and the conditions under which it is decriminalized, as the same Constitutional Court has asked Parliament to legislate.
The PAV’s fudging of the issue was met with consternation from several Catholic commentators, with liturgist Matthew Hazell, who had highlighted Paglia’s original comments, asking “How hard is it for the @PontAcadLife to just say ‘sorry’ for scandalising the faithful? Indeed, how hard is it to actually adhere to the teaching of the Church on life issues? Are you so incapable of reading the signs of the times & interpreting them in the light of the Gospel?”
The Pontifical Academy for Life has tried & failed to explain @monspaglia‘s remarks. Paglia had spoken about the “accompaniment” needed for the dying, saying “in this context, it is not to be ruled out that in our society a legal mediation is feasible …” https://t.co/C3LU601aA2
— Michael Haynes 🇻🇦 (@MLJHaynes) April 24, 2023
Sorry guys, not good enough. Nowhere near good enough.
Archbishop Paglia’s “opinion” on the possibility of “juridical mediation” regarding euthanasia is still contrary to the Catholic faith, as has been explained already. https://t.co/qMATq0UZrL pic.twitter.com/W8s4zLvkj7— Matthew Hazell (@M_P_Hazell) April 24, 2023
Archbishop Paglia’s comments about assisted suicide being “feasible” are wrong and harmful. It’s the kind of “crack in the wall” that opponents of human life will run with to promote their agenda. The teaching of the Church is clear: Euthanasia is “morally unacceptable.” Period.
— Bishop Thomas Tobin (@ThomasJTobin1) April 24, 2023
SIGN: Abp. Paglia’s presidency of the Pontifical Academy for Life is untenable
It’s vital that the Church and PAV push back against the culture of death, rather than trying to accommodate it and accept a world that where the vulnerable are helped to kill themselves.
Be part of pushing back against the tide and making it clear that there is no room for confusion or betrayal when it comes to the sanctity of human life and the infallibilty of Catholic teaching on the matter.
SIGN AND SHARE THE PETITION WITH FRIENDS & FAMILY
MORE INFORMATION:
Abp. Paglia defends assisted-suicide as ‘greatest common good possible’ for dying people – LifeSiteNews
“The monumental overturning of Roe by the U.S. Supreme Court one year ago sent a clear message across the world that there is no such thing as a right to abortion,” said Gunnarson. “The fall of Roe signified that the days of injustice against the youngest members of the human family, the preborn baby, are numbered and quickly coming to a close. It’s only a matter of time before a government arises that recognizes the humanity of preborn children and acknowledges the inalienable dignity and God-given rights that each is endowed with, first and foremost, the right to life.”
The Rally on Parliament Hill starts at 12:30 PM. The March begins at 1:30 PM. After the marching, participants return to the Hill for live music followed by testimonies by the women of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign who regret their abortion. The program on the Hill wraps up at 4 PM.
The event will be live-streamed by EWTN here: https://www.ewtn.com/tv/extra-watch-live
Download the media kit for the 2023 National March for Life here.
Speakers for the National March for life include leaders of the pro-life movement, religious leaders, a medical doctor, and MPs.
Published with permission from Campaign Life Coalition.