“What
is urgently called for,” wrote Pope St. John Paul II in the great
pro-life encyclical Evangelium Vitae, “is a general mobilization of
consciences and a united ethical effort to activate a great campaign in
support of life.” (EV, ¶95)
The
vast and multifarious pro-life movement, with its ever-expanding
networks of crisis pregnancy centers, mobile ultrasound units, political
activists and lawyers, pro-life student clubs, news organizations,
marches, peaceful protesters and medical centers, is the remarkable and,
in many respects, unlikely embodiment of this great movement. Against
all the odds, and often with little time, money, and experience,
pro-life individuals and organizations have risen up and pushed back
against the well-funded, celebrity-backed juggernaut of the Culture of
Death, saving countless lives in the process.
Twice
a year, however, an event happens across the globe that is perhaps the
single-most astonishing and visible evidence that this great campaign
for life is growing...
