Record Bishop Presence, Papal Blessing, Counterprotests Mark UK March for Life| National Catholic Register
LONDON — A high attendance at the U.K. March for Life on Saturday, coupled with the most intense visible counterdemonstrations by pro-abortion protesters witnessed at the annual event, shows that life issues are becoming a central focus of British public life, the pro-life event’s founder has said.
Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, who serves as the march’s co-director, observed “certainly more opposition” than in previous marches, including a group that disrupted the march’s opening Mass in Westminster Cathedral and had to be forcibly removed.
The protesters, most of them masked, then accompanied much of the rally, chanting through loud hailers and deliberately making noise to drown out pro-life speakers. London’s Metropolitan Police were criticized for allowing them to protest in close proximity and to have a location in Parliament Square directly in front of the March for Life stage, where they caused further noise and disruption and provoked pro-life participants.
But Vaughan-Spruce told the Register that she did not see the protests in themselves as “necessarily a bad thing” because she took them to be “an indication that abortion is becoming more of a live public issue.”
“For too long there’s been an extraordinary complacency surrounding abortion in Britain,” she said. “It has been treated as something that should simply be accepted. But that seems to be changing.”
Reflecting on the high attendance, Vaughan-Spruce, who has prayed for many years outside of abortion facilities and is currently facing prosecution for doing so, said the march showed that “people are finding it culturally acceptable” to be pro-life. They are seeing it as “increasingly necessary to voice concerns about abortion” and are “beginning to find the courage to challenge the culture of silence that has surrounded abortion for so long.”
Unprecedented Pastoral Presence
A record 15 Catholic bishops took part in the event this year. They concelebrated the opening Mass, whose chief celebrant was Archbishop Richard Moth of Westminster, and 14 walked the entire march, offering the final prayer and imparting a blessing at the end.
In his homily at the Mass, Bishop Frank Dougan of Galloway, Scotland, warned against succumbing to the temptation to “believe in the inevitability of things only going in one direction and that our arguments and our statement and our witness aren’t getting anywhere.”
“That temptation is the enemy of hope,” he said. He urged the faithful to look to the example of saints such as St. Monica, to “keep doing what we’re doing, keep saying what has to be said, and to keep speaking up for those who cannot speak for themselves.”
“Why do we do this? Because each child has a place in God’s heart from all eternity. Once he or she is conceived, the Creator’s eternal dream comes true,” he said.
Remarking on the protests at Mass, one of the bishops said that while the protesters “may not understand the truth about the dignity of human life, they do seem to understand where the heart of their adversaries lies: in the Catholic Church and, particularly, in the Eucharist.”
To fervent applause, Pope Leo XIV also sent a message of encouragement and good wishes, assuring the participants of his prayers and imparting his apostolic blessing. Every truly just society is “built upon the recognition of the inviolable dignity of the human person,” he said, adding that it “belongs to every human being by the very fact of their existence.” For this reason, he continued, “it must guide every positive legal decision. When this certainty is obscured, the most vulnerable are the first victims, and the law loses its deepest meaning to serve and protect every human being.”
Bishop Paul Mason, ordinary of the bishopric of the British Armed Forces, attributed the large numbers of marchers this year to people “increasingly” seeing the evil “fruits of the culture of death.” He told the Register that they “know in the depths of them that it’s just not right” and are therefore standing up for the value of the human person in the absence of a culture that often does not.
Asked if a prevailing spiritual darkness is leading to this realization, he said: “The more you’re pushed into that dark space, the more you react, because you’re called to make a response,” he said. “We tolerate so much, then all of a sudden you are just pushed too far, and you think, ‘This is nonsense. It has to stop.’”
When asked if the large presence of bishops meant they will speak out more forcefully in defense of life, he said: “We always try to balance that there are people who are suffering, who are in very difficult situations. If you just demonize them, you turn it to a very binary argument. So you want to show that you are here to support and not just point a finger. But at the same time, there is also a need for a voice to say: ‘The destruction of life, millions of lives, just can’t be right.’”
Archbishop John Wilson of Southwark, which includes Kent and southeast London, told the Register that the event was about “faith and joy” and was not aggressive, in contrast to the protests. He praised the fact that so many bishops attended this year, and in a statement he observed the presence of “grandparents, young people, young adults, parents, clergy, religious sisters, all kinds of different people — many who share my faith, some who don’t — but we’re united in one conviction: that the dignity of human life is paramount.”
Testimony of Men
Of particular note at this year’s march, whose theme was “Abortion Hurts the Family,” was the testimony of men in the context of abortion. It followed the first U.K. conference in April this year, organized by the March for Life, dedicated to sexual integrity, relationships, and the role of men in the pro-life movement.
American pro-life speaker Jeff Joaquin spoke to the pro-life marchers of his journey from having his girlfriend abort their son nearly 40 years ago, his admitted cowardice over the decision, and his deep, lifelong regret for having taken that path.
Quoting the famous aphorism: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,” he called on men to take a courageous stand for unborn life, noting that “when you enter into the battle with a pro-life movement and you save a life, that’s a perpetual annuity, and it’ll last into heaven, because you chose to act, because you chose to speak, because you refused to be silent.” Joaquin then read a letter he had written to his son in which he asked for his prayers of “mercy and forgiveness” and for him to “know that your father loves you from the bottom of his heart.”
“Men hurt from abortion too,” he said. “I was not the father, the husband I needed to be, because I was carrying that wound around.”
Vaughan-Spruce said Joaquin’s speech “touched the hearts” of many of the men she spoke with afterwards, and she found it especially encouraging to see men “increasingly finding their voice and recognizing that they can and should be leaders in standing up for the family and for the values on which it’s built.”
She also said it was clear that a “new generation” of young Catholics who are converting and rediscovering their faith “are not afraid to engage with the important moral questions of our time. They want to be all in.”
Young couples who had met their spouses at previous U.K. Marches for Life are also now returning to the march with their young families.
“This really brought home to me that this is a family event in the deepest sense,” said Vaughan-Spruce, “not simply marching against something, but building a culture where life and family can flourish.”
See EWTN GB’s coverage of the March for Life UK.
