Pontiff encourages Italian pro-life movement
May 21, 2012
“Your Movement has always been committed to defending human life, according to the teachings of the Church," said Benedict XVI in a brief address to the thousands of members of the Italian pro-life group, the Movimento per la Vita (MpV), who gathered on May 20 in the Paul VI Hall (former Aula Nerv) to celebrate their “Lifeday 2012.”
The “Lifeday 2012” was presented in early May by the MpV president Carlo Casini in the Italian bishops conference daily Avvenire as a positive commitment “in favor of” life rather than “against” abortion. This stance was seen by some commentators as a sign of possible divisions in the pro-life movement. But Casini denied this was the case, explaining that his aim was to build unity.
A week earlier, the 3rd pro-life march in Rome had proved a much greater success than the two earlier efforts, not only in terms of numbers of participants (estimated at 15,000 people, at least ten times as much as the 2011 march), but also in terms of the number of groups participating. There were leading politicians marching with the activists, notably including the mayor of Rome, Gianni Alemanno.
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