Event Reports

Report from the organisers:

The 40 Days for Life campaign in Melbourne is now over the half way mark and has been very successful in more ways than one. The timeslots are regularly filled with any number from one to 16 pray-ers.

On one occasion, a 'people mover' from St Peter Chanel turned up with 8 more pray-ers just as a tattooed woman in her late thirties passed the group and became very agitated! She accused the prayers, and anybody who wanted to listen, of condemning her for aborting her baby. Two pregnancy counsellors with the Helpers of God's Precious Infants asked her to come away from the group to allow her to vent her anger. She hesitated, but fortunately the rest of the pray-ers moved away and  continued praying with renewed earnest! That gave the counsellors the opportunity to allow her to express her pain and anger to them.

About 10 minutes later a counsellor and the woman embraced. It was very moving. It turned out that she was a lapsed Christian and was thrilled to be given the Divine Mercy chaplet and a Miraculous Medal -a memory of her youth. The woman was herself a counsellor for drug, alcohol and physically abused women. She was also grieving the loss of a close friend who had suicided after being forced by her family to have an abortion.

She was appalled to hear that the abortion clinic 'counsellor' was an employee of the clinic and not independent. The much subdued woman was given all the information she needed from the sidewalk counsellors to help start her own healing process.

On another occasion, late in the afternoon, a young Asian couple arrived at the clinic unaware that it had closed for business. This allowed some of the prayers to engage them in a friendly conversation. The young man was studying accountancy and his girlfriend was studying nursing. His girlfriend was pregnant; now a mother.

They did not really want an abortion but being overseas students they were not eligible for Medicare and so had to find $10,000 dollars to have the baby in Australia!!! Of course they did not have that kind of money! They could not go back home to have the baby because of their shame at failing their parents' high expectations. They were given brochures that showed the development of the baby and the pain of abortion and later the couple were found reading these in their car.

The important point here is that private prayer is of course important. However, do not let that be a cop out! We do need a real presence of pray-ers to show that there are people who care enough to be there praying for anyone contemplating an abortion or to offer any help which may be needed.

Our Lord is asking each and every one to do our bit to stop this slaughter of the innocents! Do you hear His call? Please register a time slot on the vigil schedule to be a witness for life!!!!

The first week of the 40 days for Life campaign has come and gone and a definite glow of prayerful support is apparent outside the abortion clinic in Melbourne.

On Ash Wednesday, the start day, it was great to see all the pray-ers turning up at their appointed times, including many new young faces. One man is travelling up from Terang, near Warrnambool, twice each week and many others from the country also have regular prayer times.

Although the vigil officially finishes at 7.30 pm, the security guard at the abortion centre, reported that their security patrols had observed people praying there until midnight on Ash Wednesday.

Abortion centre staff and passers-by seem a bit bewildered by all the new faces, particularly when 30 turned up on Monday morning. In panic the police were called, who tried a bit of bluff , but, ultimately, had to leave, of course!

On the second day of the campaign a Sudanese couple turned away from the abortion centre after our pro-life counsellors talked to them. They were young, unmarried and had another little boy. What swayed the woman was talking about the destructive effects of abortion on her. Let's keep praying they have the courage to continue this pregnancy.

Although there are big gaps in the schedule on Friday nights, Saturday afternoons and Sundays and little gaps at varying times during the weeks, pray-ers are always presently surprised by the arrival of new faces who prefer to join in the prayer when personal time permits rather than registering fixed times. 

 There is a tangible feeling of fellowship as pray-ers come and go during the 12 hours of  praying outside the modern day Calvary. The wind may be cold, the sun may be hot, the hours may be long, but when an unborn baby’s life is dependant on our prayers then this vigil campaign will continue to run for the 40 days , and God willing, more pray-ers will help fill in the schedule.

If you want to be one of the these pray-ers, please register on www.40daysforlife.com/melbourne and come along with family and friends to help close this facility permanently.

 

 

Last weekend 25 000 French pro-lifers marched peacefully in Paris in opposition to legal abortion in that country. The demonstrators called upon their countrymen to reflect upon the disastrous result of 35 years of legal abortion: the unspeakable sufferings of millions of women, and the blatant injustice towards millions of our unborn brothers and sisters.

Despite having one of the very highest contraception rates in the world, France today has the second highest abortion rate in Western Europe, second only to Sweden – a situation even the sponsor of France’s 1975 abortion legalisation law, Simone Veil, has deemed “distressing”.

Culture, life and family reporting service, LifeSiteNews reports that this year's march saw a sharp rise in the number of demonstrators, up from 15,000 in 2009.

According to LSN, a dozen international delegations took part in the march, including a representative from the U.K. Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) and Dolores Meehan, co-founder of the San Francisco Walk for Life.

"Future generations of Europeans will be able to bring about a culture of life thanks to your courage to come and publicly say NO to abortion," Meehan told the demonstrators.

French activists describe the way forward as one of compassion and justice: compassion by providing expectant mothers with the real choice, that of preserving their unborn life; and justice with the comprehensive abolition of abortion.

Australian activists should be encouraged to persist with peaceful marches as a means of mobilising public opposition to legal abortion. 

Life Network Australia co-founder and President, Sonja Couroupis, was one of a small number speakers to address a rally against abortion on the steps of the Victorian Parliament last weekend.

             
The rally was organised to mark the first anniversary of the passing of legislation that made many changes to abortion legislation, including access to abortion until birth.
 
Others speakers including leader of the National Party, Peter Ryan and the event's organiser, Bernie Finn, Liberal MP.
 
Each of the speakers criticised the changes and emplored the need for coordinated and unrelenting pressure to improve protection for society's most vulnerable.
 
The invitation extended to Sonja Couroupis by the event's organising committee is recognition of both the positive contribution Life Network Australia has made to informing people of the many issues related to abortion and the prospects of similar legislation being put forward in NSW.
 
The event was supported by over 2,000 people, who marched through the city centre, then gathered on the steps of Parliament to voice their united opposition to the new abortion laws.
 
Mrs Couroupis of Deniliquin highlighted the negative impact abortion has on babies, mothers, fathers and families and that they all deserve better support and options to keep their children.
 
Facebookers can view footage of Sonja at the rally here.