Thousands of people from across Italy gathered in central Rome to march in Italy’s annual National Demonstration for Life on June 22. According to Catholic News Agency, the motto of this year’s demonstration was “Let’s Choose Life.”
The march began at Piazza della Repubblica and wound about a mile down the Via Nazionale to the ancient Roman Forum. Musical performances and speeches were given at the Forum.
Pope Francis wrote a message to participants in the march on June 21, giving his blessing and encouragement to the thousands traveling across Italy to march for life in the heat of summer. Pope Francis thanked attendees for their “commitment and public witness in defense of human life from conception to natural death,” according to Catholic Review.
The Pope said that when it comes to defending and promoting human life and its dignity, which is “a gift of God the Creator,” there is no room for compromise. “The stakes are too high to be subjected to compromise or mediation,” Pope Francis said.
Photos on the internet show a diverse crowd of young adults, families with young children, the elderly, and priests and nuns, filling the streets of Rome, holding signs calling for the recognition that life begins at the moment of conception and for support of the family.
Abortion has been legal in Italy since 1978, and the country has one of the lowest birth rates in Europe. Italy’s parliament passed a bill called “The Family Act” in 2020 in an attempt to encourage couples to have more children by promising monetary monthly allowances to families.
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According the Catholic News Agency, Massimo Gandolfini, a spokesman for the National Demonstration for Life, said in a statement earlier this year that pro-life activists in Italy are working with Italy’s political leaders to make “structural public reforms to encourage the marriage of young couples, incentivize the birth rate and support parenting by fathers and mothers by reshaping taxation and social services to be family-friendly.”
The pro-life movement in Italy has been attacked recently by Italian citizens and other Europeans, including French President Emmanuel Macron. However, Italy’s Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, has shown support for life.
