Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
San Paolo (Agenzia Fides) – On Saturday 28 March, some 5,000 people gathered in Praça dà So, in front of S. Paulo Cathedral, to take part in the 3rd public Demonstration for Life, organised by the Sao Paulo Pro-Life Commission and the National Pro-Life Movement - Brazil without Abortion. The intention was to celebrate a victory against the legalisation of abortion, being voted in Parliament, and interrupted thanks to the Commission of Social and Family Care by 33 votes to 0.
Cardinal Odilo Pedro Scherer, Archbishop of Sao Paulo told the demonstrators that “abortion is the defeat of medicine”. After affirming that “the health of a woman who has suffered violence can be restored with medicine,", the Cardinal added “abortion is a radical attack on human life. The Church supports whatever aims to save life. Abortion is the defeat of medicine”. The Cardinal also said that the state should produce laws to defend life from the moment of conception. “We cannot give the state the legal power to throw away helpless lives. And this is not a question of religion”.
Among the participants at the demonstration, national coordinator of the Citizens Movement Pro Life, Marília di Castro, and MP Talmir Rodrigues, national coordinator of the Parliamentary Front against the Legalisation of Abortion. Marília di Castro said the event “commemorated the failure of a plan to legalise the elimination of the foetus before the end of pregnancy, and that this was thanks to the Commission of Social and Family Care and the Justice Constitution of the Chamber of Deputies”. “We will defeat any plan to kill our children ” she said.
The “ National Pro-Life Movement - Brazil without abortion ” was started in 2006; its goal is to protect life. Its members include jurists, professors and citizens representing civil society. The Movement relies on 15 Committees to diffuse its various activities. It organises marches and events all over Brazil to call popular attention to the implications and consequences of legislation in force. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 1/4/2009, righe 26, parole 375)
