It was standing room only inside St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney on Sunday, as thousands gathered for a Mass to mark the Third Sunday of Lent and the Day of the Unborn Child. Source: The Catholic Weekly.
Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP said the Mass was an opportunity to “pray for the most vulnerable members of our community – the old and infirm, the unloved and forgotten, especially the unborn and unseen”.
These vulnerable are even further endangered by a bill before New South Wales Parliament aimed at “requiring Catholic hospitals to provide abortions, at compelling pro-life health professionals to perform or refer for abortion, at enabling nurses to prescribe abortion drugs, and at removing reporting requirements so no data on abortion can be collected and published,” the archbishop noted.
“It’s an assault not just on life in the womb but on the consciences of health professionals, church providers of healthcare, and the whole community.”
A prayerful procession to NSW Parliament House followed the Mass, with those gathered hearing a powerful address from Cardinal Mykola Bychok CSsR.
Cardinal Bychok echoed Archbishop Fisher’s concerns about the NSW bill, warning that “if passed, this could mean that doctors and nurses with moral convictions may be forced to choose between their profession and their faith, between their livelihood and their conscience”.
Cardinal Bychok also spoke of the impact the “national tragedy” of abortion has had on Australia, which has claimed an estimated 5.5 million unborn Australian lives since the liberalisation of laws in the 1970s.
“A nation that fails to value life ultimately undermines its own future,” Cardinal Bychok said.
FULL STORY
Thousands gather to pray for the unborn (By Tara Kennedy, The Catholic Weekly)
