A respectful appeal to Catholic leaders in the fight for life as abortion numbers soar
By John Smeaton | 4 June 2025
As abortions reach their highest-ever levels in the US, in England and Wales, in Ireland, in France and in many other countries, those of us engaged in the battle to protect unborn children are in the toughest situation imaginable and the only possible solution is heavenly assistance.
One leading US group has said that “new strategies are urgently needed to support mothers and protect unborn life” — and whilst I’m sure that’s true and must be done, I think we also need to have the humility to recognise that the scale of the catastrophe we are experiencing worldwide is far beyond the power of human strategising to overcome.
Our problems are epitomised by the fact that, as abortions reach their highest-ever levels, chiefly as a result of the abortion pill, the two men who provide the most powerful political support for legal access to chemical abortion drugs, US president Donald Trump and vice-president JD Vance (a practising Catholic) were the star speakers at this year’s March for Life in Washington DC. Both men also strongly back in vitro fertilization (IVF) which involves the destruction of more human embryos in the US than does abortion.
Despite our best efforts over the past half century and more, we are living at a time in history when there is a worldwide programme of state-sanctioned murder — through abortion, through euthanasia, through IVF procedures — in virtually every country on earth, as well as the indoctrination of children through sex education programmes designed to destroy their innocence and give them access to contraception and abortion without their parents’ knowledge or consent. Such programmes are being promoted by every Catholic diocese in England and Wales as well as by the bishops of other countries.
The evils we face today are immeasurably beyond the capacity of our movement to defeat on its own.
These are evils rooted in a revolution, a rebellion against God and His Church, the seeds of which were planted many centuries ago. It is a revolution which reached a new dramatic climax in the 1960s, since which time there has been a catastrophic collapse in Christian civilisation and in the recognition of truths which many of us remember being universally upheld. Unfortunately, this cultural revolution, during this period, has also penetrated within the Catholic Church.
We and our fellow activists in the pro-life movement have done our best for more than fifty years, seeking to save lives through our witness, from time to time through our successes in courts, including the US Supreme Court and in state legislatures, through our loving care for mothers-to-be, and through seeking to persevere, steadfastly, in the face of constant setbacks and the rising toll of killings. However, relatively speaking, our groups are tiny compared to the wealth and political strength of the culture of death which is supported by virtually every government on earth.
Our organisations, battling for so long against abortion and other evils which directly destroy life, need urgently to be reinforced by the prophetic and unequivocal voices of bishops throughout the world faithfully preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ — and this for two reasons: firstly, because without Christ we can do nothing; and secondly, because the integrity of the truth and meaning of human sexuality and the sanctity of human life — as much a part of the natural law written on all human hearts as it is of the divine law of Revelation — is only authentically and authoritatively proclaimed by the Catholic Church, the spotless Bride of Christ.
Lack of formation among the Catholic faithful is having disastrous consequences for souls and for the world, as we saw, for example, in San Marino, a country in which 97 per cent of the population profess the Catholic faith, where 77.28 per cent of the voters nonetheless chose abortion up to birth in an abortion referendum in September 2021.1
Christ’s last words to the apostles on earth before ascending into heaven are recorded by St Matthew:
“All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. Going therefore, teach ye all nations … Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.”
These words were addressed to the apostles and they are meant, above all, for the successors of the apostles. Bishops have a charism bestowed on them by Jesus Christ just before His Ascension: a unique apostolic moral power, to preach the Gospel of Life.. That’s why Pope John Paul II emphasised in Evangelium Vitae:
“Bishops … are the first ones called to be untiring preachers of the Gospel of life” — because when they speak the Gospel truth in love, their words reverberate with authority, both in the hearts of the faithful and in the hearts of people who do not know Christ — just as Christ’s words did. As St Mark says of the Jews in Capharnaum: “And they were astonished at his doctrine. For he was teaching them as one having authority, and not as the scribes”.
So this is a respectful appeal to Catholic leaders in the fight for life to call on your Catholic supporters to say the Rosary, particularly on Saturdays, with this intention: that the Church, from the pope down to the simple laity, provide unequivocal leadership in resisting abortion, euthanasia, contraception, IVF, relationships and sex education, and all other attacks on life and the family. We should give precedence, of course, to the request of Our Lady of Fatima on the first Saturdays of five consecutive months, to confess, receive Holy Communion, recite the Rosary and “keep Me company for fifteen minutes meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary with the intention of making reparation” for men’s “blasphemies and ingratitude” to Our Blessed Lady.
It’s an open secret that the overwhelming majority of those engaged in the battle against abortion are Catholics. Heaven has given us the means — the Rosary — to win battles against impossible odds. Now is the time for Catholic leaders to be inspired by the message Don Juan of Austria, sent to the Senate of Venice after the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, a historic turning-point in the conflict between Christendom and Islam: “Not power, not arms, not commanders, but Our Lady of the Rosary gave us victory”.
STOP PRESS especially for readers in the UK: The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children says: “MPs are launching a new push to expand our already horrific abortion laws even further. Abortion advocates in Parliament are seeking to hijack the Government’s Crime and Policing Bill by tabling amendments to remove abortion from the criminal law. The earliest they could be debated is next Wednesday, 11 June. Briefings on both amendments can be found here, and here.
*Voice of the Family invites its supporters to let us know if you will, either individually, or as part of a group, say the Rosary on Saturdays for these intentions. Write to info@voiceofthefamily.com
Notes
- Angela Giuffrida, “San Marino referendum ends with 77% voting to end abortion ban”, The Guardian, 26 September 2021; “San Marino votes to legalise abortion in referendum”, BBC, 26 September 2021; “Religious Beliefs In San Marino”, World Atlas; “San Marino votes to legalize abortion, ending a 150-year-old ban”, The World, 28 September 2021. ↩︎