Fighting for Eternal Life in the Eternal City

ROME — Catholics must engage in the public square if the tide is to turn in favor of a culture of life, the chief organizer of Rome’s March for Life has said.

Virginia Coda Nunziante, in an April 29 interview with the Register, also drew attention to anti-life legislation currently passing through the Italian parliament and underlined the importance of having prelates, priests and religious take part in marches to uphold the sanctity of all human life.

She was speaking ahead of Rome’s fifth March for Life on May 10, held to show there are people “who have not given up hope and want the rights of those who have no voice to prevail over the logic of utilitarianism, exasperated individualism and a notion of law that allows the rights of the weak and innocent to be victimized.”

 

What is the overall significance of the Rome March for Life for Italy and society in general?

What is very important today is that Catholics especially understand the necessity to go in the public square, because this is something Catholics never usually did in the past, except for some political groups, but there are few of them. They, and especially young people, need to understand that if they want to achieve something and change our society, we have to go into the public square.

This is for two reasons: Firstly, because we have to give an important signal to our politicians: that we are there, that we exist, that we don’t accept these laws that go against the natural law. The non-negotiable values are very important to us, and we’re ready to defend them.

The second reason is to give especially young people an idea of the necessity of a fight. Young people understand that, but usually today Catholicism [in society] is presented as “peace” — “accommodation.” This is one reason why young people leave Catholicism or don’t follow it, because there is nothing to give them the idea of really fighting for the good. So going into the public square gives them this idea; and for young people, this is very important.

 

The current legislative situation in Italy is of concern to many pro-lifers. Could you explain more about this?

Yes, this is very important. We have two items of legislation that are very dangerous. The first one concerns homosexual unions. This is already going through parliament, and, probably, in the next few weeks, it will be approved. The second one is euthanasia. Against these kind of laws, the only way we can resist them is to go into the public square. We have always had conferences, debates and other things, but these have always been held in conference centers and churches, never on the street. For our enemies, this doesn’t present them with any problems, if we’re in a conference hall or a church or in a closed-door meeting, because we don’t address public opinion. But by going into the public square, everybody sees us, and so this is a way of generating some kind of reaction in favor of life by people on the street. They see the witness, and it gives them courage, especially to understand that they’re not alone in thinking these things are wrong.

The media promotes the idea that now we can’t do anything because all these countries have these laws — Italy has to accept them, and public opinion is in favor of that. But in Italy, and I’m sure in other countries, it’s not true that the majority is in favor of them. So we have to give voice to the vast majority who have no voice.

 

It’s therefore important to stress that the perceived juggernaut of the anti-life agenda that seems unstoppable actually isn’t.

Exactly; it seems unstoppable, but, in fact, it can be stopped. As in the past, in various times throughout history, the Church and Catholicism had to face some difficulties, so they reacted in the public square. And, now, we have to do the same. Before, it wasn’t so necessary, because we were the majority, but now we are a minority. We need a little minority who will lead a majority who don’t think they can do anything, but, in fact, they can.

 

Some have stressed the importance of Church participation at the March for Life, but, until now, very few cardinals and bishops have taken part. Would you like to see more doing so?

We as laypeople insist on saying that the march is not an ecclesiastical march. It’s not promoted by the Church — it’s promoted by laypeople, and it’s open to all people of other faiths who want to come, because, of course, the problem of life is also understood by other faiths. But, for us, being Catholic, it is very important, and we hope in Italy and in other countries to see more cardinals and bishops on the street. In America, there are many diocesan cardinals and bishops who are in the public square and participate in the march. In France, it’s the same. This year, Cardinal [Philippe] Barbarin [of Lyon], who is the primate of France, took part.

And so this is also, of course, very important for us in Italy. Of course, they’re not used to that, so we don’t see more foreign cardinals and bishops take part in the Rome march than Italians. But I really hope it slowly will change and that Italian bishops and cardinals will be present in the public square, because it’s important for the faithful to see that their pastors understand the problem and are with us in this fight.

It’s really a fight today between the culture of death and the culture of life — the culture of death, which is imposed on us by abortion, euthanasia, gender theory, homosexual unions and unethical reproductive technologies. All these kinds of things are, in fact, against life.

 

Italy has also just passed a law significantly speeding up divorce proceedings. How is this also a concern for March for Life participants?

It’s related to family and to children, as we know very well from statistics that couples who are not married, who don’t see a future together, don’t have children, because, of course, they don’t see a long future. The result is that this couple doesn’t have children and doesn’t procreate.

 

How many abortions have there been since Italy legalized abortion in 1978?

From the beginning of the abortion law, we’ve had 6 million abortions, and now the country has one of the lowest birthrates in Europe. Also, of 500,000 children born in Italy each year, 2 million never see the light of day. This is through not only abortion, but also the morning-after pill, the freezing of embryos and so forth. So, more or less, 2 million individuals are destroyed for every 500,000 who live. And in our situation in Italy, the birthrate is so poor that, if it continues, the population cannot go on — and in the next decades, there’ll be no Italians left.

 

Will Pope Francis say something to the marchers?

We’ve asked him to do so, as we did in the past. Usually, he always sends pro-life messages to us and to other marches: He did so for the Washington march and the Paris march, so we think he will give a message.

In recent months, he has intervened a few times against abortion, a culture of death and gender theory, so I think he’s concerned about these issues, and we can expect a message from him encouraging us.

Edward Pentin is the Register’s Rome correspondent.