Pro-choice Atheists Shout While 40 Days for Life Volunteers Pray
Catholic Communications, Sydney Archdiocese,
11 Apr 2011
Sydney Atheists to Protest
Lenten Prayer Vigil
Volunteers for the final week of the annual 40 Days for Life Lenten Vigil in Surry Hills are bracing themselves for daily demonstrations on the opposite corner by a pro-choice group organised by members of the Sydney Atheists.
On its website, the group is urging members to "face down the self-righteous Christians who choose to impose their will on others" by joining in their protest near the corner of Elizabeth Street and Randle streets. Opposite and across the road from the abortion clinic is where the annual 40 Days for Life Prayer Vigil is being held.
Although permission to hold the protest was only granted by police from today, 11 April until Sunday 17 April, organisers of the 40 Days for Life Vigil say hostile protesters from Sydney Atheists began their raucous demonstrations against the prayerful vigil last Friday.
"They shouted the usual slogans such as 'keep your rosaries off our ovaries' and were generally unpleasant," says Ronan Reilly, one of Sydney's 40 Days for Life Campaign organisers. "We have since discovered they intend to demonstrate opposite us and outside the Pre Term Abortion Clinic in Surry Hills every day from 6 am until 8 pm until our vigil ends on Palm Sunday."
Vigil
As a result the volunteers for the final week of the prayerful vigil are bracing themselves.
"We expect there will be a lot of unpleasant shouting and attempts to ridicule and demean what we are doing," Ronan says but insists he and the volunteers who have signed on for the final week of the international vigil, are unfazed.
"We're used to this sort of response and if we can change the mind of just one woman it is worth putting up with all the shouting and nastiness," he says.
Despite the somewhat volatile weather, there has been no shortage of volunteers for the 40 Days for Life Vigil this year and with school and universities on holiday this week more people are expected to turn out to pray for an end to abortion.
3 girls praying
But just as more volunteers turn out for the final week, increased numbers of hostile protesters from Sydney Atheists are also expected.
"This is the second year we have held the 40 Days for Life Vigil in Sydney and so far it has been an incredible success with as many as five women who have changed their minds about having an abortion and deciding instead to go full-term and have their babies," says Ronan.
A grass roots movement that began in Texas back in 2004, prayer and fasting vigils are now held throughout Lent across the US, Britain, Ireland, Canada, Germany, Belgium and Australia.
The idea is to draw attention to the sanctity of life, raise awareness about abortion and to pray for parents and their unborn children. While the 40 Days for Life Vigil receives the most attention, other organisations such as Family Life International Australia hold similar prayer vigils outside the Surry Hills Preterm Abortion Clinic on every Thursday, Friday and Saturday mornings.
Paul Hanrahan, who is not only Executive Director of Family Life International Australia but also Director of the 2011 40 Days for Life campaign in Sydney says initially prayer vigils were only held each Saturday but as from October 2010, this has been extended and volunteers now keep vigil outside the Surry Hills' Preterm Abortion Clinic, which is just 200 metres or so from another inner city abortion facility, Devonshire Street's Private Clinic.
"What was particularly rewarding was the first morning we began keeping vigil on a Thursday in October last year, a young woman changed her mind about aborting her baby and she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl last month," Paul says.
Not only is the woman now the proud and happy mother of a little girl she has named Antoinette, but she has asked Paul to be godfather.
"I was extremely honoured," says a delighted Paul. "Having a mother thrilled with her young baby is what we pray for and when we achieve this we feel truly blessed."
With success stories like these, it is little wonder volunteers for the 40 Days for Life Vigil have no qualms about standing up to what Paul describes as often vicious and sometimes very nasty verbal assaults from pro-choice and anti-religious protesters.
"To hear a young mother say thank you for stopping her going into an abortion clinic puts all the ridicule and abuse into perspective," Ronan adds and calls on as many people as possible to join in the final week of the 40 Days for Life Vigil in this its final week.
"We'll be on the corner of Randle and Elizabeth Streets every day from 6 am to 8 pm until Palm Sunday when Bishop Julian Porteous will lead a procession through the streets to mark the end of the Vigil," he says.
To find out more and how to enlist as a volunteer go to www.40daysforlife.com/sydney/
