Pope Benedict XVI has tweeted his support for the March for Life taking place today in Washington DC.
“I join all those marching for life from afar, and pray that political leaders will protect the unborn and promote a culture of life,” the Holy Father wrote this afternoon on the micro-blogging site.
This is the first time the Pope has used @pontifex - his personal Twitter account - to express his support for a direct cause, as opposed to issuing statements on the faith.
The March for Life, which this year marks the 40th anniversary of Roe vs Wade, is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of people to the U.S. capital today.
Earlier this week, Bishop Carrasco de Paula, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, said the U.S. march is an historic witness to the sanctity of human life. “[It is] very important, not only for the country, but for the whole world,”, he told CNA Jan. 23. “These events which favor human life without limits, from conception until the end, have become a very important historical reference for all other Catholic countries worldwide,” he added.
An estimated 20,000 demonstrators took part in the first March for Life. Last year, there were estimated to be over 400,000.
Yesterday, the Pope urged the faithful to use social networks like Twitter and Facebook to help spread the Gospel message and win converts. He also launched “The Pope App” – a new iPhone app streaming live footage of his homilies and addresses.
Social media websites could be used as “portals of truth and faith” in an increasingly secular age, the Holy Father said in his 2013 World Day of Social Communications message whose theme is “Social Networks: Portals of Truth and Faith; New Spaces for Evangelisation".
“Unless the Good News is made known also in the digital world, it may be absent in the experience of many people,” he added. He also lauded connections made online which he said could blossom into true friendships. Life on the internet was not a purely virtual world but “increasingly becoming part of the very fabric of society,” he said.
“There should be no lack of coherence or unity in the expression of our faith and witness to the Gospel in whatever reality we are called to live, whether physical or digital,” the Pope continued. “When we are present to others, in any way at all, we are called to make known the love of God to the furthest ends of the earth.”
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Trusting in God’s Wisdom, Goodness, and Mercy
There once was a man who proclaimed he did not believe in God. “God could never love anyone and if he existed, I would insist that he prove it to me”, he often proclaimed to friends. “God takes lives all the time and the poor and down-trodden are first on the menu”, he would say further. Even though the man was often kind to people all throughout his life, he believed that one should live life to the fullest in every way. He also believed strongly that a woman had every right to an abortion, and if she chose to do so, it was her business only.
One day the man found himself in front of an abortion clinic watching women walk in as protestors were praying and begging the pregnant women not to go in the clinic. A woman who was protesting began talking loudly to a young pregnant woman who was walking into the clinic. This immediately enraged the man and he began yelling at and cursing the woman who was protesting and others began to join in.
The young woman walking into the clinic became scared and upset at both the woman protesting and the man, and immediately turned and ran away from the clinic. This enraged the man and others even more and they escalated their yelling and insults toward the woman protestor. The woman protestor cried and left the scene.
Many, many years later the man was in a serious car accident and was thrown from the car. As he lay dying, many people consoled him as an ambulance rushed to the scene. A young priest who had also been called to the scene began to perform last rites. The man, although in terrible pain and very terrified, gruffly said to the priest, “Don’t waste your breath with that prayer, Father, I’m not a Catholic and even if I was, God has never gone out of his way to help me – take a good look”.
The priest gently smiled at the man and stopped saying the last rites. After a few seconds, the priest began to softly recite the Divine Chaplet of Mercy. “For the sake of His Sorrowful Passion, have Mercy on us and the whole world”, he recited over and over. The man peacefully passed into darkness.
Suddenly, a great light engulfed the man along with great love. The man was more afraid than ever as he knew he was in the presence of God. He asked what was happening and who it was that he was speaking to. He asked this because he could only see one form but felt there were others in the area as well.
“I am Jesus, Son of the Living God, and you have been born to a new life. We are here to judge your life on earth”. Immediately, as in a video, the man began to see his entire life in review. The good and the bad.
Many times when he helped the poor; other times when he freely partook in sins of the flesh. Many times when he helped the elderly, and other times when he intentionally hurt people. The life review seemed to stop as quickly as it had started and the man felt ashamed.
Quickly, however, the man recovered, and recalled what he had said to friends during his life. “What chance did I have when my creator never showed any effort to reach out to me with love?” “Why did you not even try a little to help save me from myself?”
The Lord looked lovingly at the man and played back the life scene in front of the abortion clinic. The man was mortified as he watched himself become enraged. He was overcome with resign and asked the Lord what happened to the woman protestor who had left the scene those many years ago.
The Lord responded, “She was called to me a few days later, she had accomplished her mission”.
“And what of the woman that decided not to have an abortion that day?” he asked.
“She bore a healthy son and passed to me after childbirth, she had accomplished her mission”.
The man looked down and felt very sad. He slowly looked up and softly said to the Lord, “I wish I would have met her son; that I could know what he looks like and see how he turned out in life”. But, I never did, and yet you show me these images anyway.” Lord, can you not show me one instance in my life where you went out of your way even a little bit to show the extent of your love for me”?
“You met her son at the twilight of your life”, said the Lord, “He will be joining us soon – he has accomplished his mission”. “Come, let us go to heaven”.
The man felt happy, relieved, and curious all at once, and felt compelled to ask Jesus two final questions. “Who was this woman’s son and what was his mission?” asked the man.
“He was a simple priest who believed in God’s Mercy, and you were his mission”, responded three voices.
- Jesus to St. Faustina – Divine Mercy in My Soul - Diary, 1541
“It pleases Me to grant everything souls ask of Me by saying the chaplet. When hardened sinners say it, I will fill their souls with peace, and the hour of their death will be a happy one. Write this for the benefit of distressed souls; when a soul sees and realizes the gravity of its sins, when the whole abyss of the misery into which it immersed itself is displayed before its eyes, let it not despair, but with trust let it throw itself into the arms of My mercy, as a child into the arms of its beloved mother. Tell them no soul that has called upon My Mercy has been disappointed or brought to shame. I delight particularly in a soul that has placed its trust in My Goodness.
Write that when they say this chaplet in the presence of the dying, I will stand between My Father and the dying person, not as the Just Judge but as the Merciful Savior”.
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