In her acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta said, “I feel the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a direct war, a direct killing.” In a time when we are plagued with so many reports of war and violence in the world, a small but growing group of people showed their desire to work for peace by giving the unborn a voice and participating in the March for Life in The Hague on Saturday 12 December.
In God’s Providence, the March took place on the liturgical feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the unborn. Our Lady of Guadalupe was present in the program organized for Catholic participants before the March in the form of an almost life-sized replica of her image and the content of the pro-life talk by Fr. Johannes van Voorst, priest in the diocese of Haarlem-Amsterdam. After the program, the Catholic groups joined together with about 2,500 people on the Spui plaza in The Hague to pray and listen to pro-life speakers (among whom was the American Gianna Jessen, a woman born alive after a failed abortion). At two o’clock the silent procession began around the center of the city. Traffic of all kinds (trams, cars, bicycles and pedestrian) had to stop to allow the March to follow its silent course. The only thing that spoke were the various signs that people carried with pro-life messages.
After the March, the program for Catholics continued at our chapel close to the Spui plaza. We had adoration of the Blessed Sacrament for forty-minutes and after the benediction there was a small reception. For those who were interested in staying, we ended the day by showing the pro-life film Bella. We beg God through the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe for an end to abortion not only in the Netherlands but in the whole world.