40 Days for Life
Fr. Frank Pavone
National Director, Priests
for Life
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I was a parish priest in Staten Island, New York. On most Saturdays, I joined
the local pro-life activists to picket a local abortionist’s office. One of the
most faithful of these activists was Bob Landvogt, and I’ll always remember the
day he pulled me aside there on the sidewalk and passionately declared, “Fr.
Frank, our media is the street!”
Those words stayed with me and have found their way into many a talk and homily,
in which I have encouraged pro-life people to take the message to the streets,
making full use of the rights that the First Amendment gives to us in America.
And it’s more than the First Amendment freedom of speech. In the case of the
abortion crisis, it’s a matter of intervening to save lives. When we bring
abortion to the attention of the public on the streets and sidewalks in front of
abortion mills or anywhere else, people considering abortion do change their
minds.
That’s why I have prayed at abortion mills in every one of the 50 states. That’s
also why I am rallying people to take part in the “40 Days for Life” campaign
that will take place this Lent from February 6 to March 16, and again in the
Fall.
The “40 Days” effort is a prayerful presence at abortion facilities – in some
places, around the clock. The campaign is based on the fact that abortion is a
local phenomenon, and needs to be ended community by community. This can happen
even before laws change. Presence at the mills slows business down. We know from
infiltration of the abortion industry that the biggest fear within that industry
is not that abortion will become illegal, but that while fully legal, there will
be no clinics or doctors to provide it. And constant presence at those places
hastens their closing.
I look forward to visiting the cities that will conduct this effort, leading
them in prayer, and writing many of the daily prayer devotionals that will be
used by 40 Days participants. Now’s the time to come out, in greater numbers
than ever, to fulfill the words that John Paul II preached in Denver at the 1993
World Youth Day:
"Do not be afraid to go out on the streets and into public places like the first
apostles, who preached Christ and the good news of salvation in the squares of
cities, towns and villages. This is no time to be ashamed of the Gospel
(cf.Rom.1:16). It is the time to preach it from the rooftops (cf.Mt.10:27). Do
not be afraid to break out of comfortable and routine modes of living in order
to take up the challenge of making Christ known in the modern "metropolis." …The
Gospel must not be kept hidden because of fear or indifference. It was never
meant to be hidden away in private. It has to be put on a stand so that people
may see its light and give praise to our heavenly Father (cf.Mt.5:15-16)."
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