The 2012 March For Life in Washington DC was the largest by far. Crowd estimates exceed 400,000 participants, topping last year’s march by at least 50,000. This was a powerful election year message to members of congress who are well aware of the overwhelming success of pro-life candidates in the 2010 mid-terms.
There were numerous well attended pro-life events over the three day event. Especially noteworthy was the appearance of Father Frank Pavone, Director of Priests For Life, who typically heightened enthusiasm and brightened spirits wherever he showed up.
This was Father Frank’s first public appearance following his recall to the Diocese Of Amarillo, TX by Bishop Patrick Zurek last September. The “recall” involved alleged, and so far completely unsubstantiated, charges of financial malfeasance at Priests For Life.
During his eighteen years of tireless effort at Priests For Life, Father Frank has gradually become the defacto head, the Father figure if you will, of the pro-life movement and he has been greatly missed. The following video clips from the March For Life show why Father Frank inspires such love and ardor among committed pro-lifers of all religions and even pro-life atheists.
The first clip is a general overview of the January 23 March For Life. At the 0:30 mark, Father Frank addresses the aspect of abortion that feminists and the abortion industry turn a callous blind eye to – the hundreds of thousands of women who have suffered horrible emotional scaring arising from guilt and depression as the result of undergoing an abortion.
Father Frank pointedly refers to healing for these victims as “one of the most powerful aspects of this March For Life… what abortion is doing to the women who undergo the procedure”.
The Silent No More Awareness Campaign and Rachel’s Vineyard are abortion healing groups co-founded by Father Frank and are affiliated with Priests For Life
On Tuesday the 24th we relayed a Catholic World News report that though Father Frank had been given permission to attend this year’s March For Life, there will be no change in his restricted status and he will have to return to Amarillo.
Bishop Patrick Zurek told CWN that he is waiting for a disposition of Father Frank’s appeal to the Vatican – “There’s nothing new until Rome says something”. In the first interview below Father Frank conspicuously makes no mention of the standoff with Bishop Zurek.
Father Frank sounded notably more encouraging in the next interview with Life Site News – “My situation is improving… I expect the situation to be resolved relatively soon.”
But it is when Father Frank refers to his thousands of supporters who have expressed concern over Father Frank’s pain and frustration during his sequester in Amarillo, that Father Frank shows why he has become the heart and soul of the pro-life movement. “It is nothing compared to the pain I have each and every day from the destruction of these children by abortion.”
Over the last eighteen years thousands of babies have been rescued from the vacuum devices, surgical instruments and poisons of America’s abortion clinics, and thousands of women victimized by abortion have received healing, through Father Frank Pavone’s lifetime commitment to life.
As for Bishop Zurek’s seeming indifference to the potential damage to these efforts being done by his unexplained insistence to continue to confine Father Frank to Amarillo, TX…
Let’s just say it’s hard to understand the man’s “thinking”.
Click here to watch video interviews with Fr. Frank