Canadian March for Life 'encouraging'

(Vatican Radio) This year’s March for Life in Canada showed some “encouraging” signs, says Michèle Boulva, director of the Catholic Organization for Life and Family, an organization of the Canadian Catholic Bishops Conference.

At the start of the country’s current National Week for Life and for the Family, Boulva shared with Vatican Radio her observations from the march, held a few days earlier on 8 May, as well as the reaction of demonstrators to the first-ever papal message for the event.

She said the theme for this year’s march in the capital, Ottawa, was tied to the efforts of a pharmaceutical company to have the abortifacient drug RU-486 legalized in Canada. It had been banned in 2001, after a woman had died from using it, she said.

She called the 23,000 marchers, as well as the pro-life Members of Parliament who joined the marchers for the rally on Parliament Hill, “encouraging”.

“Quite a few of them are trying to bring in bills to defend life,” she said.

She remarked on “more and more youth every year” and related what she called a “hopeful” incident, saying it was “very encouraging to see that the Holy Spirit can change hearts”. According to Boulva, a secular journalist reporting on the march said: “I was pro-choice when I started this march but now I’ve become pro-life. These people are not religious extremists. They have sound things to say and we should be listening to them.”

Boulva said the message Pope Francis sent to marchers—she believes the first papal message for a Canadian March for Life—was very much appreciated by demonstrators.

The message said the Pope was praying that the event would foster great respect for the inviolable right to life, from conception to natural death, and that he supports pro-life efforts in the country, Boulva reported.

Listen to the full interview with Michèle Boulva:
Report and interview by Laura Ieraci