SW News: While the opening Mass of the National Prayer Vigil for Life was being celebrated on the evening of January 19 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington DC, activists belonging to ‘Catholics for Choice’ projected pro-abortion messages onto the façade and bell tower of the church. Pictures posted on Twitter by Religion News Service reporter Jack Jenkins showed messages such as “1 in 4 abortion patients are Catholics”, “Pro-choice Catholics you are not alone”, “Pro-choice Catholics” and “Stop stigmatizing” projected by the organization.


Catholics for Choice’s website describes the non-profit organization as Catholics who “disagrees with the dictates of the Vatican on matters related to sex, marriage, family life, and motherhood.”


Pro-life Catholics and leaders were shocked and horrified to see the images on social media. San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone said in his tweet, “The attempted desecration is enormous. Diabolical” and implored the Virgin Mary to pray for the protestors.


Staff writer for National Review, Alexandra DeSanctis, tweeted, “This is diabolical stuff right here. The Church has been the most vocal defender of human life in the womb for centuries, and it’s pretty clear the devil doesn’t like that one bit.”


The annual March for Life is happening on January 21 in Washington D.C where tens of thousands of pro-lifers gather on the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling which legalized abortion in all 50 states in the US.