Catholic Vancouver February 14, 2023
Hope is ‘ebbing out of human community,’ pro-life chaplain says promoting upcoming events for life
By Terry O'Neill
It’s more important now than ever for Catholics to participate in life-affirming events like 40 Days for Life and the March for Life, says the archdiocese’s pro-life chaplain, Father Larry Lynn.
Although the culture of death has Western society in a stranglehold, the pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes in Coquitlam believes Catholics can lead society back to life by proclaiming the truth and devoting themselves to prayer and action.
“Prayer has done so much,” he said in an interview. “We have that, and we have our witness. And we have our love.”
Forty Days for Life is a peaceful, prayerful project aimed at ending abortion that takes place throughout Lent, Feb. 22-April 2 this year. Its most visible activity is a daily, 12-hour prayer vigil near B.C. Women’s Hospital beside the John Paul II Pastoral Centre.
Organizers also urge participants to hold overnight vigils in their own churches. An online Rosary will also be prayed every evening.
Father Lynn sent a letter to pastors urging them to support the project, saying the prevalence of abortion and euthanasia (Medical Assistance in Dying or MAiD) “are dire signs of hope ebbing out of the human community.”
The Church has “two ways of bringing hope into the world: prayer and witness,” he said to priests. “Prayer is the answer to this tragedy, and the strongest tool we have to create the scale of change of hearts and minds that is needed.”
For more information about 40 Days for Life visit 40daysforlife.com/vancouver-bc.
Father Lynn also urged Catholics to begin preparing for the annual March for Life in Victoria on Thursday, May 11. “The March for Life is really a beautiful manifestation of one’s will to stand up against the idea that we kill innocent human life,” he told The B.C. Catholic.
Although organizers have discussed relocating the event to Vancouver, they ultimately decided it made sense to keep it at the province’s capital. Although the federal government is responsible for legalizing euthanasia allowing abortion for any reason and at any time during a woman’s pregnancy, it’s the B.C. government that regulates and funds both practices through the Medical Services Plan.
The March for Life website m4lvictoria.ca will be updated soon.
The National March for Life in Ottawa on May 11 will feature a full roster of in-person events for the first time in three years. For more information visit marchforlife.ca.
Father Lynn also commended the annual Blooms into Rooms project, which sees representatives from Catholic parishes and schools delivering flowers to seniors in the north of Fraser and north Surrey area on Holy Saturday. The project will reach more than 1,000 sick and elderly persons this year.
The Catholic pro-life organization Life Compass is helping fund the project through a Pro-Life Sunday grant that it received from the archdiocese.
“Blooms into Rooms helps bring to life our Prayer for the Reverence for Life,” said Life Compass chair Richard Whalen. “It’s a clear demonstration of our love for the sick and the elderly. In a time of rampant MAiD, this is a message society really needs to hear.”
Father Lynn said his biggest challenge as pro-life chaplain is to awaken people from their complacency. The pro-life movement should not be considered just another mission in the Church, he said; rather, it addresses “a fundamental fault in our society, a seismic fault.”
“So, my biggest worry is that people are not waking up fast enough,” he said. “I see change. People are waking up to some degree, but where we are now as opposed to five years ago is way down the road to a really disastrous kind of society.”
Father Lynn traced the rise of the culture of death to moral relativism and the mistaken belief that an individual’s choice is more important than moral standards. “What we have been told is not real truth, but ‘your truth and my truth,’” he said. “And, when you say that, we’re going in the wrong direction.”
Ultimately, this triumph of individual rights has led to a culture “where I can kill myself, I can have my mother-in-law killed, I can have my child in my womb killed, and that’s OK, because it’s my truth,” Father Lynn said.
“The killing of human life is just unacceptable and always has been, and just because the society—the philosophers of the day—say it’s OK, doesn’t make it right.”
The challenge that Catholics must take on is especially daunting now that Western society has declined into a post-Christian era, Father Lynn said.
At the same time, though, our “stripped down” Church has been left with a faithful, vibrant core of believers who, because of their relationship with Christ, should have the courage to proclaim the culture of life.
“We need not fear,” he said. “We know that we have this truth on our side.”