In a rare moment of downtime this week, I decided to watch Only Fools and Horses. I don’t bother with TV normally, but when I do, it’s back to the old stuff.
During one episode, Del Boy finds out that Raquel is pregnant. He rushes with joy to summon his brother and uncle, then shaking with delight asks them “How many people do you see standing there” whilst pointing over at Raquel. “One”, they say. “No”, he says, with tears in his eyes “I see two”.
Aside from the amusing suggestion that Del Boy is drunk and seeing double, it is a beautiful moment capturing the reality of what we all know but many have forgotten, that a unique human life begins at conception. That there really are two distinct persons present.
I attended a Right to Life UK event recently and was struck by the number of young people, especially women, involved. After talking for far too long with one of their team about the problems he has maintaining his lawn, I moved the conversation on to life issues and asked whether he had noticed a greater interest amongst young people for the pro-life cause.
“There is definitely a sense that people, especially women, are increasingly uneasy about both the radical abortion laws in place across some countries in the west, and the moves to legalise euthanasia”.
This echoed what Dr Calum Miller at Oxford University said when asked about the changing trends.
“Opinion polling shows that women are generally more pro-life and more likely to support a reduction in term limit for abortion than men, and 70 per cent of women thought the term limit for abortion in the UK should be brought down from 24 weeks”.
These rays of light penetrate the darkness as it creeps around us.
At the end of 2022, Isabel Vaughan-Spruce was arrested for silently praying near an abortion clinic.
Lois McLatchie referenced this arrest at the beginning of a speech she made recently, by saying:
“The following is not a quote from 1984 but an exchange between a police officer and a member of the British public on the streets of England in 2022.
‘You’ve said you’re engaging in prayer, which is the offence’
‘Silent prayer’
‘You were still engaging in prayer which is the offence’
Her offence?” McLatchie asks, “Stopping to pray inside her own mind”.
Isabel herself reports that “Since my arrest we have had more people than ever participating in our 40 Days for Life. Lots of students got involved for the first time, with many saying that they realised they had to do something now because things were getting so bad.”
I told her about the time my brother and his mates flew into action to defend me when a boy in the year above at school deliberately rode his bike into the back of my legs. It’s one of the only times I remember him even acknowledging the existence of his embarrassing little sister. “It’s easy to ignore something you care about until its under threat” I said.
“That’s exactly it” she replied “The worse things get, the more people are motivated to step into action. Whilst there is definitely a battle on, there’s an increased sense of what’s at stake and more people than ever are waking up to the truth”.
The signs of hope are everywhere. Last year the police estimated that 7,000 people attended the annual March for Life, almost double the estimates for the previous year. Anyone who has been on a March for Life can testify to the fact that there are lots of children, young adults and families taking part. This is not a dying cause.
In the same way, at a time when increasing restrictions are being imposed on the traditional Latin mass it has been reported that a record-breaking number of participants are planning to go on the pilgrimage from Paris to Chartres, which brings together pilgrims attached to the traditional liturgy from all over the world.
As education becomes increasingly compromised more and more people are working together to establish alternatives to the typical model of schooling.
The more the climate catastrophists behave in irresponsible and aggressive ways, the more people are beginning to question the necessity, feasibility and worthwhileness of certain climate policies.
As attempts are made to eradicate women under the DIE agenda, the greater the pushback to defend the uniqueness of womanhood.
With plummeting birth rates across the globe, eyes are being opened to the prophetic words of Pope Paul VI in Humanae Vitae and people are increasingly rejecting an artificiality that sets up the conditions to abuse women and mechanise the human body.
Every sign of hope is born out of human suffering. As Tertullian said, “The blood of the martyrs is the seeds of the Church”.
As bleak as things appear to be we must be reassured by the words in Acts 5:34-39 “If their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men, you will only find yourselves fighting against God”.
For as long as we remain Christ centred, we can remain hopeful. Whether it will be enough to see the Right to Life staff lawns flourish, we can’t know, but it’s enough to keep them fighting the good fight in defence of human life, as the army around them (at least) grows.
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