Sofia Infante, Communications Intern

[Director's note: 40 Days began as a religious campaign, and we invite all of our religious members to join on that basis. But the act of abortion is a human rights issue, not a religious one. Many of our secular advocates also participate, and we encourage everyone and anyone to follow their passionate example of outreach and vigil, with or without prayer, during a 40 Days Campaign.]

This year I am looking forward to participating in my first 40 Days for Life, and am grateful MCFL has sponsored the campaign in Massachusetts.

This mission-based campaign reaches women-in-need at ground-zero, and directs people’s attention to the impact of abortion in their own communities. The 40-day campaign, including vigils and witness at an abortuary, highlight the need and offer a life-affirming solution. Here are five reasons why I am already counting down the days until next year’s 40 Days for Life:

• 40 Days fosters a greater sense of community and a shared feeling of responsibility for our neighbor’s well-being

The director of The Lincoln Forum, our Board Chairman Dr. J. David Franks, considers solidarity through the lens of Dostoyevsky's striking concept of love in The Brothers Karamazov. This, and other readings, are part of our Social Ethics and Pro-Life Solidarity Certificate at MCFL. We welcome you to join the conversation that is creating a more just world, in-person, or remotely. If online, use #ReVitalize and #MassProLife to follow along.

Solidarity

By J. David Franks, Ph.D.

To be truly pro-life means to respond to the claim made on us by the other: to be responsible to and for the lives of others. And, somehow, we must know this without becoming sanctimonious.

This is the summit of wisdom, as Dostoevsky has Elder Zosima express it. He speaks of monks in a monastery, but we must see how this truth transposes to the pro-life sentinels of human dignity. We belong to the vanguard not because we are innocent of all the anguish of the world, but because we cannot escape our implication in that anguish.

by C.J. Williams, Director of Community Engagement, MCFL

A religious faith is not necessary to the individual position that abortion is wrong. But the Christian tenet that human lives are inimitable, imago dei, and irrepeatably precious, certainly seems like a good faith-based foundation for it. 

So what are many good apparently faith-rooted ministers doing opposing pro-life laws, and speaking out in favor of taking a vulnerable human life?

This is one great puzzle our Board Chairman explores in his recent article published in The Society of Saint Sebastian.