As the Argentine president prepares to send a bill to the legislature legalizing abortion, thousands attended a pro-life Mass March 8 at the Basilica of Our Lady of Lujan. The Mas Vida Foundation estimated the attendance at more than 100,000 people.
The Argentine bishops’ conference organized the Mass with the theme “Yes to women, yes to life.” The main celebrant was Bishop Oscar Vicente Ojea Quintana of San Isidro, who is president of the conference.
The purpose of the event was to oppose the bill to legalize abortion to be sent by President Alberto Fernandez to the Congress, which was announced last week. Argentine law allows abortion in cases when the mother’s life or health is in danger, or in cases of rape.
In his homily, Bishop Ojea said that “in this Eucharist, we have come to celebrate and express our gratitude for the lives of so many women united in the sentiment of so many people in the world on this international women’s day.”
“We value your irreplaceable presence in families and we celebrate the increasingly greater place you have in our society,” the prelate said, and that added that all have come to Luján to “pray for all women so their lives, their safety and their rights are respected, overcoming every kind of exclusion.”
“But in a special way, we want to celebrate and appreciate women’s closeness and commitment to life,” he said, and especially those “intelligent and brave women who commit their lives day after day, that life that sometimes makes it presence known with an unplanned pregnancy, which perhaps doesn’t come at the best time, but they are completely committed to caring for this new being they have received.” CNA
