Day of the Unborn Child 2017

After about 6 weeks of overcast skies and constant showers we awoke to a beautiful, sunny and warm day. The brilliant blue sky was the perfect setting for the 18th Day of the Unborn Child in Sydney to be led by His Grace, Archbishop Anthony Fisher following on from the 10.30am Mass at St. Mary’s Cathedral in which he was the principal celebrant. He was joined by about 2,500 to 3,000 people.

Archbishop Fisher reminded us all during his homily that we traditionally gather on the Sunday nearest the feast of the Annunciation for this day. The Annunciation celebrates Mary’s fiat, her yes to Life, the second person of the Blessed Trinity becoming incarnate in her womb as a single cell zygote, to undergo complete human development to birth and maturity. Each and every child in his mother’s womb is made in the “image and likeness of God” and we are called to defend them from conception to natural death.

The Archbishop recalled being on a panel interview in England some years ago and being accused of thinking every abortion was a sin! To his surprise he was defended by well known feminist and social critic, Germaine Greer who said “of course very abortion is a sin!”

We were promised protestors to our event this year and we weren’t to be disappointed but it seems they were! There were only about 40 – 50 of them but they were noisy and aggressive. The police told us they knew most of them. In other words they were professional protestors. The police led them to believe we would gather at the front of State Parliament when the plan all along was to enter the Domain and process to the rear of the Parliament building.

They moved them from College Street and the side entrance to the Cathedral before we came out after Mass. When they gathered in Macquarie Street outside parliament the police “boxed them in.” This allowed us to process unhindered. At the Parliament we heard from a young lady just getting involved with pro-life, Elizabeth Fanning, who gave a rousing address and especially urged the young men present to become “real” men and care for and respect women, to restore christian civilisation to it’s place.

While there, Mr Paul Hanrahan, the executive director of Family Life International Australia, the principal organisers of this event, introduced a young couple from Nigeria who are here as students and found themselves expecting their first child at a difficult time. They considered abortion but met the “Helpers of God’s Precious Infants” praying outside the abortion mill they attended. When they were offered assistance and support, they were greatly relieved and accepted that offer for help. Praying outside abortion mills for 23 years now, Hanrahan says he has seen over 500 such turnarounds or changes of heart.

He also said that we need to raise the Catholic standard in the public domain and show the compassionate face of the Church to the many disaffected people living in our world and to say to governments and the popular media, we are here and we have a voice.

We returned after a rousing rendition of the National anthem including the often overlooked 3rd verse referring to Jesus Christ on whose teaching our nation was founded. The day concluded with exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and Benediction given by Archbishop Fisher. In all a very successful day as the many magnificent photos testify to.