Life Canvass in Ireland: Helping to "Save the 8th"

Canvassers of Life Canvass helping save the unborn and ensure a "No" note on May 25. Photo: Twitter/Savethe8th

In only a few days' time, on May 25, Ireland will vote on a referendum on whether or not to repeal the Eighth Amendment of its constitution: the pro-life provision that prevents the killing of a developing human being in the womb. Among many of the faithful Catholics who are fighting the good fight to ensure that the referendum results in a "No" vote are the folks of Life Canvass: a nationwide awareness effort of volunteers who travel from door-to-door having conversations, discussing the issues, answering questions, and disseminating information.

Life Canvass, now three years in the running, has yielded some impressive results. As noted on the Save Lives Save the 8th website, Life Canvass is the biggest grass roots movement in living memory with almost 3,000 canvassers grouped into 146 teams spread out in counties across Ireland. To date, 95% of Limerick has been canvassed and teams in Mullingar and Mayo are busy at it as well, canvassing seven days a week! And if that isn't impressive enough, the website went on to further report that, "The target of reaching 700,000 homes will be exceeded and every one of those powerful personal conversations is shifting more and more people to a No vote."

The daily effort of this extraordinary group of people has revealed just how essential their work has been and continues to be in the remaining days leading up to the referendum: many of those canvassed were undecided due to a lack of information. To remedy that canvassers have been properly informing citizens with the truth about the referendum: the facts about what happens to a baby when an abortion occurs; that the referendum is a "stepping stone" to abortion available on demand, that if passed would include the killing of babies identified with any "defects"; that everyone has the right to life; the killing of a human being in the womb can never be considered acceptable under any circumstances; the negative ramifications of abortion upon women and society; and how abortion could negatively impact Ireland for generations to come.

Part of the effort to disseminate information also includes the Protect The 8th's green booklet, Your Guide to the Referendum: Information on the Government’s Proposals: an essential reading for anyone that seeks to fully understand what a "Yes" or "No" vote would mean for women and their unborn children.

Canvassers out in Roscommon and Mayo. Photo: thejournal.ie/8 out of 10 voters in this area backed the Eighth Amendment in '83. We went to talk to locals this week

Admittedly, I am very impressed with Life Canvass! I have been following this campaign for several months on Twitter and I cannot help but think of Saint John Paul II's Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Christifideles Laici, on the vocation and mission of the lay faithful in the Church and in the World, in which he wrote, "A new state of affairs today both in the Church and in social, economic, political and cultural life, calls with a particular urgency for the action of the lay faithful. If lack of commitment is always unacceptable, the present time renders it even more so. It is not permissible for anyone to remain idle." (3)

Released in 1988, on the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, Christifideles Laici, is more relevant today given Ireland's tragic abandonment of Catholic teaching that has resulted in a moral disorder: contraceptive devices and birth control pills have been available for decades; a 1992 referendum resulted in the option for women to travel to another country (England) in order to have an abortion, as well as the availability of information regarding abortion "services" in other countries; in 1995, Ireland's ban on divorce was removed through another referendum; and the referendum of 2015, ushered in "same-sex marriage."

On May 25, the government, supported by mainstream media and with the backing of wealthy foreign donors and organizations like Amnesty International, seeks to usher in a Culture of Death with the repeal referendum, which if passed would essentially amount to abortion available on demand.

Canvassers out in the coastal suburb of Dún Laoghaire. Photo: thejournal.ie/Anti-amendment Dún Laoghaire bucked the national trend in '83. We went to talk to locals this week

There are many faithful in Ireland who have not remained idle! With the understanding of the gravity of what a "Yes" vote would mean for the unborn and the future of Ireland, thousands of faithful Catholics have been putting faith into action, doing their part to "Save the 8th" on a national level: the Rosary on the Coast for Life and Faith on November 26, 2017; the Rally For Life event just a couple of months ago on March 10 in Dublin; the Rosary at the Mass Rock For Life and Faith that followed on March 18; 40 Days/Nights Eucharist Reparation; 54 Day Rosary for Life; Eucharistic Adoration and Mass; public, private and parish vigils; fasts on bread and water (Wednesday and Friday); and novenas.

Life Canvass spotlights in a unique way just how committed the faithful in Ireland are to protecting and defending the unborn: individuals who brave all types of weather conditions, fight off fatigue, discouragement and other temptations, and do so on a daily basis (some for more than two years) canvassing counties across the nation, including at times hostile territory. With Life Canvass, the division within Ireland over abortion and the anger among some of the citizenry is directly felt by canvassers. And some take the "heat" with great patience and perseverance, knowing full well, that it is part of the battle. It is no small matter to publicly engage people in an awareness campaign: it can drain one both physically and emotionally, especially when confronted with verbal abuse and aggression.

Life Canvass in County Wexford. Photo: Twitter/Savethe8th

Canvassers are fighting the good fight for the unborn and are doing so enthusiastically and undeterred with the hope that their actions, united to prayer, will draw God's Divine Intervention and Mercy upon the nation to uproot and remove the moral disorder among the landscape and restore Ireland to a Culture of Life.

Life Canvass demonstrates openly and publicly what faith put into action looks like, highlighting in the process the scriptural passage from James: What good is faith that does nothing in practice, it is thoroughly lifeless. (James 2:17)

In addition to being informed on the issues of abortion, canvassing also requires being knowledgeable of what the Catholic Church teaches about the killing of an innocent developing human being in the womb, and drawing from that teaching during each conversation. By doing so, the faithful Catholics of Life Canvass are demonstrating by their witness the importance of what we as Catholics are called to do: evangelize. Evangelization as Blessed Pope Paul VI put it in his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, "...[I]s in fact the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity." (14)

Canvassers knocking on doors in the town of Sligo. Photo: Twitter/Savethe8th

Blessed Pope Paul VI's successor, St. John Paul II, responded to that vocation with a distinctive and efficacious missionary zeal. Not only did St. John Paul II publicly expose the evil of abortion on numerous occasions, but he dedicated an entire encyclical on the value and inviolability of human life and the many threats to it entitled, Evangelium vitae (Gospel of life). Particularly noteworthy is section fifty-eight which helps to explain why many Catholics are no longer aware and do not understand the truth about abortion, and why the government has even bothered to hold a referendum:

Among all the crimes which can be committed against life, procured abortion has characteristics making it particularly serious and deplorable. The Second Vatican Council defines abortion, together with infanticide, as an "unspeakable crime". [Gaudium et Spes, 51]

But today, in many people's consciences, the perception of its gravity has become progressively obscured. The acceptance of abortion in the popular mind, in behaviour and even in law itself, is a telling sign of an extremely dangerous crisis of the moral sense, which is becoming more and more incapable of distinguishing between good and evil, even when the fundamental right to life is at stake. Given such a grave situation, we need now more than ever to have the courage to look the truth in the eye and to call things by their proper name, without yielding to convenient compromises or to the temptation of self-deception. In this regard the reproach of the Prophet is extremely straightforward: "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness" (Is 5:20). Especially in the case of abortion there is a widespread use of ambiguous terminology, such as "interruption of pregnancy", which tends to hide abortion's true nature and to attenuate its seriousness in public opinion. Perhaps this linguistic phenomenon is itself a symptom of an uneasiness of conscience. But no word has the power to change the reality of things: procured abortion is the deliberate and direct killing, by whatever means it is carried out, of a human being in the initial phase of his or her existence, extending from conception to birth. (58)

The truth about abortion is understood by many who are canvassed by Life Canvass. In an article from the Irish News web site Independent.ie, Knocking on doors in hostile territories: What its like to canvass for the referendum when local voting trends are against you, one such individual, an elderly lady stated to canvassers, "Abortion is murder...It's as simple as that."

That simple point was further spotlighted by Saint John Paul II in the same aforementioned encyclical on the Gospel of Life, when he wrote, "...[I] declare that direct abortion, that is, abortion willed as an end or as a means, always constitutes a grave moral disorder, since it is the deliberate killing of an innocent human being. (62) 

Young volunteers canvassing, standing strong for life in Galway and Roscommon. Photo: Twitter/Savethe8th

If we seek to further understand why the killing of a developing human being in the womb is immoral, we can find it in God's Holy Law, The Fifth Commandment, "You Shall Not Kill."

Moreover, human life is sacred! The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains why this is so, "Human life is sacred because from its beginning it involves the creative action of God and it remains for ever in a special relationship with the Creator, who is its sole end. God alone is the Lord of life from its beginning until its end: no one can under any circumstance claim for himself the right directly to destroy an innocent human being." (2258)

Some of the newest canvassers, including Cllr. Declan Harvey of
Fianna Fáil (the Republican Party) handing out Protect The 8th's
green referendum booklet, in Tullamore, County Offaly.
Photo: Twitter/Savethe8th

Sadly, there are many Catholics in Ireland that simply do not know, understand or accept God's Holy Law and the sacredness of human life. This reality has been exploited by the Together for Yes, the anti-life campaign of the referendum, who have assigned their own canvassers with deceptive facts and leading questions, attempting in the process to justify and rationalize abortion: that abortion should be allowed in the case of rape, incest or if someone was handicapped; emphasizing that Irish women are already having abortions by taking unregulated abortion pills or by traveling to England, that it would be safer for them to kill their unborn children in Ireland; that this referendum is the last chance to legalize abortion in Ireland; that abortion is a "compassionate approach" for anyone who needs it; that a "No" vote result would continue to "endanger" the health and lives of women; and a host of other rationalizations and justifications that attempt to make abortion acceptable in the hearts and minds of the citizenry.

The Together For Yes anti-life campaign has even tried to exploit the negligence of the medical staff at University Hospital Galway, who were responsible for the controversial death of Savita Halappanavar and her baby in 2012, claiming that the Eight Amendment was a contributing factor to her death, "Even though she was miscarrying and sick, she was refused a termination [abortion] because there was a foetal heartbeat. As a result, she contracted sepsis and died. If doctors had intervened earlier, the issue of sepsis would not have arisen and she would not have died." The true story about Savita and her baby was captured in a well-made documentary film: A Silent Killer: Savita's Story.

None of what the anti-life campaign promotes and disseminates negates the truth about abortion: that it is the killing of a developing human being in the womb and that each human being has a right to life. 

And that truth was embodied in the life of Saint Gianna Beretta Molla—a devout Catholic doctor from Lombardy, Italy, who put God first in everything and allowed her Christian faith to permeate every aspect of life—whose unwavering adherence to God's Holy Law and belief in the sacredness of human life was exemplified by the willing sacrifice of her own life for the life of her unborn child in 1962. 

Ireland responded very positively to the "Eighth Amendment Referendum" in 1983; a referendum that was held to vote on the inclusion of a pro-life provision in its constitution—approved by 67% of the population—which states, “The State acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right.” In a few days time, Ireland will have another opportunity to choose life by keeping the Eighth Amendment, responding once again to St. John Paul II's homily of October 1, 1979, in Limerick:

And so I say to all, have an absolute and holy respect for the sacredness of human life from the first moment of its conception. Abortion, as the Vatican Council stated, is one of the "abominable crimes" (Gaudium et Spes, 51). To attack unborn life at any moment from its conception is to undermine the whole moral order which is the true guardian of the well-being of man. The defence of the absolute inviolability of unborn life is part of the defence of human rights and human dignity. May Ireland never weaken in her witness, before Europe and before the whole world, to the dignity and sacredness of all human life, from conception until death. (6)

In that homily St. John Paul II—as part of his Apostolic Journey to Ireland in 1979, which lasted from September 29 to October 1—demonstrated how seriously he understood the Church's vocation to evangelize. It was a timely "visit" that positively impacted the 1983 referendum. Here is more from that homily:

Lay people today are called to a strong Christian commitment: to permeate society with the leaven of the Gospel, for Ireland is at a point of decision in her history. The Irish people have to choose today their way forward. Will it be the transformation of all strata of humanity into a new creation, or the way that many nations have gone, giving excessive importance to economic growth and material possessions while neglecting the things of the spirit? The way of substituting a new ethic of temporal enjoyment for the law of God? The way of false freedom which is only slavery to decadence? Will it be the way of subjugating the dignity of the human person to the totalitarian domination of the State? The way of violent struggle between classes? The way of extolling revolution over God? 

Ireland must choose. You the present generation of Irish people must decide; your choice must be clear and your decision firm. Let the voice of your forefathers, who suffered so much to maintain their faith in Christ and thus to preserve Ireland's soul, resound today in your ears through the voice of the Pope when he repeats the words of Christ: "What will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his life?" (Mt 16 :26). What would it profit Ireland to go the easy way of the world and suffer the loss of her own soul? (3)

Your country seems in a sense to be living again the temptations of Christ: Ireland is being asked to prefer the "kingdoms of the world and their splendour" to the Kingdom of God (cf. Mt 4 :8). Satan, the Tempter, the Adversary of Christ, will use all his might and all his deceptions to win Ireland for the way of the world. What a victory he would gain, what a blow he would inflict on the Body of Christ in the world, if he could seduce Irish men and women away from Christ. Now is the time of testing for Ireland. This generation is once more a generation of decision. (4)

Keep Life Canvass and Ireland in your Mass, Rosary, Divine Mercy Chaplet, and fasting intentions. Pray for the intercession of St. John Paul II that God's Divine Mercy and Intervention be drawn upon Ireland. 

Thank God for all the faithful Catholics in Ireland.

Rosary on the Coast For Faith, Life and Peace in the British Isles

The rugged north coast of Scotland. Photo: Scotland Info Guide/Durness and Cape Wrath.

On Sunday, April 29, at 3:00pm faithful Catholics in the British Isles will gather at the coast to recite the Rosary as part of a national day of prayer and pilgrimage for faith, life, and peace. This lay initiative, Rosary on the Coast for Faith, Life and Peace in the British Isles, is another national Rosary prayer event that follows in the footsteps of similar events in Poland, Italy, and Ireland. 

In addition to those on the coasts of England, Scotland, and Wales, the Orkney and Shetland Islands, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Isle of Wight, the Scilly Islands, Lundy Island, the Channel Islands and many other smaller islands, others will gather at cathedrals, churches and shrines inspired by the words of Jesus, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them." (Matt 18:20) 

The date of Rosary on the Coast is not without its special significance: Sunday, April 29, is not only the fifth Sunday of Easter, but also the Feast of Our Lady of Faith and Saint Catherine of Sienna, both of whom are co-patrons of Europe. As the organizers point out, "This frames our initiative in the wider context of re-Christianising our great continent."

Rosary on the Coast has received support from many bishops and other members of the clergy: Bishop Alan Hopes of the Diocese of East Anglia; Welsh Bishop Tom Burns; Monsignor John Armitage, Rector of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham; Father Jeremy Milne, Vicar Episcopal for Marriage and Families within the Archdiocese of Saint Andrews and Edinburgh; and Bishop Philip Egan of the Diocese of Portsmouth. 

Words of encouragement and support have also come from the Sisters of the Gospel of Life in Glasgow, Scotland who will be actively participating in this national prayer event on the coast, and invite others to join their group.

In a wonderful show of solidarity with fellow Catholics in the British Isles, Kathy Sinnott, who headed the Rosary at the Coast for Life and Faith in Ireland, has also expressed her support and encouragement.

It would be remiss of me not to include the support of Bishop John Keenan from the Diocese of Paisley, Scotland, who first caught my attention back in November 2017, when he expressed his desire that Scotland should follow in the example of Poland, Italy, and Ireland with a national Rosary prayer event.

Bishop Keenan's daily spiritual preparation Facebook post.
Image: Rosary on the Coast Facebook page.

To help strengthen and ensure the efficaciousness of the Rosary on the Coast, Bishop Keenan initiated a 40 Day Spiritual Preparation—which started on March 19 and will end on April 27—that includes a variety of daily guidelines: recitation of the Rosary, Divine Mercy Chaplet, Stations of the Cross, and other prayers, Mass attendance, fasting, scriptural reading, sacrifices, and acts of mercy, kindness, and forgiveness. Each day's guidelines are posted on Facebook by Bishop Keenan, which are then shared at the Rosary on the Coast Facebook page. Participants are also permitted to freely choose from other guidelines as prompted by the Holy Spirit. At the end of the forty days, organizers are encouraging everyone to receive Sacrament of Reconciliation or Confession, on April 28, as part of further spiritual preparation for the following day when Catholics will attend Mass in the morning and then gather at the coasts.

Bishop Keenan has also released a YouTube video in support of Rosary on the Coast, referring to it as "a courageous initiative by the lay faithful," and a call for Catholics to get to the coast and pray the Rosary to implore Our Lady's help to "arouse a great renewal of our Christian faith." It is through Our Lady, the bishop stressed, that the "scourge of abortion" will come to an end, and the Blessed Mother will usher in, "a new era of peace for all of our nations."

As more and more people join the Rosary on the Coast, it is Bishop Keenan's hope that the various groups will form a "ring of grace" around the British Isles. To date there are 141 locations and that number is growing with each passing week.

In the aforementioned YouTube video, Bishop Keenan characterized the times as a "...[D]ark and turbulent storm of aggressive secularism that's threatening ever more the dignity of the human person, the sanctity of life, and the joy of authentic relationships." Continuing further on this point he stated, "It wants to outlaw religion from public life and thinks it can solve all the serious problems of the world by ever more draconian political encroaches into ordinary peoples' lives."

With tensions rising and hopes fading, Bishop Keenan emphasized that, "...[T]he world is crying out for new solutions and these will only come from a renewal in the Church, that is strong again in faith. Our gospel can dispel the present confusion and lead us into a welcome era of peace and light."

Drawing from history, the bishop highlighted that God has demonstrated throughout the bible that renewal is "...[L]iterally around the corner when nations confess our sins, ask His forgiveness and mercy, and trust in His supernatural power to make everything new."

After encouraging the faithful to trust in Our Lady's intercession, Bishop Keenan imparted his blessing upon the Rosary on the Coast, "May God bless this important venture and begin the conversion and reconciliation of our isles."

As the organizers of this national prayer event point out on their website's Inspiration page under the subheading, Context of Prayer for a re flourishing of Faith across the British Isles, the Rosary on the Coast is:

...[A]n opportunity to pray for a re-flourishing of faith across the British Isles as a means of preparing for a New Spring Time within the Church, so that we Christians of these lands might spread the Gospel in its fullness in a renewed and joyous way. We hope that Rosary on the Coast will bring from heaven the grace of renewed evangelistic outreach and zeal as we further the work of the New Evangelisation.

Organizers have also included a statement under the subheading, Context of Prayer for the Sanctity of the Human Person, in which they not only spotlight the deplorable Abortion Act—that came into effect in April 27, 1968—that has ushered in a Culture of Death, but they have also identified the deep crisis of conscience in which citizens are, "...[U]nable to fathom and grasp the enormity of this wound to our society."

And following that statement, at the Context of Prayer for Peace in our National life and for peace among Nations subheading, organizers highlighted the troubled times we all live in evidenced by the "incessant litany of bad news" and the great need of hope that can be awakened through prayer.

The response by the organizers speaks volumes about their trust in Our Lady's intercession, as well as to the understanding that the battle for the British Isles is primarily a spiritual battle that must be fought with spiritual weapons. And the most effective way to fight the good fight is by group recitation of the Rosary.

Saint Louis De Montfort in his book, The Secret of the Rosary, at the Forty-Sixth Rose: Group Recitation, stated that not only is the group recitation of the Rosary the method of prayer that the Evil One fears the most, but "...[I]t is far more formidable to the devil than one said privately, because in this public prayer it is an army that is attacking him." (98)

Monsignor John Armitage, Rector of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham. Image:
Rosary on the Coast/Message of support from Mgr. John Armitage

 

As Monsignor John Armitage stated in his video message in support of this national day of prayer and pilgrimage, "The Rosary is the most powerful prayer, quite simply because the Rosary is the compendium of the Gospel."

 

Utilizing the Rosary as a spiritual weapon has been a long-held tradition in the Church since its origin when Saint Dominic (Founder of the Order of Preachers) received the Rosary from Our Blessed Mother in 1214, as an efficacious method and powerful means to convert the Albigensians and other sinners.

The long-held tradition of praying the Rosary in times of great need was given much attention by Pope Leo XIII—who wrote extensively on the subject matter—most notably in his encyclical Supremi Apostolatus Officio, on devotion to the Rosary and its efficaciousness as a remedy for the many evils of society. In that encyclical, the pope stated, "It has always been the habit of Catholics in danger and in troublous times to fly for refuge to Mary, and to seek for peace in her maternal goodness; showing that the Catholic Church has always, and with justice, put all her hope and trust in the Mother of God." (2) Written in 1883, Pope Leo XIII's encyclical not only encouraged devotion to the Rosary, but spotlighted how important it has been in the history of the Catholic Church when faced with several threats; namely, the violence of heresy, intolerable moral corruption, and aggressive Islamic attacks by the Ottoman Turks.

In the British Isles, like so many other parts of the world, a struggle has been under way for decades: the struggle to understand the meaning of the human person. That struggle has been the human dilemma of late modernity; one that drove the philosophical work and pontificate of St. John Paul II, and one that Bishop Keenan has been keen to point out in his message, posted on the Rosary on the Coast website:

Our world is engaged in a fraught struggle over the meaning of the human person. Aggressively secular anthropologies insist that nothing is really true or given in human nature, and the only lasting good for each human person comes about when they can choose everything about their identity from its very source. It brings a radically new meaning to the idea of pro-choice because it seeks to lay hold on the very prerogatives of Creation itself. Against this our Christian anthropology battles on proposing that God, in His loving plan of Creation, has already given us a nature that is best for us, so that our meaning and happiness are integrally linked to discovering, rather than inventing, the truth of who we are, and so entering its path to real dignity, freedom and peace. Since this task is now, in our times, an adventure of evangelisation we need God’s supernatural assistance in grace and mercy, which the laity are beginning to cry out for in initiatives like the Rosary on the Coast, asking the Woman who was content to be the handmaid of God’s plan to be their intercessor and guide.

Group recitation of the Rosary on a national level can draw God's Divine Intervention and Mercy upon a nation; organizers, supporters, and participants of Rosary on the Coast are seeking to do just that.

Writing about this national prayer event, I cannot help but think of Saint John Paul II's Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Christifideles Laici, on the vocation and mission of the lay faithful in the Church and in the world in which he stated, "A new state of affairs today both in the Church and in social, economic, political and cultural life, calls with a particular urgency for the action of the lay faithful. If lack of commitment is always unacceptable, the present time renders it even more so. It is not permissible for anyone to remain idle." (3) It was released on December 30, 1988, on the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph; considering the current state of affairs in the Church and in the world, how much more relevant is Christifideles Laici today.

The example of the faithful in the British Isles is a source of inspiration for us all throughout the Universal Catholic Church. Hopefully many will be encouraged to seriously consider embarking on a similar venture, including on this side of the pond, here in Canada, where we are in desperate need of a national Rosary prayer event. 

May Catholics in the British Isles and throughout the world be united in prayer on April 29, at 3:00pm.

Rosary at the Mass Rock for Life and Faith in Ireland

Mass celebrated at the Mass Rock at Glenside Road in Belfast. Photo: Cliff Donaldson via The Irish News

On March 18, at 2:30pm (Irish local time) faithful Catholics in Ireland will be gathering at the historic Mass Rocks, Mass Houses, monastic ruins, and at the Papal Cross in Phoenix Park (Dublin) for the celebration of the Holy Mass, to pray the Rosary, and to appeal to the Irish saints for life and faith in Ireland.

It is another initiative by the same Catholic laity who successfully organized the Rosary on the Coast for Life and Faith last November that surrounded Ireland with a human Rosary of 30,000 participants at over 300 locations on the Solemnity of Christ the King.

In this next phase in the battle for life and faith in Ireland, the organizers during this Lenten season have turned to Our Lady of Fatima's requests: repentance; reparation; prayer and sacrifice for the conversion of sinners; and the daily recitation of the Rosary. 

By gathering at the many Mass Rocks (and other locations) scattered throughout the Irish landscape, organizers seek to encourage the faithful to emulate their ancestors who not only drew strength from the Rosary, but courageously risked their lives to attend Mass at the hands of "hunted priests" at these clandestine locations during a very dark period in Ireland's history of persecution against Catholics.

As the title of this national prayer effort suggests, life and faith are threatened in Ireland and have been for quite some time. The lives of the unborn are particularly threatened: a national referendum will be held in late May, on whether or not to repeal the Eighth Amendment, Ireland's pro-life clause in the constitution.

Secularization has also taken its toll on the population; there is a noticeable waning and loss of faith. This did not just happen over night, but over several decades, highlighting in the process how over a few generations, those who consider themselves members of the Mystical Body of Christ are today a smaller percentage of faithful Catholics.

Confirmed locations as of February 27, 2017. Image:
Google Maps via Coastal Rosary Ireland

If we look to Ireland's history from the last century up until and including recent decades, it will not be difficult to ascertain how the forces of darkness (the Evil One and his demons) have been waging a war to usher in moral disorder that includes a Culture of Death: contraception (devices and birth control pills) has been available for decades; the 1992 referendum resulted in the option for women to travel to another country (England) in order to have an abortion, as well as the availability of information regarding abortion "services" in other countries; divorce was no longer banned as a result of the 1995 referendum; and most recently the referendum of 2015, ushered in "same-sex marriage."

In 2016, the Irish government set up a "Citizens' Assembly" to "consider" the future of the Eight Amendment, which arrived at the conclusion in April 2017, that the Eight Amendment should be repealed. They voted overwhelmingly for abortion to be permitted on the grounds of a mental or physical threat to the life of the mother, in cases of disability, and for socio-economic reasons.

The Eighth Amendment was approved by 67% of the Irish population in a referendum on September 7, 1983. It came into effect on October 7, 1983, the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary and states, “The State acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right.” 

This national prayer effort seeks to draw Divine Intervention upon Ireland to prevent what abortion proponents hope will be a "positive" result in the upcoming Eight Amendment appeal referendum. For all Catholics in Ireland, the referendum will be an opportunity to respond positively, once again, to St. John Paul's homily of October 1, 1979, in Limerick:

And so I say to all, have an absolute and holy respect for the sacredness of human life from the first moment of its conception. Abortion, as the Vatican Council stated, is one of the "abominable crimes" (Gaudium et Spes, 51). To attack unborn life at any moment from its conception is to undermine the whole moral order which is the true guardian of the well-being of man. The defence of the absolute inviolability of unborn life is part of the defence of human rights and human dignity. May Ireland never weaken in her witness, before Europe and before the whole world, to the dignity and sacredness of all human life, from conception until death. (6)  

Saving the Eighth Amendment is absolutely essential in the battle for life and faith in Ireland; one that is primarily a spiritual battle that must be fought with spiritual weapons.

In addition to the Mass, the selection of the Rosary to fight this spiritual battle is not without its special significance. In the Secret of the Rosary, at the Forty-Sixth Rose: Group Recitation, Saint Louis De Montfort wrote that not only is group recitation of the Rosary the method of prayer that the devil fears the most, but "...[I]t is far more formidable to the devil than one said privately, because in this public prayer it is an army that is attacking him." (98)

By selecting the Rosary to fight the good fight, this national effort follows a long-held tradition in the Catholic Church that began in 1214, when the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to St. Dominic, the founder of the Order of Preachers, and gave him (and the entire Church) the Rosary. In addition to its many benefits—including the conversion of sinners—the Rosary is an effective weapon against the Evil One and his demons.

In his encyclical Supremi Apostolatus Officio, Pope Leo XIII wrote about devotion to the Rosary and its efficaciousness as a remedy for the many evils of society. Pope Leo XIII stated, "It has always been the habit of Catholics in danger and in troublous times to fly for refuge to Mary, and to seek for peace in her maternal goodness; showing that the Catholic Church has always, and with justice, put all her hope and trust in the Mother of God." (2)

Written in 1883, Pope Leo XIII's encyclical not only encouraged devotion to the Rosary, but spotlighted how important it has been in the history of the Catholic Church when faced with several threats; namely, the violence of heresy, intolerable moral corruption, and aggressive Islamic attacks by the Ottoman Turks.

Mass Rock ("Carraig an Aifrinn" in Gaelic) at Letterkenny, Donegal, Ireland. Photo: We Love Donegal/Mass Rocks

The Mass Rocks located throughout the Irish landscape were specifically chosen for their historical significance: a period in Ireland when Catholics were legally persecuted by the British Crown and the state-sponsored, Church of Ireland for almost 300 years. As a result of that persecution, faithful Catholics had to clandestinely attend Mass at various locations throughout Ireland where natural flat rock formations became altars and other rocks (some taken from damaged monasteries and churches) had been formed into crosses and altars for midnight-Mass celebrations.

In his homily at Phoenix Park in Dublin during his Apostolic Journey to Ireland in the Fall 1979, Saint John Paul II had mentioned the Mass Rocks in stressing how important the Mass has always been for Ireland:

As I stand here, in the company of so many hundreds of thousands of Irish men and women, I am thinking of how many times, across how many centuries, the Eucharist has been celebrated in this land. How many and how varied the places where Mass has been offered—in stately mediaeval and in splendid modern cathedrals; in early monastic and in modern churches; at Mass rocks in the glens and forests by "hunted priests", and in poor thatch-covered chapels, for a people poor in worldly goods but rich in the things of the spirit, in "wake-houses" or "station houses", or at great open-air hostings of faithful—on the top of Croagh Patrick and at Lough Derg. Small matter where the Mass was offered; for the Irish, it was always the Mass that mattered. (1)

In her email to supporters, Kathy Sinnott, who heads the group organizing this national prayer effort stated, "Our Mass Rocks and monastic ruins tell an important story of commitment to life and faith that we must never forget. They remind us that life and faith are treasures worth the greatest sacrifice." As to why March 18, was chosen as the date for this national prayer event, Sinnott explained:

• It bridges the feasts of our two great saints: March 17, St Patrick, the Patron and Protector of Ireland and March 19,  St Joseph, the Patron and Protector of the Family and of the Universal Church who visited the Irish in Knock in a special manifestation of his care.
• It is the Fifth Sunday of Lent (in the extraordinary form known as Passion Sunday) when we through the liturgy begin the ascent to Calvary.
• It marks the 145 Anniversary of the Consecration of Ireland to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Passion Sunday 1873
• It falls on the Feast of Our Lady of Mercy (Savona) where Our Lady called for fasting and conversion of life so that we will be shown "Mercy not Justice." This devotion was especially highlighted by Pope Benedict XVI.
• It is the feast of Blessed Christian O'Conarchy, the first Cistercian abbot in Ireland 1100s, Bishop of Lismore and a model of Irish monastic devotion.
• It precedes a series of referenda which seek to legalize abortion (Article 40.3.3), blasphemy (Article 40.6.1.1), no fault divorce (Article 41.3) and to remove recognition from the home carer (Article 41.2.1)

Sinnott also stated that St. John Paul II and the "Rosary Priest" Venerable Patrick Peyton will be asked to bless the Rosary at the Mass Rocks and all who take part.

This group at coastalrosaryireland.ie is a shining example of how the laity can effectively put faith into action on a national level.

When I was first informed about Rosary at the Mass Rock, I was not only pleased to read about this next phase in the continued effort for life and faith in Ireland, but it also brought to mind Saint John Paul II's Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Christifideles Laici, on the vocation and mission of the lay faithful in the Church and in the world. At eighty-four pages, it thoroughly details and explains that vocation and mission, and was written with the intention to stir the laity to a deeper awareness of the gift and responsibility they share, both as a group and as individuals, in the communion and mission of the Church.

Christifideles Laici is perhaps more relevant today than when it was first released on December 30, 1988, on the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Saint John Paul II stated, "A new state of affairs today both in the Church and in social, economic, political and cultural life, calls with a particular urgency for the action of the lay faithful. If lack of commitment is always unacceptable, the present time renders it even more so. It is not permissible for anyone to remain idle." (3)

In today's state of affairs in the Church and in the world, there is an ever increasing need for the laity to get involved and boldly take up the challenges of living the Catholic faith in the twenty-first century as part of the Church's evangelical mission. Kathy Sinnott, her fellow organizers, and all participants have certainly demonstrating this in a most admirable way last Fall—not to mention the planning, prayer, fasting, and effort it takes to organize such a national event—and will be doing so again in less than three weeks from today.

May Catholics in Ireland and those throughout the Universal Catholic Church be united in prayer on March 18; that it may draw God's Divine Intervention and mercy upon Ireland, "save the eighth," and uproot and remove the moral disorder from the landscape and restore Ireland to a Culture of Life.