Dear 40 Days Reps and Friends:
It is with gratitude that I convey my sincere appreciation and thankfulness to all 40 Days Reps who took on this important and vital role in this fall’s campaign.
All your efforts are valued and have contributed to at times a logistically challenging campaign in church and ministry group participation this year.
Outreach to churches and ministry groups began in late July. From this outreach, 28 churches, 3 ministry groups, and 1 small faith community committed to vigil day participation. Overall, 26.5 of the 40 days were committed vigil days, slightly down from overall vigil coverage last year. Special thanks to St. Hyacinth Parish, for committing to 2 separate vigil days this year. That was a first in our history of doing these campaigns.
As in previous years, efforts were made in other church communities to organize or strengthen themselves to eventually participate in a vigil day. Hopefully this will materialize with prayerful persistence and with exhortations of our pro-life responsibilities as people of faith.
We benefited from the intercessory prayer role of church communities that were either very small or very far out from downtown Ottawa.
As in previous years, there were committed individuals who helped out with a regular almost daily prayer vigil presence in covering uncommitted hours.
Thank You to all the clergy: pastors, assistant pastors, deacons, and religious sisters who participated in the vigil; your prayerful presence encourages the rest of us.
Given the logistical challenges of recurring thefts of our vigil site supplies throughout this campaign, the overall coverage of vigil hour participation is not fully known. Not all on-site vigil participation got recorded in our sign-in book. Based on the current posted website calendar, there was 82% coverage of the 480 total vigil hours. This is down from our 91% coverage in past campaigns. At the same time, we know that the 82% coverage was most likely higher because of vigil presences not recorded especially on uncommitted days.
In the pro-life movement, over the past decade, one of the most effective spiritual instruments God has been leading us in, are 40 Days for Life Campaigns. God has been encouraging us to keep on doing these campaigns, and as of Monday, Nov 5th, 414 known lives have been saved through this fall’s campaign. To God be all the glory! The final international results will be known later this month.
Given the current legislation criminalizing free speech and expression outside abortion facilities in Ontario it is tempting to grow fatigued in our enthusiasm and resolve to participate whole-heartedly in these campaigns.
However, it may well be that God is testing our resolve to participate fully in these public prayer vigil campaigns, after over a decade of doing them in Ottawa. With the current bubble zone restriction, do we slacken in our participation or do we keep on labouring? In my view, our response should be tied directly to our reality.
Which is: on average 1 in 5 babies are aborted in the womb; there are an estimated 100,000 abortions a day, and over 45 million abortions a year worldwide. In Canada, there are approximately 280 babies a day lost to surgical abortion, and this number does not include chemical abortions. These estimated overall numbers are declining somewhat in recent years, but they are nonetheless staggering. Abortion remains the leading cause of death in this country. At its root, abortion is a spiritual crisis, and 40 Days campaigns are a strong spiritual response to this pervasive crisis.
Comfortable Christianity and comfortable Catholicism isn’t an option with what is happening under our watch, because we know what our obligations are to those little ones that do not have a voice.
Please keep praying and challenging more of our pro-life brothers and sisters to support us with their sacrifices and prayer presence at the vigil site during our fall campaigns. We need them.
I will end with this short prayer taken from the daily devotionals of the American 40 Days Headquarters report on Canadian vigil sites in Ontario.
Father, help us to embrace the fact that we are our "brother’s keeper." When we try to cast off this responsibility please call to us to account, that we would be pleasing to you and to our "brother." Through the help and grace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Thank you so much for your participation in this year’s campaign.
For the least of our brethren,
Helena Szakowski
Church and Ministry Co-ordinator
Ottawa’s 2018 – 40 Days for Life Campaign
