40 Days For Life is an internationally co-ordinated and locally run Lenten programme of prayer and fasting, community outreach and peaceful vigil.
It is an effort to bring about an end to abortion and offer hope to abortion vulnerable.
The vigil is coordinated by Family Life International (F.L.I), a Catholic pro-life and pro-family organisation that provides practical help to all women and girls facing an unplanned pregnancy.
Family Life International says 40 Days for Life runs in 40 countries across more than 600 cities and is known to have saved 12,668 lives and resulted in 83 abortion centre closures worldwide.
This year, for the first time, 40 Days for Life vigils in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch are running 12 hours a day, every day for 40 consecutive days.
This makes it the largest 40 Days for Life mobilisation ever seen in New Zealand.
It is the the fourth time it has occurred in Auckland.
And it is the second year that Michael Loretz has been the organiser there.
He says it’s an “an awesome responsibility and privilege to give a public witness and to provide community outreach to vulnerable women in an effort to end the tragedy of abortion in our community.”
The vigil is being held outside the Auckland Medical Aid Centre (AMAC) in Dominion Road.
Loretz admits that “there have been tensions but the relationship seems to be civil most of the time.”
His hopes for this year’s vigil is “that hearts and minds will turn to God and that respect for life and a culture of life will return to our collective consciousness…It would be marvellous if a baby were saved.”
General Manager of AMAC, Lesley Wood, feels that the vigil is “futile & unchristian”.
Wood said the vigils have “no affect what so ever on the business,” adding “it can make others angry and even more determined to exercise their legal rights.”
Source
- fli.org.nz
- newsbeat.kiwi
- Image: newsbeat.kiwi
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