Three days before the midnight launch of the 40 Days for Life in Toronto, more than 350 people participated in a kick-off at nearby St. Charles Borromeo Roman Catholic church.
Photos of Forty Days for Life Across Canada
40 days for Life organizer Nicole Campbell addresses the kick-off rally for the event.
The event featured speakers including presentations from organizers Nicole Campbell and Jim Hughes of Campaign Life Coalition, three speeches from women involved in the Silent No More Awareness Campaign, Sr. Monica Faustina of the Sisters for Life, as well as music.
Campbell said 40 Days for Life has three components: prayer and fasting, a peaceful vigil and community outreach. She said the campaign is “an exciting time for our city and an exciting time for our country,” because it will encourage, activate and mobilize pro-lifers “to say ‘no more (abortion) in our city, no more in our country.'”
Quoting James, who said that faith without deeds is dead, Campbell said pro-lifers “should be there in love” for the children, their mothers and the abortion workers.
Sr. Monica Faustina said the 40 Days for Life campaign “calls us to be a loving witness through prayer and fasting.”
The 40 Days for Life vigil is taking place 24 hours a day for 40 days (Feb. 25 – April 5) across from the Women’s Care Clinic at 960 Lawrence Ave. W., near the intersection of Lawrence and Dufferin. It is reported that it commits late-term abortions in its facility located in a medical building that houses other offices.
Sr. Faustina related seeing the “fervent prayer to end abortion” of 40 Days for Life in Texas. Campbell said four abortion facilities in the U.S. have closed for good due to the prayerful campaign, that 1,200 children have been saved because their abortion-minded mothers were turned around and that abortion workers have quit their jobs and even joined in the vigil.
CLC national president Jim Hughes explained that his organization supports 40 Days for Life because of the many spiritual blessings and successes it has had in the United States. He praised the Ottawa campaign that Campbell organized last fall and said that the 40 Days for Life vigil is a good way for the pro-life movement to prepare for the National March for Life in Ottawa in May. The march’s theme is Exodus 2009 and CLC’s hope is that just as Moses roamed the desert for 40 years before reaching the promised land, Canada will return to justice after four decades of abortion.
Angelina Steenstra, national director of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign, related her personal story and testified that “abortion causes more problems than it solves.” Noting that American abortionists are calling for March 10 to be “National Appreciation Day for Abortion Providers,” Steenstra asked that people dedicate their prayers on that day for women who have had abortions.
Attendees at the rally examined some of the literature in support of the event and signed up for the vigil, which will run Feb. 25 - April 5 at a Toronto abortion site.
Pro-lifers can sign up for specific hours of prayer at www.40daysforlife.com/toronto or by calling CLC at (416) 204-9749.
There are also 40 Days for Life vigils in Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg and Edmonton. Contact local CLC offices for more information.
Numerous communities that are not hosting 40 Days for Life events will be holding smaller events in preparation for Exodus 2009, the National March for Life marking the 40th anniversary of the legalization of abortion in 1969.
