Polish Catholics Launch Global Rosary Crusade Against Abortion

A person holds a rosary during an audience in St. Peter's square at the Vatican on March 2
TIZIANA FABI/AFP/Getty Images
Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D.

Polish pro-lifers have launched a week-long global prayer crusade for an end to abortion and in atonement for the sin of abortion around the world.

The “Rosary to the Gates of Heaven” event began Sunday on All Saints’ Day and will run through November 8 in an effort to bring together the prayers of Catholics everywhere on behalf of unborn children.

“The consequences of killing the unborn children become more and more visible and affect us more and more,” declare organizers on the campaign’s website.

“By this atonement prayer we want to make amends to God for the sin of abortion and make reparation for the suffering of unborn children,” it states. “We want to save Poland and the world from the consequences of this sin.”

The group said that the prayer event is intended “to change the course of history, stop evil and wipe out the consequences of our sins” in the hope that this will restore “hope, faith and acceptance of God’s peace.”

The initiative follows a landmark ruling of Poland’s high court outlawing eugenic abortions on babies with Down syndrome and other disabilities, which has ignited the wrath of the international abortion lobby.

Last Friday, Poland’s deputy prime minister in charge of national security called on his compatriots to “defend the churches” in the face of vandalism and pro-abortion demonstrations.

Security Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski of Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party said the protests against the churches, which have included vandalism and graffiti, stalking of Catholic priests, and disruption of Masses, were an effort to “destroy Poland.”

Pope Francis also weighed in on the question last Wednesday, urging pro-life Poles to stand strong in their defense of life and opposition to abortion.

Addressing Polish pilgrims gathered in the Vatican for his weekly general audience, the pope reminded them that Saint John Paul II, whose feast day was October 22, “always called for a privileged love for the last and the defenseless and for the protection of every human being, from conception to natural death.”

“Through the intercession of Mary Most Holy and the sainted Polish pontiff, I ask God to instill in the hearts of all respect for the lives of our brothers and sisters,” Francis said, “especially the most fragile and defenseless, and to give strength to those who welcome and care for it, even when this requires heroic love.”

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