For information contact  Anthony Brown on 01200 422811

The Clitheroe Pro-Life group are a group of people who recognise that all human life is sacred and must be defended from conception to natural end.  We do this by daily prayer.  The holy rosary is recited after daily morning mass.

We hold an annual day of exposition of the blessed sacrament and invite all parishioners to partake.

We host the annual north west sponsored walk raising funds for Right to Life to enable them to fight parliamentary bills and produce pro-life educational material for our secondary schools.

Right To Life is a campaigning and charitable organisation focused on life issues in the UK. It works to advance the recognition and preservation of human dignity, particularly through consistent protection for the right to life of every human being from conception to natural death.

May 8, 2023: Pro-Life Walk

Picture courtesy of the Christian Heritage Centre of Stonyhurst

Starting at 2.00 pm at Theodore House, Fr Frankie Mulgrew gave a short talk on pro-life.  The walkers then headed through the village and down to the River Ribble and along part of the scenic Tolkien Trail before returning along the road a little way and up a path to Theodore House.

There was Eucharistic Adoration in St Peter’s Church throughout the afternoon for those wishing to accompany the event in prayer, with Benediction at 5:15 pm following a talk by Lord David Alton. Refreshments were served afterwards as we tried to dry out a little following the torrential rain, those at the rear of the group considerably wetter than those at the front who escaped relatively unscathed.

See the Christian Heritage Centre of Stonyhurst for a report and pictures

August 29, 2022: Pro-Life Walk

This year the Pro-Life walk was on 29 August,  from St Mary’ Church in Burnley.  Our parishioners sponsored walkers to the tune of £460. Thank you.  Our Parish Pro-Life Group is dedicated to raising awareness about the meaning and value of human life at every stage and in every condition.  During 2022 we have prayed for, and promoted,  the issue via the Lenten Stations of the Cross and we continue to support the Caritas Salford Maryvale Mother and Baby Home with baby clothes and financial donations via the generosity of our parishioners. 

April 7, 2022: Pro-Life Stations in Clitheroe

The format for the stations and the prayers used can be found here 

April 4, 2022: Pro-Life Meeting

We convened this meeting in advance of the Pro–Life Stations of the Cross at St M&J on 8 April but it was an opportunity to discuss wider issues.  Pro–Life is mainly associated with fighting against abortion and euthanasia and our group is best known for pro–life walks, the Rosary, the Stations of the Cross, Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and our support for the Charity, Right to Life.  However, we are more than that.  Through the Caritas Maryvale Mother and Baby Home, we support mothers who have opted to keep their babies despite the overwhelming difficulties and as individuals we lobby and petition on Pro–Life issues.   For the 2018 Day for Life (Human Trafficking), OLOTV parishioners led the Diocesan-wide awareness raising campaign.  Other Day for Life themes have included Domestic Abuse, Cherishing Life/Accepting Death, and the Wonder of Human Life in Our Common Home.  Everything is linked.

In the event  we spent all the time preparing for the Stations of the Cross in Clitheroe on Friday.  You can see the format for the stations and the prayers we will be using on the post above this one.

October 3, 2019: Pro-Life Meeting

See the notes of the meeting here

June 28, 2019: Appeal judges overturn abortion ruling

A THREE-JUDGE Court of Appeal in London has overturned the ruling of a single judge in the Court of Protection who decided that an abortion was in the best interests of a woman who has the mental capacity of a six- to nine-year-old child.

The woman, who is in her twenties, is 22 weeks pregnant. The NHS trust that is caring for her applied to the Court of Protection for permission to terminate the pregnancy. An obstetrician and two psychiatrists said that there would be a risk to the woman’s psychiatric health if the pregnancy continued, and that her behaviour could pose a risk to a baby. The woman and her mother opposed the abortion.

Mrs Justice Lieven, who heard the case in the Court of Protection, said that she was not sure that the woman understood what having a baby meant, and “would like to have a baby in the same way she would like to have a nice doll”. The judge accepted that it was “an immense intrusion” to order a woman to have a termination if she did not want one, but decided that, although it was “heartbreaking”, it was in the woman’s best interests that she should have the abortion.

The woman’s mother, who had offered to care for the child, applied to the Court of Appeal for the ruling to be overturned. It was argued that Mrs Justice Lieven’s judgment was not in the woman’s best interests.

Lord Justice McCombe, Lady Justice King, and Lord Justice Jackson, who heard the appeal, overturned the earlier ruling. The Court of Appeal, however, has not yet given reasons for its decision.

Forcing a woman to have an abortion raises important legal issues about human rights and the best interests of the individual, particularly those who lack mental capacity. The matter also touches on religious and ethical questions.

June 16, 2019: Day for Life

The theme this year is Domestic Violence

The Parish celebrated Exposition at Clitheroe from 3.00 pm ending with Benediction at 4.00 pm.

• • On this Day for Life, we pray for all those who are suffering and surviving domestic abuse, that they may be given hope and be filled with the love of God. Guide their abusers away from a course of violence and onto one of love.
  • We pray for anyone who feels trapped or isolated in their home. Help us to reach out in love and friendship, responding to families affected by domestic abuse with patience, understanding and wisdom. Lord hear us.
  • Lord, give us the courage to offer friendship to people in distress, remembering your example of the good Samaritan. Help us to know that prayers and actions must work hand in hand to bring about change. Lord hear us.

• On this Day for Life, we pray for all lives, that they may be treated with respect and have their God-given dignity acknowledged from conception to natural death, as well as throughout life.

May 30, 2019: Pro-Life Meeting

See the notes for the May 30 meeting

May 6, 2019: Pro-Life Walk

The walk attracted around 75 people and so far monies received amount to about £2,100.  If the past is to be repeated we can expect the sum to rise to over £3,000.

April 11, 2019: Pro-Life Meeting

See the notes of the meeting

April 9, 2019: Pro-Life Lenten Stations

Held at St Mary’s Sabden

March 7, 2019: Pro-Life Meeting

See the notes of the meeting

June 17, 2018: Day for Life (Theme Human Trafficking)

Day for Life is the day in the Church’s year dedicated to raising awareness about the meaning and value of human life at every stage and in every condition. The Church teaches that life is to be nurtured from conception to natural death. This year’s Day for Life is celebrated on 17 June in England and Wales.  For 2018 the theme was Human Trafficking.

Our Parish has its own Caritas based group on human trafficking with a webpage for June 17 which you can see at  http://www.olotv.org.uk/parish-groups/trafficking/day-for-life-june-17-2018

June 5, 2018: The uplifting story of an abortion survivor

The Irish Referendum on abortion was a blow to our pro-life aspirations but do the people who voted realise where that result might lead us?  An inspirational story on BBC2’s Victoria Derbyshire programme on Tuesday this week follows the publication of a book by Melissa Ohden – a woman who survived an abortion in the US.  In 1977 her 19 year old, 8 month pregnant,  mother was given a saline infusion abortion which would normally kill the baby in 5 days.  Melissa was born barely alive and effectively discarded in toxic waste but rescued by a nurse who heard slight noises.  Whilst her story outlines how babies were killed in the womb in the US in 1977 (they use different methods these days), and what happened when they were born alive, the story is actually an uplifting one.  It is about how Melissa survived against the odds and became a healthy, successful woman.  It is also about the relationship she now has with her birth mother who had never wanted the abortion in the first place.

June 4, 2018:

Fiona Bruce: Let’s recognise this move for what it is – a push to make abortion up to birth legal throughout the UK

By Fiona Bruce MP

Arcos Fiona Bruce is MP for Congleton.

Hanging on the coat-tails of the momentum created by the Irish referendum, a group of MPs are campaigning to remove abortion from the criminal law.

‘Decriminalisation’, they call it – because we apparently need a ‘modern’ abortion law. At first glance, this might seem reasonable. Compassionate, even – until you realise the shocking extremism of their demands. It is easy to be confused here, because the Sunday shows were full of talk of extending abortion to Northern Ireland.

Let’s end the confusion. This campaign is not just about Northern Ireland. Itis about liberalising abortion law in the whole of the UK. As Stella Creasy tweeted yesterday: “Please ask your MP to stand with us repealing OAPA so that the whole of the U.K. can have modern abortion laws including Northern Ireland.”

The OAPA is the Offences Against the Person Act, 1861. This is the core statute governing abortion in England and Wales. It provides that abortion (procuring miscarriage) is a grave offence. The Abortion Act, 1967, sets out exceptions to these offences, which are interpreted very broadly. Indeed, despite what some of campaigners suggest, we have one of the most liberal abortion laws in the world.

Our 24 week abortion limit is twice the EU average. Most other countries impose a 12 week limit. This isn’t entirely arbitrary – 12 weeks is the time of the first ultrasound scan, where, for anyone who has been through it – as I have – it is impossible to see the child in utero as anything other than a baby (which, by the way, is universally the term that midwives will use at this point). Ireland’s proposed (and entirely “modern”) law will also be 12 weeks. Our 24 week limit is already much, much too long, extending beyond the point at which premature babies have been known to survive outside the womb. And we don’t even have a limit for abortion for ‘serious handicap’ (also the legal term), in which case abortion is permissible to birth. Yes, we have up-to-birth abortion for disability in this country.

So if these campaigners really wanted a ‘modern law’ they would back a reduction in the upper-time limit. But that is not what they want. They want to repeal sections 58 and possibly 59 of the Offences Against the Person Act (OAPA). If they’re really wanting to remove abortion from the criminal law, they will also seek to repeal the Infant Life Preservation Act, 1929 (ILPA) which still stands on the statue book and criminalises ‘child destruction’.

Without the OAPA, the exceptions outlined in the Abortion Act, 1967 become redundant. There is no longer any offence to need a defence. Even if they were to leave the ILPA and Abortion Act in place (which, would be a funny kind of ‘decriminalisation’), they seem to have overlooked that these two Acts of Parliament bear no relation to each other any more – they were decoupled in the early 1990s. So the Abortion Act (as amended) would have no use whatsoever. It would itself need to be repealed.

What would be the effect of such a change?

The upper time limit would be completely abolished. Stripping this of the jargon, this means abortion throughout pregnancy. Campaigners respond that medical regulation would be enough to govern the practice of abortion in the U.K. What they are not telling you is that there would be nothing in primary legislation to prevent a doctor (who was willing) from stopping the beating heart of a child one day before birth.

Time-limits are only half of the story. According to our current law, those seeking abortion have to persuade a doctor that continuing the pregnancy would be bad for their mental health. Pro-choice campaigners don’t like this. They often argue that those seeking abortion should not have to offer any reason. This is what is called abortion-on-demand, and it is what Stella Creasy’s team would like to see in the U.K. But, this, too, is obfuscation. As every GP knows, the law has been interpreted so liberally, that the effect has been to provide for abortion on demand up to 24 weeks. Even Ann Furedi, whose tax-funded organisation, the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, is leading the ‘decriminalisation’ campaign admitted as much. She said: “Nevertheless the law, which appears highly restrictive on paper, can be interpreted liberally by doctors… And, because the law has been interpreted in this way, it has met the needs of many women…”

Let’s go back to basics. No-one with knowledge of developments in embryological/ foetal science over the past 25 years will argue that a pregnancy is not a human being. The pro-life position is simply that denying smaller human beings rights is illogical and inconsistent. This is not a religious argument. When Christopher Hitchens, no fan of religion, was asked  “do you consider yourself pro-life”, he replied:

“If the concept ‘child’ means anything, the concept ‘unborn child’ can be said to mean something. And all the discoveries of embryology, which have been very considerable in the last generation or so, and of viability, appear to confirm that opinion, which I think should be innate of everyone. It’s innate in the Hippocratic Oath. It’s instinct in anyone who’s ever watched a sonogram, and so forth. So ‘yes’ is my answer.”

Creasy will reportedly attempt to secure an urgent question on the issue today, and is hoping for an urgent debate (and possibly a vote). MPs should be not be duped. Bringing our law into line with other ‘more modern’ ones would mean passing more restrictive legislation. The truth is that this is bald opportunism – using Northern Ireland as leverage to attempt to introduce an extreme law that would see abortion on demand throughout pregnancy, with the convenient side effect that it will also weaken our Government’s position. We should resist it.

May 28, 2018: Life Sponsored Walk

February 14, 2018

February 13, 2018:  Pro-Life Meeting

Present:  Arnold Marsden, Theresa Mercer, Maureen Mercer, Mary O’Reilly,  Anthony Brown

Apologies: Jean Marsden, Betty Collinson, Nicola Dixon, Chris Carr, Mark Wiggin

Arnold commenced the meeting with a prayer.

Below is a summary of topics discussed though not always in the sequence presented.

El Kseur Remit of the Group

Arnold explained to the meeting that he no longer felt able to continue as chair with the expanding remit of the group but was happy to continue with Right for Life and money raising.

Following the last two meetings it is clear from those attending that the remit of Pro-Life should reflect the mission of Day for Life (June 17 in 2018) which is the day in the Church’s year dedicated to raising awareness about the meaning and value of human life at every stage and in every condition.

Our group currently has four strands:  Prayer; Right for Life and fund raising; lobbying to influencing legislation on pro-life issues; and supporting young mothers.   These four strands should form four subgroups and from discussion it was fairly clear that the focus for them currently lies with:  Maureen, Arnold, Anthony and Mary.

The discussion expanded to cover human trafficking  and modern day slavery (which is to be theme for Day for Life this year) and all other aspects of supporting people through life.  This would embrace refugees and our other charitable work, and in recognising the missionary dimension of all these things it places our Pro-Life remit firmly under the banner of Hope in the  Future.

Prayer

The Pro-Life Group has the Lenten Stations of the Cross on Friday 16 February.  Maureen and Theresa will read, Anthony will carry the cross and Arnold will get two candle bearers.  This year we will use Mary’s Way of the Cross and have 20 copies made for this year and future use.  Next Year we will explore using prayers to reflect the different aspects of Life. 16 June as our day of prayer.

June 16, the Saturday before Day for Life, subject to Fr John’s diary, will be Mass, exposition and  rosary.  We need two more people to lead the rosary.  We will again have the basket of remembrance which last year attracted around 15 petitions to remember those lost before birth or in infancy.

We agreed 16 June for the Day of Prayer.

The Rosary for the Unborn should be highlighted on the website as well as in the newsletter.

Right for Life and money raising

The sponsored walk is late May Bank Holiday this year.  People, particularly those outside the Parish, need to be alerted well in advance.

Lobbying to influencing legislation on pro-life issues

There  are continuing concerns about the increasing inroads into legislation which protects life with moves in the UK and Ireland for abortion up to full term, and no convictions for instances of assisted suicide.   Champions for our cause – Trump for example – are at the wrong end of the political spectrum and help fuel a public impression of our Catholic stance as fundamentalist.

A worrying article in the Catholic Herald cites Rabbi Dr Fishel Szlajen, who sits on the Vatican’s Academy for Life, as saying that scripture justifies abortion in cases of rape, or if the unborn child has serious disabilities http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2018/02/12/member-of-vatican-pro-life-academy-says-bible-justifies-abortion-in-cases-of-rape-and-disability/

We need  to be more proactive in raising pro-life issues as core to our Catholic faith and harness congregations to petition government via MPs to vote in the way we believe the majority of the public would want them to vote.  It is inertia rather than the will of the people that has resulted in current legislation,

Supporting Young Mothers

There is a continuing need for baby clothes for the Mother and Baby Home in Blackburn and there has been generous financial support from people to decorate the premises.

Communication

We need better communication to reach parishioners who share our concerns but avoid meetings and commitments.   It is evident that there is wider interest in the parish that can be gauged by meeting attendance or group membership.  The Mother and Baby Home exercise attracted people who were pleased to support but weren’t hitherto involved in Parish matters.  We have found too, with Pro-Life, Laudato Si’, Refugee Response, Anti-Trafficking and many community activities that people are interested but resist formal institutions.  These people will support us if we can reach them.

With better communication using all possible media, and an emphasis on a lot doing a little rather than a few doing a lot, we can achieve a great deal more.  Many parishioners could be reached at short notice by email if we set up the systems to do it and,  for those not on email, creative thinking can find other means.  These things are for the Communication and Media Group and Salvete (the Welcoming Group) to pursue.   With Hope in the Future,  a diocesan priority under which Pro-Life will sit comfortably, these groups will be the means for achieving greater parish involvement in all aspects of Parish life.

November 23, 2017: When I look into my son’s eyes I see the man who raped me

Catherine (not her real name), who lives in the UK, became pregnant after being raped by a man she had considered her friend. She explains why she decided to give birth to the child – and why the hardest thing for her is looking into her son’s eyes – eyes that are strikingly like the eyes of the man who raped her.

And yet she says: “I can put my hand on my heart and say I don’t think there was ever any effect on my bond with him due to how he was conceived, certainly not consciously. I have absolutely loved him, since the moment he was born.”

It would be easy to assume that Catherine was influenced by a pro-life or religious belief but Catherine says she is not anti-abortion.  She describes her action of keeping the baby as a selfish one and the act of killing the baby would make it worse – for herself.

It is an optimistic and uplifting story which makes it clear that keeping a baby born of rape isn’t necessarily something a woman can’t live with – quite the reverse in fact,

Read the full story from BBC News 

October 27 2017: Caroline Farrow: A unified pro-life lobby can turn the tide against abortion

This week sees the 50th anniversary of the passing of the 1967 Abortion Act and, on paper, things would appear to be very bleak.
Over the past 50 years, 8.8 million lives have been lost to abortion and countless women have endured unimaginable pain and trauma as what was supposed to be a choice for those in the most desperate of circumstances has morphed into an obligation or responsibility to seriously weigh up whether or not you want your unborn child to live.
Politicians have rejected the chance to specifically outlaw sex-selective abortion which, according to recent poll data, is legislation which would be welcomed by over 90 per cent of the population, while babies diagnosed with disabilities or severe illness are able to be aborted right up until the moment that they are born.
In addition, not content with the fact that in effect we have abortion on demand in the UK, the abortion lobby is pushing for more and more ground, demanding decriminalisation of abortion up until birth for any reason, lobbying for the removal of conscience rights for medical professionals who are currently exempted from being involved in abortion procedures and doing whatever they can to stifle the pro-life voice in public…

Read the full article in the Universe

October 8 2017 Sponsored walk for the Blackburn Mother and Baby Home

It was a bit muddy but a thoroughly enjoyable experience for all that.

September 13, 2017

Mark Wiggin introduced Fran Chambers of the Caritas mother and baby home, Maryvale, Blackburn and Fran gave an excellent presentation of her work at the home which has catered for 408 mothers and 395 children since 1987.  Currently there are 5 single and one family bedsits providing a safe and settled place for mothers in need.   The mothers are generally associated with Blackburn and Darwen Children’s Services but depending on circumstances there could be exceptions and Clitheroe wouldn’t be ruled out.

The girls and young women may have problems of drugs/alcohol, mental health, homelessness, or poor parenting skills and the baby may even be considered high risk.  At the home they can learn skills of cooking, personal hygiene, feeding, bathing, and parenting.  Sometimes there are issues around simple routines of things like night feeding – having bottles made up and an alarm to waken them.  Sometimes the mothers have never had a structure and need to understand its importance.

The home works with social workers, midwives, health visitors and the drugs team, aiding assessments via observation and aiming via a Child Protection Plan for the mothers to become responsible and capable parents.

We discussed how our parishioners could help with recipes, clothing and toys but more importantly perhaps by visiting or taking a mother and her baby out.  However with volunteering it is often difficult to be precise about needs and people can sometimes have things to offer which don’t appear on any list.  Fran will have further thoughts and those attending the meeting are invited to also put them forward.  Specifics raised at the meeting were:

• An offer for our Parish Group to visit the home
• Mary O’Reilly offered to organise collection of baby clothes/toys and Fran agreed to detail the specific need.
• Bridget Hilton has been to the Health Centre about making awareness of the home an alternative option to abortion.  The Health Centre are open to the idea within their practices and protocols and await our further contact.

Whilst this meeting was predominantly about life after birth, Anthony Brown raised the other issue of protecting the unborn child and referred to a recent article in the Universe – UN criticises UK over disabled abortions – in which David Alton: “insisted that this is an opportune moment for the faithful and pro-life campaigners to lobby and pressurise MPs into changing the law.”

Rather than fix another date for a meeting, or seek formal roles within the group, it was left open for people to receive information via email and for Anthony Brown to coordinate follow up action.

I am attaching on the Bolton Young Parent’s Home applies pretty much to the Blackburn home if the detail differs, and one which covers both, even if it concentrates again more on Bolton

July 25 2017

Fifteen concerned people attended the meeting and there were six apologies.

The Parish Pro-Life Group currently focuses on daily prayer, an annual day of exposition of the blessed sacrament and the annual north west sponsored walk raising funds for Right to Life.  Right to Life fights parliamentary bills and produces pro-life educational material for our secondary schools.

In addition to the Pro-Life group’s current remit the meeting focused on two main thrusts that the group could pursue – practical action and education/lobbying.

On practical action we discussed supporting pregnant girls and young mothers.  For example we could do this via the Caritas mother and baby homes and also by exploring counselling support services for pregnant girls who might consider alternative options to abortion.

On education/lobbying we discussed the need for accurate information gathering and research; education within the Catholic community and schools; and lobbying approaches including supporting existing organisations and lobbying en masse rather than as individuals.  An example of en masse lobbying is the Citizens UK approach of harnessing groups which united can be a power house of influence.  An easy first step in education could be prayer/information cards similar to the 11,000 human trafficking prayer cards we designed and distributed locally.  This initiative was subsequently taken up by Nottingham Diocese and the Santa Marta Group.

There was clearly a degree of commitment by individuals at the meeting but also from some who were unable to attend.  The meeting clarified that Right to Life is the charity we support on education/lobbying issues and Life is the charity to support for practical action on alternatives to apportion.

There is much to be researched in depth but for immediate action we agreed to:

• invite a mother and baby home speaker to the next meeting on September 13.
• explore and link up with other parishes on Pro-Life issues.  Fr John will raise this at the next Deanery meeting in September.

August 23, 2017: CitizenGo

Below is the latest from CitizenGo.  CitizenGO is a conservative advocacy group founded in Madrid in 2013.  The foundation promotes petitions in 50 countries, including petitions defending Christian and Catholic causes, opposing same-sex marriage, abortion, and euthanasia.

The script is below but if you want to sign the petition go to http://www.citizengo.org/en-gb/lf/79932-un-right-life-does-not-mean-right-abortion-to-birth

The ideologically driven United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) is pushing its radical abortion agenda once again.

This time, they’re offering a novel interpretation of the ‘Right to Life’ as found in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: according to them, the ‘right to life’ in fact entails a right to abortion! In an incredible distortion of the most fundamental of human rights, which, by their own admission, applies to all human beings everywhere, they say the right to life is also the right to end the life of an unborn human being.

The Committee have opened their Draft General Comment (which contains this novel interpretation of the Right to Life) to public consultation, and we should firmly reject it.

Paragraph 9 of this General Comment contains an unashamed ideological push that would provide significant ammunition to the pro-abortion lobby internationally. Importantly, the reference to pregnant mothers experiencing “mental pain” through being denied abortion effectively results in the Committee arguing that abortion should be made legal up until birth.

This is clear when we consider that a UN Special Rapporteur on torture has previously claimed that denying a woman an abortion is equivalent to torture.

In which case, if restricting abortion amounts to torture, then there can be very few legal restrictions, as any legal restriction on abortion would amount to support for torture. Of course, this is absurd legal reasoning, but this is exactly what the Committee are attempting to do.

For the UK in particular, if the recommendations were adopted, it would almost certainly result in a repeal of the 1967 Abortion Act and the legalization of abortion up to birth across England, Wales, Scotland and N Ireland. Abortion extremists in the UK would be able to use this General Comment to bolster their own campaign to allow abortion up to birth in the UK.

The is a common tactic of certain activists within the UN which persistently reinterprets agreed upon legislation to further its own political agenda. On this occasion, abortion ideologues are attempting to reinterpret the right to life and find a therein a right to abortion.

Sadly, the Committee’s attack on the right to life does not end there. It also supports assisted suicide on extremely broad grounds.

This is a gross attack on national sovereignty and the right to life of unborn humans and we must not sit idly by and watch it happen.

July 25 2017: Family Life and Pro-Life Meeting

Fifteen concerned people attended the meeting and there were six apologies. The Parish Pro-Life Group currently focuses on daily prayer, an annual day of exposition of the blessed sacrament and the annual north west sponsored walk raising funds for Right to Life.  Right to Life fights parliamentary bills and produces pro-life educational material for our secondary schools.

In addition to the Pro-Life group’s current remit the meeting focused on two main thrusts that the group could pursue – practical action and education/lobbying.

On practical action we discussed supporting pregnant girls and young mothers.  For example we could do this via the Caritas mother and baby homes and also by exploring counselling support services for pregnant girls who might consider alternative options to abortion.

On education/lobbying we discussed the need for accurate information gathering and research; education within the Catholic community and schools; and lobbying approaches including supporting existing organisations and lobbying en masse rather than as individuals.  An example of en masse lobbying is the UK Citizens approach of harnessing groups which united can be a power house of influence.  An easy first step in education could be prayer/information cards similar to the 11,000 human trafficking prayer cards we designed and distributed locally.  This initiative was subsequently taken up by Nottingham Diocese and the Santa Marta Group.

There was clearly a degree of commitment by individuals at the meeting but also from some who were unable to attend.  The meeting clarified that Right to Life is the charity we support on education/lobbying issues and Life is the charity to support for practical action on alternatives to apportion.

There is much to be researched in depth but for immediate action we agreed to:

• invite a mother and baby home speaker to the next meeting on September 13
• explore and link up with other parishes on Pro-Life issues
• what else?

A suggestion after the meeting is that prior to the September 13 meeting we invite agenda items and papers to be distributed to email addressees by September 6.

5 July 2017  At tonight’s Parish Forum we were made aware of the constant attack on Family Life issues. It was decided to arrange a meeting for anyone interested to discuss how we as individuals and as a parish could help combat these very important issues. A meeting has been arranged on Tuesday 25th July at 7.30 pm in the presbytery.

What triggered this Parish Forum action point was a recent bill in Parliament which would effectively decriminalise abortion and allow abortion up to birth.   On 13th March 2017, the bill had its First Reading in Parliament and was passed by 172 votes to 142. A second reading on 12 May was thwarted by the General Election and the dissolution of Parliament and the bill will proceed no further.  However there will be a next time.

How would abortion of full term babies work – abortions that are legal in this country for disabled babies.  Below is taken from Pro Life America

 Partial-Birth Abortion: Partial-Birth Abortions are used from the 4th month through the end of the 9th month of pregnancy. These late-term abortions are regularly used to kill healthy babies [not yet in the UK] that pose no danger or threat to their mother.

For this abortion, the abortionist uses ultrasound to locate the unborn baby’s legs. Forceps are then used to pull the baby’s legs through the birth canal, delivering the baby feet first, except for the head. Scissors are then used to puncture the base of the back of the head. A suction device is then inserted to suction ou

29 May,  2017

URGENT APPEAL FROM LORD DAVID ALTON

When it comes to life issues—abortion, assisted suicide, pregnancy support and embryo research—the makeup of Parliament after the election is going to be of fundamental importance. We are very likely to face another attempt to introduce assisted suicide in the next Parliament and to see new legislation brought forward on abortion from both the prolife and the pro-abortion lobbies. The pro-abortion lobby have made it clear that they are aiming to introduce legislation that will introduce abortion on demand, for any reason, up-to-birth. The pro-life lobby look like they are going to be focusing on incremental areas (such as sex-selective abortion, time limit reductions, etc) that new polling shows a majority of the public support. These policy areas are conscience issues for the majority of parties, so the position of your successful local candidate will directly dictate where parliament goes on these issues. A website has been launched—www.wheredotheystand.org.uk—to allow people to easily email their local candidates to find out where they would vote on a series of bills on these issues. This will give you a firm idea of where these candidates stand on these topics and how they are likely to vote in the next Parliament. If you have time ahead of the election, it would be very helpful if you could use the website to email your MP candidates and help let as many people as possible know about the website above.

March 7 2017

STATIONS OF THE CROSS Tuesday 7th March at 7.30pm. This week the stations will be led by the Pro-Life group. Anyone from Clitheroe needing a lift, please meet on Lowergate car park at 7pm

February 28 2017

At a meeting of the small pro-Life group on Monday night it was decided to hold our annual day of prayer for pro-life issues on 6th May. The Blessed Sacrament will be exposed from 9am to 5.30pm, with a break for Holy Mass at 12 noon.
The annual Right-to-Life sponsored walk will take place on Bank Holiday Monday, 29th May.

December 12 2016

ROSARY OF THE UNBORN will be said after Mass/Service each morning this week for all Pro-Lfe intentions. Our Lady of Guadalupe (feast day Mon 12 Dec) Pray for us.

October 10 2016

Last Wednesday we had the first our Laudato Si meetings.  Earlier that week and repeated on Thursday was a programme on BBC2 A World Without Down’s Syndrome? which highlighted the stark reality of where the world is trending.   The programme offered a timely reminder of the dangers of embarking on a determinist view of society and the risk that selective breeding will come to be viewed as acceptable.   There is a lot of pressure to avoid a potential “burden” as an outcome of the wrong sort of foetus.

Currently 92% of babies diagnosed with Down’s syndrome before birth are aborted, and the 1967 Abortion Act allows for abortion up to birth in the case of disability in England, Scotland and Wales.

Laudato Si is about how we should live our lives with a care for the whole world and the whole of humanity.    Specifically on abortion Pope Francis says: Since everything is interrelated, concern for the protection of nature is also incompatible with the justification of abortion. How can we genuinely teach the importance of concern for other vulnerable beings, however troublesome or inconvenient they may be, if we fail to protect a human embryo, even when its presence is uncomfortable and creates difficulties? “If personal and social sensitivity towards the acceptance of the new life is lost, then other forms of acceptance that are valuable for society also wither away”

We have a Pro-Life Group in the Parish.  We need to rally together and raise our voices.

June 5 2016

ROSARY OF THE UNBORN will be said each day this week for all Pro-Life intentions

June 4 2016

The Medaille Trust alerted us to this appalling US news item.

 Sex Trafficking Victims Often Forced by Their Abusers to Have Multiple Abortions, One Had 17

30 May 2016

Bank Holiday, Monday 30th May, we again hosted Right to Life’s sponsored Walk for Life. There is no doubt that Right to Life is the most successful of organisations that work to defend the dignity of life from conception to the grave. It does so by encouraging and supporting pro-life MPs in their task of raising the awareness and disseminating information on life issues among their fellow Parliamentarians. The success of this work is seen in that whenever a Euthanasia Bill has appeared in the House on each occasion the number voting against it has increased. Right to Life also provides education packs for Secondary level schools. Demand for this by both state and religious secondary schools outstripped supply. All these activities cost money even though Right to Life works on a shoestring budget.

17 May 2016

Boss of midwife union defends decision to back campaign to scrap abortion law

The RCM has backed a campaign to scrap the current legal limit for abortion. Credit: PA

Britain’s biggest midwives’ union has defended its decision to support a campaign calling for the current legal limits on abortion to be removed. The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) came under heavy criticism from its own members after its chief executive backed the campaign to scrap the 24-week abortion limit – without consulting members or holding a vote.

Cathy Warwick – chief executive of the RCM – said the campaign had the union’s full backing and said that the legal limit should be “relegated to history”. The RCM re-issued a statement confirming its position saying it does not believe it is right that “women who choose to have an abortion can be criminalised and jailed”.

Professor Warwick is also chairman of the board of trustees of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) – the country’s biggest provider of birth control services and terminations. The BPAS has called for abortions to be removed from criminal law.

Suzanne Tyler, director of the Royal College of Midwives, said the union stands for women having choice. Credit: Good Morning Britain

Speaking on Good Morning Britain on Tuesday, Suzanne Tyler, the director of the Royal College of Midwives, said that the union is neither pro- nor anti-abortion. She said that but that the RCM stands for women having choice – and that the medical professions and midwifery should respect that “women are the experts in their own care”.

Those choices and that respect has to start right at the beginning with that very fundamental choice or whether or not you even continue with the pregnancy. The RCM is not pro- or anti-abortion itself. What we are – is we’re for women – and for women making the choices that are right for them.

– SUZANNE TYLER, DIRECTOR, ROYAL COLLEGE OF MIDWIVES

Campaigners say decriminalisation would give women real choice but some union members who say it could lead to late-term abortions. The government has said it has no plans to scrap the 24-week limit on abortions.

Credit: Reuters