Joseph Meaney & Brian Clowes, March 2008

A major milestone for Human Life International was the opening in 1998 of our permanent office serving the "Heart of the Church."  I had the honor of being the first HLI staff member stationed in Rome where I assisted Msgr. Ignacio Barreiro, the office's long-time director, for four years. This past March, Msgr. Barreiro arranged for a week-long seminarian speaking tour for Dr. Brian Clowes and myself.

Seminaries and religious houses of formation abound in Rome. Msgr. Barreiro receives, in the HLI office, a steady stream of seminarians, priests, and religious who wish to enhance their formation in bio-ethics and life issues. They benefit from a wonderful library and personalized attention. And we now distribute 2,000 copies of the Italian edition of HLI's Seminarians for Life International Newsletter.

FORMING PRO-LIFE PRIESTS IN ROME

On this trip, our first pro-life lectures were given to the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity (SOLT) seminarians and priests at their Roman headquarters in the enormous complex built for the Christian Brothers. A special honor was having Fr. Jim Flanagan, SOLT's founder, present for the talks. He thanked us and offered to place all the SOLT fathers in Belize at our disposal for our pro-life campaigns there! They have many parishes, a school, and a Catholic radio station. HLI already owes a debt of gratitude to the Society, since they have assigned Fr. Frank Papa to serve as our chaplain at HLI's international headquarters.

The first talks we gave in Italian were at the international seminary named for Pope John Paul II, located next to the church of San Andrea della Valle. Brian is still waiting for "the gift of tongues," so we translated for him. The 45 seminarians and priests there come from 27 different countries! Two Mexican seminarians approached me afterwards and told me they knew Adolfo Castañeda, who works with Vida Humana Internacional, our regional office for Latin America. They had heard him speak at their home seminaries in Mexico. HLI certainly covers a great deal of ground around the world.

EVANGELIZING THROUGH THE AIRWAVES

Vatican Radio, through my friend Charles Collins, invited me to come to their studios for a series of interviews in different languages about HLI's work during this trip. Their building is located just next to the Tiber at the end of Via della Conciliazione. After doing the first taped program in English, the Spanish and French editions also recorded interviews. This is a far cry from covering the 40 total languages that exist on the Church's radio, but it is a start!  

One of our most moving venues for speaking was the headquarters of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate just outside Rome. These young sons of St. Francis live radical poverty and apostolic zeal. They do not own the building they are using or any property, for that matter. Their pro-life enthusiasm is beautiful. Once again HLI has a close connection to this religious group. Dan Cortes, who serves as our Internet webmaster, has a brother with the friars. Also, Fr. Luiz Carlos Lodi da Cruz, a Brazilian priest and great pro-life leader, is living with the friars while studying at the John Paul II Institute. He has worked closely with HLI in Brazil, where more than 90% of the people are pro-life!

CATHOLICS SPEAKING UP

We met several famous American Catholics while in Rome. Professor Scott Hahn, from Franciscan University of Steubenville, was taking advantage of spring break to give some lectures at Santa Croce University. Mary Shovlain, who has a Catholic film company that often produces programs for EWTN, is a dear friend of mine and my wife's.  We were happy to see her again. CNN's Vatican analyst, Delia Gallagher, is another faithful Catholic we saw. It is a positive sign that there are more and more good Catholics in the news and entertainment industries.

On the traditional feast of St. Thomas Aquinas, Msgr. Barreiro, Brian Clowes, and I drove out to the Italian hill town of Segni for a special celebration with the Incarnate Word Institute. Imagine a small village on a knife-edged ridge, shrouded in fog. The church of St. Peter there is built on the ruined walls of several pagan temples dating back to 700 B.C. We spoke as the guests of honor to all the seminarians, priests and nuns, as well as invited guests. One of our points, that vocations are more frequent in large families, was born out by the testimony of a nun about to make her perpetual vows who is one of 11 kids. The Incarnate Word Institute is originally from Argentina, but they have many vocations now from Ukraine, Egypt, Russia, and even Holland. One of the highlights of the banquet that evening was Dutch sister Van Christus playing the harp. 

Militia Christi, a Catholic pro-life group, invited us to participate in a seminar. Msgr. Barreiro has worked productively with them for many years. As is to be expected in Italy, the conference hall was very elegant. One speaker gave a moving testimony of her courage in standing up to the pressure that abortion doctors placed on her. They mistakenly believed her little girl would be born with handicaps, so they tried every means imaginable to make her kill this beautiful child. Dr. Paolo Gulisano did a very good job of showing the origins of the modern abortion legalization movement, starting with Communist Russia in 1920 and Nazi Germany in 1935.

PRO-LIFE POLITICAL VICTORIES

Italy was on the verge of elections in April, and the pro-life issue came to the forefront of the campaign. A famous journalist, Giuliano Ferrara, launched a political party and a movement for a moratorium on abortion. Posters throughout Rome with a picture of a preborn child on them proclaimed "Non Uccidere" ("do not kill"). On International Women's Day, March 8^th, Ferrara's movement held a pro-life rally in Piazza Farnese across from the French Embassy that I attended. The feminists were furious and tried to disrupt the event, but the police intervened. On several other occasions, Ferrara was pelted with eggs and tomatoes by violent anti-lifers during campaign rallies in Bologna and Palermo. Pro-lifers had the last laugh, however, because the conservatives won the election and will put an end to the socialists' plans to introduce the RU-486 abortion pill in Italy.

GREAT PRO-LIFE LEADERS

A voyage to Rome is incomplete without a personal pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Peter. My wife, Marie, and I were moved to tears as we walked past Pope John Paul II's grave in the basilica's crypt. Tens of thousands of people still come every day. The author of "The Gospel of Life" will long be remembered, even after the culture of death he fought is buried and forgotten. He, along with my parents, is certainly one of the main reasons I have devoted myself to the pro-life cause.

Cardinal Alfonso López-Trujillo, another person who was a real pro-life father-figure for me during my years in Rome, passed away on April 19, 2008. He did not appear sick during our three hour meeting and lunch with him at the Pontifical Council for the Family just a few weeks before he died. It was a real blessing to see him for the last time. I would like to ask our supporters to pray for his eternal rest and for his successor. Pope Benedict XVI will have a hard time finding a new president of the Council for the Family who is as energetic and articulate.

HLI's outreach to seminarians has reached many of the world's future priests with the message of the Gospel of Life. In March 2008, we spoke in person to almost 900 at our various events in and near Rome. We also took advantage of the Church's communications infrastructure to explain our activities over the airwaves. Finally, we did our part in supporting the Italian pro-life movement at a critical time. It will be a privilege to continue this work in the future with even larger numbers of seminarians and religious in Rome, where all the nations of the world come together to be near the Vicar of Christ.