Quebec Life Coalition

Yesterday was the final day of the 5th edition of the 40 Days for Life in Montreal. It was a carnavalesque day, thanks to the counter protestors who had been coming every day from around noon until 3pm, and who that final day came out in far greater numbers. For two weeks we had been monitoring their call, transmitted via the local entertainment weekly (the Montreal Mirror) and other web-based news media and blogs, to converge on Lahaie park for a final showdown with us pro-lifers. 

Rain and then gusting winds threatened to dampen the festivities early in the day, but by 1pm the weather cleared and the sun shone bright. Counter pro-testers, numbering about 60 around then, began by unfurling a banner from the roof of an apartment building across the street, only to see the metal pipe they had inserted along the bottom edge of their banner to stabilize it in the gusting winds slip out and smash a window pane before it clattered onto the sidewalk below (thankfully, no pedestrians were hurt).

One counter-protestor then approached the 40 Days banner and began tearing it, grabbing hold of a wind-hole and pulling.

All the while heated debates began between our side and theirs, revolving around the status of the fetus, around gestational facts, fetal pain, etc. Many protestors were vegan, and had some difficulty reconciling their love of all animal life on the one hand and their disdain for young human (animal) life on the other.

Many also were incredulous when shown fetal models representing the fetus at 10-12 weeks. Many women protestors present were either post-abortive, lesbian or both, and swore that the fetus "did not look like that" when they had had their abortion. Many were adamant that they had themselves asked the abortionist to see the remains of their child and did not see anything resembling the plastic fetus we had shown then. We tried telling that what we were holding was a representation of the fetus before it was dismembered and rendered into paste by the abortionists vacuum, and what they had seen was the result of said dismemberment and rendering... But this did not seem to register with them. They maintained that we were spreading false propaganda.

A few priests came during the day, including a priest in cassock from the Priestly fraternity of saint Peter. No sooner had he arrived that a gaggle of counter protestors converged on him and stalked him throughout the park as he recited his rosary.

Finally a young couple came to pray and decided to pray kneeling. This was especially scandalous for the pro-choice side, so they converged on them, attempting to drown out their prayers with screams and loud music blaring from a ghetto blaster. A young prayer team then came to the assistance of the kneeling prayers, singing polyphonic chants in latin. It was surreal to hear the chants wafting above the blaring music and the jeering and the sacrilege. One counter-protestor then began pulling a rosary apart and cracked its crucifix, tossing the broken pieces on the tops of the heads of the kneeling prayers. He then gestured with the tattered rosary as if it were a toy sling shot, unwittingly conveying and confirming the notion that the slingshot David used against Goliath is a prefigurement of the Rosary (devils often know God's plans better than humans do, as the Gospels clearly attest). As the new testament stands to the old, the Rosary can be seen as the new slingshot that will defeat the modern day Goliath of the Culture of Death, with prayers as tiny pebbles that will stagger the giant when he least expects it.

Finally, at around 4pm, the police arrived to re-establish a semblance of order. By that time, however, we had planned on disbanding and reconvening at a convent not far from the park. At that convent, we prayed, ate, and gave thanks to Almighty God for favouring us with this sacred mission of defending Life.

See you all in the Fall for the next 40 Days !