Dear sisters and dear brothers of the Movement for Life!

Thank you for your remembrance in prayer. Thank you from the bottom of my heart! I greet you all, in particular the President, Ms. Marina Casini, and the members of the Directorate.

I know the value of the service you provide to the Church and society. Together with concrete solidarity, lived with the approach of closeness and proximity to mothers in difficulty due to a difficult and unexpected pregnancy, you promote the culture of life in a broad sense. And you aim to do so with frankness, love and tenacity, keeping truth closely united to charity towards everyone. You are guided in this by the examples and teachings of Carlo Casini, who had made service to life the centre of his lay apostolate and his political commitment.

The occasion that has brought you to Rome is important: the fiftieth anniversary of the Movement for Life, whose first seed was the Centre for Help for Life, established in Florence in 1975. Since then, throughout Italy, the Centres for Help for Life have multiplied. They have been joined by the Reception Centres, the SOS Vita services, the Gemma Project and the Culle per la Vita, Cradles for Life. Countless initiatives have been undertaken to promote the culture of welcome and human rights at all levels of society. Therefore, I encourage you to pursue the social protection of motherhood and the acceptance of human life at every stage.

In this half-century, while some ideological prejudices have diminished and sensitivity for the care of creation has grown among young people, unfortunately the culture of rejection has spread. Therefore, there is still, and more than ever, a need for people of all ages to concretely devote themselves to the service of human life, especially when it is at its most fragile and vulnerable; because it is sacred, created by God for a great and beautiful destiny; and because a just society is not built by eliminating unwanted unborn children, the elderly who are no longer independent, or the incurably ill.

Dear sisters and dear brothers, you have come from many parts of Italy to renew once again your “yes” to the civilization of love, aware that freeing women from the conditioning that drives them not to give birth to their own child is a principle for the renewal of civil society. Indeed, it is before everyone’s eyes how society today is structured on the categories of possessing, doing, producing, and appearing. Your commitment, in harmony with that of the entire Church, points to a different approach, one that places the dignity of the person at the centre and prioritizes those who are weaker. The unborn child represents, par excellence, every man and woman who does not count, who has no voice. To place oneself on his or her side means standing in solidarity with all the world's discarded. And the gaze of the heart that recognizes him or her as one of us is the lever that moves this project.

Continue to be committed to women, on their capacity for acceptance, generosity and courage. Women must be able to count on the support of the entire civil and ecclesial community, and the Centres for Help for Life can become a point of reference for all. Thank you for the pages of hope and tenderness you help to write in the history book, and which remain indelible; they bear, and will bear, much fruit.

May the Lord bless you and the Holy Virgin keep you. I entrust every one of you, your groups and your efforts to the intercession of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, spiritual president of the Movements for Life throughout the world. And do not forget to pray for me. Thank you.

Rome, Gemelli Hospital, 5 March 2025

FRANCIS

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Daily Bulletin of the Holy See Press Office, 8 March 2025