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MONTREAL, Quebec, April 1, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Young people looking for inspiration to “change the world” with a 25 hour fast are given Nelson Mandela right alongside Jesus Christ by the Canadian bishops’ charitable arm Development and Peace (D&P) as examples of social activist heroes to imitate.

“Some of the greatest social activists throughout history have fasted to raise awareness about issues of injustice and to demonstrate their commitment to a cause,” states D&P’s THINKfast brochure before listing Jesus, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Chief Theresa Spence, and Pope Francis as examples of people who have fasted to make a difference.

“By participating in this 25-hour educational and fundraising fast you stand in solidarity with those in the Global South who need our support, both through financial support to projects they are leading, and through a greater understanding of the structures that perpetuate poverty and injustice.”

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“In one day, you take a stand against oppression,” the brochure states.

The late Mandela, internationally renowned for his role in ending apartheid in South Africa, was responsible for bringing in abortion-on-demand and homosexual “marriage” in his country while he was president.

According to official statistics, nearly a million unborn children have been killed in South Africa since Mandela, two years after taking office as president, signed the “Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Bill” in 1996 that permitted abortion-on-demand.

“Women have the right to decide what they want to do with their bodies,” Mandela once said.

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When Mandela died in December, he was hailed in practically every corner of the world as a hero, a man of peace, and even a savior.

Missing from mainstream eulogies however were accounts of Mandela’s terrorism, brutality, and sabotage. Also missing were his pro-abortion and anti-family legacy.

Praise for Mandela, however, was not universal.

“We must acknowledge that he was a man deeply flawed, as we all are, who, while he fought the discrimination of apartheid, opened another discrimination with abortion,” wrote Alveda King, pro-life activist, author, and niece of civil rights leader Martin Luther King.

“If only he could have put his awesome courage, energy and work into being a voice for all South Africans, including the unborn.”

England’s John Smeaton, chief executive of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), said at that time that Catholic leaders must not let Mandala’s accomplishments obscure his anti-life and anti-family records.

“It is absolutely vital that Catholic leaders do not allow themselves to become respecters of persons, swept away by personality cults. Catholic leaders have a duty to stand up to public figures with anti-life and anti-family records, however praiseworthy their record may be on other issues.”

Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence Rhode Island called Mandela’s support for abortion “shameful.”

“There is part of President Mandela’s legacy, however, that is not at all praiseworthy, namely his shameful promotion of abortion in South Africa,” he said. “We can only regret that his noble defense of human dignity did not include the youngest members of our human family, unborn children.”

In 2007 Mandela founded “The Elders,” a pro-abortion NGO headed by a group of “elder statesmen” that promotes the global population control agenda as a means of establishing economic “equality.” The group’s founding prompted grave concern from pro-life leaders because its membership formed a “who’s who of the pro-abortion and pro-population-control movements.

LifeSiteNews contacted D&P but did not hear back by press time.