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OTTAWA, May 13, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Canadian National March for Life has grown to such an extent that three English-language Masses and one French language Mass were required this year to accommodate all the Catholic participants. 

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On Thursday, the Catholic marchers filled St. Patrick’s Basilica from front to back, occupying every nook and cranny, including the choir loft, and the basement, where the mostly young participants watched the mass on a large screen. 

The overflow required organizers to use the Cathedral of Notre Dame for the main March for Life Mass, which was also filled to capacity.  There, eight bishops including the main celebrant Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast and homilist Montreal’s Archbishop Christian Lepine were joined by 36 priests and thousands of faithful. 

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Archbishop Lepine said that the ongoing trauma of abortion leaves with a great sadness in Canada but we must discover the power of Jesus Christ’s cross, a power so great it can turn our sadness into joy.

At the St. Patrick’s Mass, Toronto Cardinal Thomas Collins spoke encouraging a “joyful boldness” in confronting the “horror of abortion” in the midst of a “cold and suspicious” world.  He stressed that like in the time of the apostles and martyrs like Edward Campion we can be full of hope knowing that the culture of life, like the faith, will prevail.  Quoting Campion, he said, “It is of God it cannot fail.”

Newly ordained Bishop of Alexandria-Cornwall Marcel Damphousse celebrated a third Mass for marchers at St. Theresa of the Child Jesus Parish. He was joined Bishop Nicola De Angelis of Peterborough. 

Bishop Damphousse challenged the young people to be prepared to speak to mainstream media and to all those who ask them why they have come to Ottawa to march for life. “[Your answer] has to come from the heart, and it has to come from the principle of our belief that life is sacred because God so created it, God so wants it,” he said. 

The French-language Mass was celebrated in Gatineau by Quebec City Archbishop Gerald LaCroix who in his homily stressed the need to march together in a spirit of love.