(LifeSiteNews) — Jim Hughes, former president of Campaign Life Coalition (CLC), shared the joy of the pro-life movement, reminding every person that they are loved by God.
In a November episode of BEHOLD, dedicated to Lives Lived for Life, a program produced by Salt & Light TV, the 81-year-old pro-life hero recounted how he began his work in the pro-life movement.
See the video interview here.
“I met Mother Teresa on Parliament Hill in 1988,” he recalled. “And one little thing she said stuck with me greatly. She said, ‘The beautiful thing about the pro-life movement is that it’s ordinary people doing extraordinary things for God.'”
“And so I thought, well, being an extra unbelievably ordinary person, maybe that’s me too,” Hughes revealed.
“We didn’t know that we’re going to be fighting more than abortion,” he revealed. “When it became euthanasia and abortion, infanticide, all the rest of this stuff attacking families. And so we expanded and tried to stand up for everybody’s rights everywhere.”
Hughes has been involved in the pro-life movement since 1973 when his wife suggested that he spend two years working for the cause.
“And the other day she said to me, ‘I said two years, not 50 years,'” Hughes recalled, laughing.
Indeed, Hughes did not stop after two years but went on to start Campaign Life Coalition, one of Canada’s largest pro-life groups and the organizers of the National March for Life. Hughes also had a hand in founding LifeSiteNews, as LifeSite co-founders John-Henry Westen and Steve Jalsevac formerly worked for CLC.
Hughes shared that he began CLC with the goal of changing “the minds and hearts of people.”
“I’m trying my best to make sure they all know that I recognize them as human beings, that God created them,” he said.
“Focus on the fact that God loves you,” he encouraged.
After over 50 years of fighting for the pro-life movement, Hughes revealed that he finds hope in the fact that ” I’m on God’s side. He’s not on my side. I’m on his side.”
“And as long as I recognize that every single human being was created in the image and likeness of God, I have a responsibility to try to educate them on this abortion issue, try to educate them on how people should deal with one another,” he explained.
In addition to the November interview, Hughes has done an extensive two-part interview with Jalsevac detailing the history of the pro-life movement in both Canada (Part 1) and the United States (Part 2).