AREQUIPA, Peru (LifeSiteNews) — Over 120,000 people took part in a massive pro-family parade in Peru this month to celebrate “the value of every person and every human life,” the group’s organizers said.
Pro-life group Corso por la Vida y la Familia (CORVIDA) hosted the event on April 15. Participants began by listening to a speech at the Plaza Mayta Cápac in the Miraflores district of Arequipa and concluded after walking together to the Plaza de Armas, according to a Facebook post.
In comments made to the participants, Arequipa Archbishop Javier Del Rio Alba praised the pro-life and pro-family advocates and expressed happiness at being able to host the in-person event again after the COVID controls of the past several years.
“It is a joy to reunite families, young people, adults, children, mothers, in these delegations that say yes to life from our beloved Arequipa,” he said. “After two years of not being able to do so in person, but through networks and last year rolling, it is very encouraging to see that thousands and thousands celebrate the gift of life and family.”
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A spokeswoman for the group said the parade is a “celebration that … seeks to affirm, promote and protect the value of every person and every human life.”
“The crises that we have gone through in recent years have shown us that the institution in which we find greatest support in times of difficulty is the family,” said CORVIDA president Guadalupe Valdez.
Meanwhile, this isn’t the first time Peruvians have shown up in big numbers to joyfully stand up for life.
In 2016, the country’s fourth annual March for Life drew 750,000 participants. The following year, pro-lifers exuberantly represented the pro-life cause in a “flash-mob” style performance at the nation’s capital in Lima.
READ: Pro-lifers took Peru’s capital by storm… for a dance party!
A majority-Christian nation, 76% of Peru’s population of roughly 32 million are reportedly Catholic and 14% are Protestant, according to the 2017 national census.
Abortion is illegal in the South American country except to save the life of the mother, which pro-lifers say is never necessary.