News
Featured Image

When LifeSite co-founded the Rome Life Forum five years ago, none of us expected the incredible response and impact this event has experienced from the outset. Thanks to the prayer and work of our Voice of the Family partners, the Rome Life Forum has become one of the most important conferences for the pro-life and pro-family movement of the year!

This year promises to be a historic event, exerting a positive influence within the Catholic Church, now facing the daily, relentless penetration of heterodox ideas challenging magisterial truth and established pastoral practices, proven over millennia.   

But before I share some of the details of our upcoming 5th annual Rome Life Forum, I need to remind you that there are only 9 DAYS LEFT in our crucial spring fundraising campaign, and we still have $206,868 left to raise. (Click here to donate)

The extensive networking, great achievements, and international influence that have resulted from this gathering of a large number of pro-life and pro-family leaders to discuss the most important issues of these troubling times has been nothing short of incredible.

Interestingly, it is not only Catholics who are interested in in this conference held annually just steps from St. Peter’s Basilica.

In fact, many non-Catholic pro-life and pro-family leaders and activists tell me that they specifically follow the messages and events coming out of the Vatican and from Catholic Church hierarchy because of the direct impact they can have on their own work on the ground.

I’ll give you a perfect example:

Do you remember the comment Pope Francis made when speaking to priests in Rome in 2016? He referenced cohabitating couples he knew in Argentina who were faithful but not married, he said “I’ve seen a lot of fidelity in these cohabitations, and I am sure that this is a real marriage, they have the grace of a real marriage because of their fidelity.”

To any practicing Christian who believes in the sanctity of marriage, these words should cause alarm.

When the mainstream media went wild stating that the Pope said cohabitations are real marriages and have the grace of real marriage, a number of my non-Catholic friends involved in abstinence education as well as fighting for traditional marriage here and around the world, contacted me hoping it wasn’t true!

Can you imagine? Fighting the Culture of Death is an uphill battle every day for those of us in the trenches – but to learn that the other side is getting ammunition against us from the Pope – how devastating!

Please, help pro-life and pro-family activists on the ground as they are searching for the truth on these issues. Make a donation today!

Click here to Donate

LifeSite’s in-depth, professional, investigative reporting, and our commitment to defending age-old Christian teachings on marriage, the family, life, and related topics are the one thing these activists and leaders, both Catholic and non-Catholic alike, depend upon to provide them with the information they need to be successful in their own life-affirming missions.

Our daily news is crucial to the work of thousands of pro-life and pro-family activists around the world. But we simply cannot continue without the generosity of thousands of ordinary readers like you during these quarterly campaigns to keep this unique pro-life news agency going.

Yet, while there is a lot of troubling stuff going on at the Vatican right now – unlike anything I’ve ever seen in my lifetime – I cannot get depressed about it.

That’s because I am seeing firsthand the large-scale efforts being made by good Christians around the world to uphold the traditional teachings on life and family. And, of course, there still remain many faithful and courageous Church leaders who are valiantly fighting to defend the traditional teachings and principles.

A number of them attended our Rome Life Forum!

At LifeSite, we have always reported on events at the Vatican as they relate to the issues of our mandate. During the past two pontificates, that was an easy job, and a pleasant one! The news was almost always encouraging. We simply amplified the voice of the popes when they spoke (as they frequently did) on life and family issues, or drew attention to the amazing work of the various Vatican departments responsible for defending life and family.

Now, our job is far more difficult. It’s more controversial than it has ever been since we began. It’s not because we have changed. It’s not because the truth has changed. But the world has changed – dramatically!

At times, the volume of troubling news can wear us (and our readers!) down. And sometimes, simply by calmly, professionally reporting the facts, we make enemies both inside and outside of the Church institution.

Despite all of this, we have hope! Every day our entire staff begins the day with prayer. We ask for the courage and conviction to know and respond to God’s will by serving only the truth. As long as we have done our duty, we should not fear.

Remain faithful, love God, love truth, pray, and work – and all will be well!

If you support LifeSite’s mission to shine a light on truth, and to fearlessly promote Christ’s teachings on life and family, “in season and out of season” (2 Tim. 4:2), no matter the opposition, please, do consider donating today to our crucial spring campaign today.

And when I am at times tempted to despair, I always think of Pope St. John Paul II – that great apostle and defender of life! “Do not be afraid!” he constantly reminded us, as the New Testament also does countless times. And somehow, when St. John Paul II said it, his words penetrated our hearts – and we felt at peace.

Let us never give up hope. Let us never lose heart. Let us never allow our peace to be shattered by the goings on of those who would use the Church for questionable ideological purposes that have nothing to do with the salvation of souls.