OTTAWA, May 8, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Two topless protesters from the militant feminist group Femen stormed the stage at the rally for the National March for Life Thursday, garnering national media coverage.
The women converged on the stage just as the Archbishop of Quebec City, Cardinal Gérald Lacroix, read a message from Pope Francis in support of the march.
They shouted “my body, my rules” and “f*** your morals” as they attempted to seize the microphone. But they were stopped and taken off the stage by RCMP officers, who placed them under arrest.
One of the women was seen briefly on EWTN's live broadcast, but the camera shot was quickly changed.
The Femen movement have made big waves in Europe and elsewhere in recent years by targeting Catholic churches, prelates, and groups promoting traditional morality.
Campaign Life Coalition estimates that 23,000 pro-life citizens joined the march today. The protest by the two topless women, however, earned the top spot on the front page of LaPresse’s website and a highly-placed story on CBC News.
Speaking right after Lacroix, Cardinal Thomas Collins urged the gathered pro-lifers to pray for those who oppose the pro-life message.
“We realize that in our world there are people who do not value [life]. We pray for them and with clarity and charity we seek to express the message of life,” he said.
“Sometimes we face angry people who are very, very troubled by the message which we proclaim, but it is a message that brings peace,” he continued. “It is based upon the reality that is the treasure of each person. Each person is not an object to be treated with disdain, but a person to be loved from the first moment of existence until natural death, and as they come into the home of the heavenly Father. So we pray for them.”