54-day Rosary Novena against euthanasia beginning on Laetare Sunday

By Voice of the Family   |   25 March 2025

Last week, in the Voice of the Family Digest, John Smeaton reported on a militant pro-abortion vicar invited to speak at a formation day for Catholic laity in the Diocese of Plymouth, England. In the absence of a bishop in this see, Mr Smeaton urged the faithful to write, with filial reverence and solicitude, to His Eminence Cardinal Nichols and to stop this appalling scandal.

Thanks to the action of the faithful, and most of all to their prayers and supplications, the diocesan administrator, Canon Paul Cummins has given assurance that the event, which was to be held on Zoom on Thursday 27 March, “is no longer taking place as planned.” While this leaves many questions unanswered as to how it came to be planned in the first place, showing the grave need for vigilance on the part of the laity, it also shows the efficacy of the prayers and action of the faithful, provided for in the 1983 Code of Canon Law:

“According to the knowledge, competence, and prestige which they possess, [the faithful] have the right and even at times the duty to manifest to the sacred pastors their opinion on matters which pertain to the good of the Church and to make their opinion known to the rest of the Christian faithful, without prejudice to the integrity of faith and morals, with reverence toward their pastors, and attentive to common advantage and the dignity of persons.” (212 §3)

May this small victory, embolden us as we fight another evil on a truly giant scale.

Rosary Crusade

Once again, Voice of the Family has called upon Catholics in the UK and throughout the world to join in a Rosary Crusade to defeat the UK Parliament’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill. MP Kim Leadbeater and her allies show a fearful determination to make this Bill pass at all costs, despite the increasing concerns caused by their flagrant disregard for all evidence which might jeopardise this goal and the rapid abandonment of virtually all apparent safeguards, which it was claimed would prevent abuse of the proposed legal provision to kill the innocent in a range of poorly defined circumstances.

The Bill, which will shortly be entering the report stage, presents the greatest threat of euthanasia to the sick, elderly and disabled in British legal history. Valiant opposition is required, both politically and spiritually, for this iniquitous Bill to be defeated.

The faithful are asked to pray as many Rosaries as they are able — whether five decades daily or even a single decade once — during the Crusade, or to include among their daily Rosary intentions the additional intention that, by God’s mercy and the intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the natural and divine law prevails against the killing of the innocent, in the UK and throughout the world.

54-Day Novena

Those willing are asked to commit to praying a 54-day Rosary Novena, comprising one set of mysteries (five decades) daily, beginning on Laetare Sunday, 30 March 2025. This will include a public Rosary in Old Palace Yard, Westminster, at midday on Friday 25 April 2025. As is the custom for this powerful devotion, the first 27 days (3 novenas) will be said in petition for the defeat of the Bill, followed by 27 days (3 novenas) in thanksgiving, whether or not the fruits of our petition are immediately manifest in the result of the Bill’s report stage.

Resources

— Click here for full instructions on praying the 54-day Rosary Novena (Return to Tradition)

— Click here to read “Our Lady’s Sling” by Fr Thomas Crean OP calling for the Crusade (Voice of the Family Digest)

— For more information, please email info@voiceofthefamily.com

The faithful in the UK are also encouraged to write to their MPs to urge them to vote against the Bill.

— Excellent Bill briefing (SPUC)
— Find your MP (UK Parliament)
— How did my MP vote? (BBC)

In fighting the giant of euthanasia, however, it is important to remember that there is a still greater attack on human life. In the words of Mother Teresa of Calcutta:

“The greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child, a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?”

Day of the Unborn Child

On 25 March, the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, commemorating the moment when, in response to Archangel Gabriel’s message regarding her role in the Father’s plan for our redemption, her consent caused the Son to be made man in her Immaculate Womb by the action of the Holy Ghost. It is no coincidence that, until the Gregorian Calendar reforms of the sixteenth century, New Year’s Day in the Universal Church was 25 March — the very day of the Incarnation.

This year, the feast of the Annunciation also marks the thirtieth anniversary of Pope John-Paul II’s encyclical, Evangelium Vitae, on “the value and inviolability of human life” and the twenty-first anniversary of the initiative of the International Day of the Unborn Child. We at Voice of the Family are grateful to a holy contemplative religious for reminding us of this initiative:

“First officially celebrated in Argentina in 1999 under the Pontificate of Pope John Paul II, this day is a celebration of the value and dignity of every human person from the moment of conception, as well as a day of remembrance for those unborn children who have lost their lives to the violence of abortion.

“The Holy Father linked this day to the feast of the Annunciation to honour the day when God was conceived and became an unborn child in the womb of Our Blessed Mother.

“Beginning on this March 25 Feast of the Annunciation honouring Christ’s Conception, and for the nine months until Christmas, let us pray to uphold the sanctity of human life, and for the protection of every pre-born and newborn child from the first moment of his or her creation — that each will be recognised by parents and society as a member of the human family … that each may become a child of God as soon as possible through holy Baptism.”

She adds that “Our prayers can make a difference in the life of the unborn baby. Please, share the love of life given to you by the Lord of all life and join in spiritually adopting a baby!”

Prayer of Archbishop Fulton J Sheen

Say this prayer every day for nine months. Although the baby you spiritually adopt will be known only to God, you can hope to meet him or her in Heaven one day.

Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I love you very much. I beg you to spare the life of the unborn baby that I have spiritually adopted who is in danger of abortion.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Unborn, pray for us.

We are extremely grateful for all the support we receive, and above all for your prayers that our work be for the glory of God, the restoration of the Church and society, and for the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Your one-time or recurring gift of whatever you can afford will enable Voice of the Family to continue its fight.