On Sunday, 19 April, the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales held a Holy Hour to pray for the promotion of a culture of life in our lands.
The bishops, who are in Rome for a one-week spring retreat at Palazzola, the summer villa of the Venerable English College, prayed for the dignity of all human life at a time when peers in the House of Lords continue to debate whether to make assisted suicide law.
The desire was to unite in prayer with the faithful of England and Wales to present a shared petition to Our Lord for the dignity of life from conception to natural death, and to pray that assisted suicide will not be legalised.
The bishops gathered at 5:30pm local time in the chapel at Palazzola, the Church of Santa Maria ad Nives – Our Lady of the Snows. Archbishop John Sherrington, Lead Bishop for Life Issues for the Bishops’ Conference and Archbishop of Liverpool presided at this powerful and poignant moment of prayer.
