LONDON — Catholics in England and Wales have launched a Rosary crusade in an attempt to defeat an assisted-suicide bill currently passing through the U.K. Parliament. 

Led by the lay Catholic organization Voice of the Family, a recitation of the Rosary will likely take place outside the Houses of Parliament on or around April 25, when the next vote on the bill is expected. 

The faithful have also been encouraged to pray the Rosary at other times for the same intention. 

“We must pray for a miracle and work for [the bill’s defeat] to happen,” John Smeaton, co-founder of Voice of the Family, told the Register. 

Opponents of the legislation have warned that, if passed, the bill would lead to the deaths of many vulnerable people, normalize suicide and further significantly undermine the moral fabric of British society. 

The proposed legislation has been described as inflicting a “colossal potential social change” comparable to the 1967 Abortion Act that legalized abortion in the U.K., the abolition of capital punishment, the decriminalization of homosexuality, and the introduction of same-sex “marriage.”

Introduced last year by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater with the support of British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill passed an important second-reading stage last November, when 330 lawmakers voted in favor of it, with 275 against. It is currently in the committee stage, where it is being scrutinized and amended. 

But even though there is a strong lobby in favor of the legislation, the pro-life organization the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) is confident the legislation can be defeated. 

“One of my concerns is that perhaps the average person in the pews thinks we’ve already lost it because they would have seen the news that we lost the vote at second reading,” SPUC Public Policy Manager Alithea Williams told the Register. 

“But that's absolutely not the case,” she said. “If we win the vote of the third reading, then the bill is gone; the bill is dead. So it’s really just a case of really emphasizing to people that the fight is still on.” 

Williams is encouraging Catholics to lobby their MPs in person, send handwritten letters, and distribute leaflets, resources for which can be found on SPUC’s website. 

The chances of defeating the legislation increased in recent weeks when a significant amendment to the bill was voted through to replace High Court approval for any assisted-suicide cases with a multidisciplinary panel, including legal, medical and social-care experts.

The bill’s opponents believe this significant change in the oversight mechanism might prompt some MPs who initially supported the bill to reconsider their stance. This could lead to a shift in voting patterns, potentially benefiting opponents if more MPs decide to vote against the bill. The controversy has also sparked criticism and could galvanize opposition, leading to more scrutiny and better organized resistance to the bill. 

“A lot of the MPs, when they voted for it at the second reading, quoted the High Court judge as a reason to do that,” said Williams. The hope is that this change will “make a lot of MPs think twice,” she added. Williams estimates that just 28 MPs who voted for the bill at the second reading “need to change their mind, and that does now seem at least within the realms of possibility.” 

 

Hospital ‘Killing Fields’

Many opponents, including Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster, have warned of the bill’s dangers, most notably that it would lead to a “slippery slope” to include increasingly more people — as has happened in Oregon, Canada, Belgium and Holland — and instill “great fear and trepidation” among the frail and vulnerable, especially those with disabilities. 

“The rational response to this bill is to be very frightened by it,” said Smeaton. “During Christmas week, I spent a night in the emergency treatment department of Northwick Park Hospital in the company of my brother-in-law, who had pneumonia.” 

“I saw dozens of apparently seriously ill patients on beds in the department corridors, a few with exhausted relatives, but most entirely on their own,” he added. “Clearly, such patients would be greatly endangered by a stipulation in the Leadbetter bill stating that nothing ‘prevents a registered medical practitioner exercising their professional judgment to decide if, and when, it is appropriate to discuss [assisted suicide] with a person.’

“The corridors of hospitals could become Britain’s killing fields,” Smeaton warned, “and the most dangerous areas in the country for the sick and disabled to be, if this bill becomes law.”

Williams praised the bishops of England and Wales for their lead in opposing the bill. “They’ve been the most active on this than I’ve ever seen them on anything,” she said.

 

The Power of the Rosary

English Dominican Father Thomas Crean, writing on the Voice of the Family website, stressed the vital importance of the Rosary in defeating the bill and in helping the bishops to take a bold lead. 

Just as David, with five stones, defeated Goliath and put “fresh heart into the leaders of his army,” so should the faithful “take up Our Lady’s sling” and five of its mysteries and “use it with all our skill,” Father Crean wrote.   

“A single stone was enough to overcome the Philistine,” he added. “Christ, by each of the mysteries of His life, has merited for the Church incalculable graces, and by prayer, we lay hold of them.” 

“So, what power there must be in one Rosary well said — which does not mean said with no distractions, but prayed with faith and for a supernatural goal.”