Vatican Insider today triumphantly reported that an EU-wide pro-life initiative is unexpectedly successful in “the seriously secularised Netherlands”. While the news is certainly a surprise, it is also perhaps a bit too triumphalistic in tone. In a country with almost 17 million inhabitants, 20,00o signatures do not represent an overwhelming ground swell of support for the protection of unborn life. The fact remains that abortion is largely accepted as a medical procedure in the Netherlands.
‘One of Us’ is, all the same, a worthwhile initiative to support, as it aims to protect human life from its earliest beginnings:
“Based on the definition of the human embryo as the beginning of the development of the human being, which was given in a recent ECJ judgment (Brüstle vs. Greenpeace), “One of Us” asks the EU to end the financing of activities which presuppose the destruction of human embryos, in particular in the areas of research, development aid and public health.”
If you’re a citizen of the European Union, you too can add your signature to the initiative, which needs to collect 1 million of them, from at least 7 member states, before November 1st in order to propose legislation to the European Commission. Last week, the 500,000th signature was registered.
Go to One of Us and sign! As Christians, we have an obligation to protect life, for we believe in God, who is the very opposite of death.
(And seriously, Vatican Insider, that photo to accompany the article?)
In Caelo et in Terra 
The photo and the caption accompanying it. How very badly informed.