The John-Henry Westen Show - March 05, 2020


Young woman calls on UK Bishops to fulfill 'duty' to fight for unborn


Episode Stats

Length

11 minutes

Words per Minute

194.82867

Word Count

2,155

Sentence Count

151

Misogynist Sentences

3

Hate Speech Sentences

3


Summary

Eden Linton works for SPUC, the oldest pro-life group in the world, and was part of our Rome Youth Conference with Cardinal Burke. She shares her thoughts on the March for Life and the support shown by the Catholic Church.


Transcript

00:00:00.760 Hello, this is John Henry Weston coming to you from the March for Life here in Washington, D.C.
00:00:05.940 We're going to be speaking on today's show with a wonderful girl who came here from, all the way, from England.
00:00:13.260 Eden Linton works for SPUC, the oldest pro-life group in the world.
00:00:17.380 We're going to hear what she had to think about the March for Life here in Washington, and it's going to be awesome.
00:00:22.120 Stay tuned.
00:00:30.000 All right, let's begin as we always do with the sign of the cross.
00:00:47.320 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
00:00:51.220 Eden, welcome to the program.
00:00:52.400 Hi, welcome. It's me.
00:00:55.300 Good to be with you.
00:00:56.700 We were with you in Rome a little while ago.
00:00:58.960 You were part of our Rome Youth Conference with Cardinal Burke.
00:01:02.280 You just heard Cardinal Burke speak here at the March for Life, at this pro-life summit of the March for Life, the day after the March for Life.
00:01:10.260 Let me start with a little bit about you.
00:01:12.540 Where are you from, and what do you do?
00:01:14.640 So I'm originally from London, and I live in Glasgow now, and I work for SPUC up in Scotland as a youth and education officer.
00:01:21.060 So I organize youth conferences like this, but not to this scale, and youth events.
00:01:25.800 And I also go into schools and talk to school children about life issues.
00:01:29.400 Awesome.
00:01:30.080 Awesome.
00:01:30.580 So great stuff that you're doing.
00:01:32.660 Now, I have to ask, we had a historic event yesterday go on.
00:01:36.660 We had the President of the United States for the very first time in history, like 50 years, come and speak to the March for Life.
00:01:43.420 What was your reaction when you were there?
00:01:44.600 It was absolutely amazing.
00:01:46.200 It was really great to see the crowd and be among the crowd, because he, obviously, the first President ever to come to the March for Life, to support the March for Life and openly do it.
00:01:55.120 Like, that's going to make history.
00:01:56.940 And so to be there for that, and to see what he had to say to us, and how supportive he was of the pro-life movement, was amazing.
00:02:03.420 Amazing.
00:02:04.260 Incredible.
00:02:05.220 The crowd was electric.
00:02:07.040 It was such a memorable experience.
00:02:10.920 I knew.
00:02:11.660 You knew that you were going through history.
00:02:14.100 You were present.
00:02:15.320 You can tell your children and grandchildren.
00:02:17.340 I was there when it happened.
00:02:19.200 Just amazing.
00:02:20.460 Well, let's talk about, too.
00:02:21.700 I mean, before the March here is a huge event.
00:02:24.260 It's got all sorts of things that happen throughout the week.
00:02:26.920 Before the March, the night before the March, they have what they call a vigil mass for the March for Life.
00:02:33.320 It's an incredible thing.
00:02:34.680 It's a procession that takes, like, half an hour, because it's 25, 35 bishops, cardinals, priests galore, 100, usually 150 priests, hundreds of seminarians, all in procession.
00:02:46.060 And then the church, which is supposed to hold only about, you know, to 8,000 people, is up to 10,000, 15,000.
00:02:51.480 So what did you make of that first?
00:02:53.720 That was incredible.
00:02:55.080 I think to see so many Catholic leaders actually doing their duty to the pro-life movement and attending such an important mass and an important event for the pro-life movement was incredible.
00:03:05.800 We don't have that involvement back home with Catholic bishops and priests coming and attending these events and even hosting masses like that for our March for Life.
00:03:15.180 So to see that and to witness that, it was really, really inspiring.
00:03:20.780 And hopefully we can take that back to the UK and do that over there.
00:03:25.340 Absolutely.
00:03:26.020 I think that's so essential.
00:03:27.100 I think here, you know, America is a large country.
00:03:31.920 So you have, you know, people coming from far away, yes.
00:03:34.100 But most come from the neighboring places and they empty out the Catholic schools.
00:03:40.240 The biggest attendees here are Catholic schools that empty out both high schools, sometimes older in the grades, grade schools, but universities and so on.
00:03:47.940 And they're so supportive.
00:03:50.120 And I've noticed at the March for Life in England, March for Life all over the world, Rome and in other countries,
00:03:56.020 that presence of Catholic bishops, as you were mentioning, sort of leading the way, if you will, is sadly lacking.
00:04:02.740 What would you say to the bishops in England, for instance, about coming to the March for Life, leading the March for Life, not only allowing, but encouraging the March for Life?
00:04:11.800 I think being a bishop, you have a duty to the church and to the pro-life movement because without the right to life, you would have no parishioners, you would have no Catholics.
00:04:20.460 And obviously, because the right to life is given to us by God and is the most fundamental human right, you need Catholic leaders to be promoting this, shouting it from the rooftops,
00:04:31.600 not being ashamed to say in their sermons to their parishioners in masses in a kind, compassionate and loving way.
00:04:36.900 And coming here, obviously, I was speaking to lots of people around me at the March, and all of them, Catholic schools, Catholic universities, these big banners, like, I'm from this university, this school.
00:04:48.100 I could not believe how many Catholics, it was like, like, majority of the march, the marchers, were Catholics.
00:04:55.460 And then comparing that to the UK March, I know it's smaller and it's still growing in momentum, but there are not that amount of Catholic students and bishops and priests bringing their parishioners, encouraging it.
00:05:07.960 I go into churches, obviously, to do white flower appeals for Spock, and there's no advertising for the March for Life.
00:05:14.440 We already know the date. We already know the date for the UK one. Why isn't this being advertised?
00:05:18.400 Why aren't we getting buses and coaches going down to London?
00:05:22.320 England's not a big place. You can get down there very, very easily.
00:05:25.760 Just bring people. That's your duty as a shepherd and as a leader in the church, and that's not happening.
00:05:32.100 Even with school teachers as well, Catholic schools should be bringing their students.
00:05:35.400 Every Catholic school in the UK should be bringing a bus full of their students to the March for Life, and that's just not happening.
00:05:41.760 Now, it's one thing for pro-life leaders to tell bishops and priests and school teachers, please bring your young people.
00:05:48.580 But I think it's another thing for young people themselves to ask of their own bishops and priests and teachers,
00:05:54.060 can't you bring us to the March for Life? To get together in groups of two or three, it might be so small.
00:05:58.260 But doing that, I think, is very powerful.
00:06:00.260 You know a lot of young people. Would you do that?
00:06:03.280 Start that movement of having them ask their bishops, their priests, their teachers,
00:06:08.180 hey, why aren't we going to the March? Can we go to the March for Life? Can you take us to the March for Life?
00:06:11.980 Yes. So normally before the March for Life, I do email out, well, sometimes email, depends on how formal I'm being,
00:06:18.140 or message my friends and say, can you bring buses? And I do message university chaplains.
00:06:22.100 So last year, I was doing that. I was trying to help universities bring busloads down, tell them how to do it,
00:06:29.000 what buses to take, when it is, schedules and all of that.
00:06:32.160 And we take a bus from Scotland, which is really, really good.
00:06:35.600 But I think, and this might be a bit offensive, but I think the UK are very lazy.
00:06:42.000 Our people are very lazy and it's a lot of effort to go down there.
00:06:44.780 They don't want to travel long and they're not willing to put in that effort for life.
00:06:49.780 So I think people really need to actually think about this issue and motivate themselves to be doing something about it
00:06:55.640 because it's all very well saying you're Catholic.
00:06:57.860 But if you're not actually taking the active steps to set that example for people
00:07:02.120 and actually show that you're Catholic by doing these things, I mean, it's not great.
00:07:06.560 Exactly. I mean, this thing is so encouraging. It's so incredibly, insanely encouraging.
00:07:11.560 We bring all of our new staff down here, for sure, from anywhere in the world, just to see it because it's ridiculous.
00:07:18.380 Often in the pro-life movement, we feel alone. We feel like, oh, we're like the only ones here.
00:07:22.800 Oh, this is ridiculous. Then you come here and you realize, oh my gosh, everybody believes this.
00:07:28.820 And there's so many of them.
00:07:32.080 That kind of support, that kind of building up is so essential for young people, for old people, for everyone in the movement.
00:07:39.400 Mm-hmm. Yeah, absolutely. So I think going to pro-life events such as this, maybe not to this scale,
00:07:44.860 but in the UK and stuff such as the SPUC Youth Conference, and I know a lot of other pro-life organizations hold these conferences,
00:07:51.040 is essential because in order to be a good pro-life advocate and take it out with you in your daily life,
00:07:56.480 you need to be educated, inspired and empowered.
00:07:58.720 And these events do that. So they educate you, you have all these amazing speakers,
00:08:03.140 and at our conference, we obviously provide these incredible speakers to give insight into the pro-life movement.
00:08:08.360 It's inspiring to be around so many young people who hold your views,
00:08:12.160 and it's empowering to see them all in unity, and you can take that, all those things,
00:08:17.760 and implement it in your daily life, no matter what you're doing.
00:08:20.120 So coming here to the biggest march in the world is like the best way to be educated, inspired and empowered.
00:08:27.120 And hopefully we'll go back to the UK and take that and spread it around.
00:08:30.780 Amazing. Just the absolute, the energy, the, the, really the guts to say what they,
00:08:37.340 I've watched young people walking, which is three hours for the whole crowd to pass by,
00:08:42.240 and just watching them also interact. They also know, a lot of them know, that this is a loving movement.
00:08:50.220 This isn't a hateful, bigoted, whatever, whatever.
00:08:53.200 They're doing this out of love. They're doing this because this is better for women.
00:08:56.140 Women deserve better than abortion, as one of the signs reads.
00:08:59.720 Let's talk about that for a second. A lot of signage this time.
00:09:03.340 A lot of signage made up by young people. I thought it was great.
00:09:07.000 What was your thoughts on some of that?
00:09:08.220 Amazing. I thought it was really good. I actually got quite a lot of inspiration.
00:09:11.500 So my colleague, Grace, and I run a social media platform called Abortion.
00:09:15.280 It's a black and white issue.
00:09:16.420 And so we're always looking for new content and new catchy slogans to use for that.
00:09:20.320 And I got a lot of ideas from a lot of the signs. Really, really good.
00:09:23.740 You had signs that were memes as well, that they had made pro-life.
00:09:27.340 And obviously the whole baby Yoda thing that's just come into, you can see all these baby Yoda signs.
00:09:32.760 But yeah, it was really, really good.
00:09:34.100 And again, all the signs were about women. We care about women. We love women.
00:09:38.220 And I think looking into the pro-life movement as somebody who's not involved,
00:09:42.140 oftentimes they can only see, oh, you know, all we care about is the fetus after birth.
00:09:46.840 We don't care anymore.
00:09:47.800 But if you come to stuff like this and talk and actually go and look into the movements,
00:09:52.200 you know, we go above and beyond to help women and their families,
00:09:55.940 both before their child is born and after.
00:09:58.080 So I think that's really been shown at this march as well, which has been great.
00:10:03.160 And I think things like this totally explode the myth of, oh, who's the pro-life movement?
00:10:08.940 Old white men or something, right?
00:10:11.660 And sorry, you're wrong.
00:10:14.460 Anyway, it's been an incredible time.
00:10:17.040 Any closing thoughts for all of our viewers at LifeSite News?
00:10:20.220 Yeah, so I'd just like to say we aren't all old white men.
00:10:24.260 Shocking.
00:10:25.260 And our movement is one of life, love and joy.
00:10:28.940 And we do really, really are working hard to promote equality for the unborn
00:10:33.600 and protection for women and to stop society from targeting
00:10:37.580 and exterminating our weakest and most vulnerable members of society.
00:10:41.400 So thank you all for everything you're doing.
00:10:43.100 Keep up the good work.
00:10:43.980 Again, events like this aren't just for today.
00:10:46.480 You take them and you work with them every single day of this year
00:10:50.900 and implement them in your daily activities no matter what you do.
00:10:55.120 Beautiful.
00:10:55.860 Eden Linton, thank you for being with us on the John Henry Weston Show.
00:10:59.060 Thank you for having me.
00:11:00.100 May God bless you.
00:11:01.020 You too.
00:11:01.640 And God bless you.
00:11:02.820 We'll see you next time.