Tens of thousands expected for Italy's March for Life

Photo ~ Pope Francis surprised the 40,000 or so participants in Italy’s third annual March for Life (2013) by greeting them as they gathered just outside St. Peter’s Square following the march.

Rome, Italy, May 2, 2014 (CNA).- The Italian March for Life expects tens of thousands of attendees at its fourth march to support what organizer Virginia Coda Nunziante called “the first right for a human being.”

“If a human being doesn’t receive life, he won’t receive any other rights,” Coda Nunziante told CNA April 23.

The march will begin May 4 at Rome's Piazza della Repubblica. Participants will begin to gather at 8 a.m. ahead of the March for Life’s launch at 9.

Coda Nunziante credited the U.S. March for Life for inspiring its Italian counterpart.

Italian pro-life organizers found that going regularly to the Washington, D.C. event was “an extraordinary occasion to meet pro-life people,” she said. That march gave them the idea of “doing something similar in Italy.”

The 2013 march drew 40,000 people from all over Italy, she said.