More than 100,000 turn out for pro-life, pro-family parade in Peru

More than 100,000 people participated April 15 in the Parade for Life and Family, according to the event’s organizers. The event is put on by the Regional Coordinator for Life (CORVIDA) in the city of Arequipa, Peru. 

“For the most valuable thing we have: life and family; we give our all!” was the theme of this new edition of the parade that has been held since 2006 on the date closest to the Day of the Unborn Child, which In Peru is celebrated March 25, the feast of the Annunciation.

Guadalupe Valdez, president of CORVIDA, stressed in a statement that the parade “is not against anyone” but is “a celebration that seeks to affirm, promote, and protect the value of every person and every human life.”

“The crises that we have gone through in recent years have shown us that the institution in which we find the greatest support in times of difficulty is the family,” she noted.

Addressing the thousands of participants, the archbishop of Arequipa, Javier Del Río Alba, said: “It’s a joy to reencounter families, young people, adults, children, mothers in these groups that entered the parade that say yes to life in our dear Arequipa, after two years of not being able to do it like this in person.”

“It is very encouraging to see that thousands upon thousands celebrate the gift of life and family,” the prelate stressed, according to a Catholic News Agency report.

The parade ran from 3:30 p.m. to about 7:30 p.m. and participants included civil, cultural, and artistic associations; municipalities; educational institutions and workshops; health clinics, artisan guilds, and private companies; and institutions that work for children, women, and the family.

When the parade was over, several teams commissioned by the organizers were in charge of cleaning the streets.

CORVIDA is composed of the Life and Family Association, Doctors for Life, Ethics and Law, Pro Woman and Human Rights, Project Hope, Young Life, Communication and Dialogue, the citizen platform Let’s Save Them Both, and other groups.