Pope Francis has given his Apostolic Blessing to everyone participating in this year’s Day for Life across the UK. The Pope’s message was communicated via the Holy See’s Secretariat of State to Auxiliary Bishop John Sherrington of Westminster, the Lead Bishop for Life issues. The letter said that the Holy Father sends his “prayerful good wishes for the celebration of the 2020 Day for Life in England and Wales, Scotland and Ireland.” The UK bishops decided on the theme “Choose Life” this year, with the aim of focussing on the protection of mothers and unborn children, and the need to bring hope and healing after an abortion. Pope Francis said the theme was “particularly fitting in this twenty-fifth anniversary year of Saint John Paul II’s Encyclical Evangelium Vitae, which summoned the entire Church to be ‘a people of life and for life’ (n: 78).” Bishop John Sherrington communicated the bishops’ gratitude for the letter and said that it “renews our commitment and action to this most basic of human instincts – the protection of the mystery of human life at every stage.” Bishop Sherrington added that the “global coronavirus pandemic which we are currently experiencing has reminded us in the starkest way of the importance and God-given dignity and worth of every life, especially the weakest and most frail.” The Pope himself communicated his hope that the pandemic may stir in us a renewed care for the most vulnerable and that “amid the present crisis all will be led to a greater appreciation of the moral imperative to build a ‘culture of life’”. This year’s Day of Life is scheduled to take place on May 31 in Scotland, June 21 in England and Wales, and October 1 in Ireland, but the dates may still change due to the coronavirus pandemic. Further information and resources for the forthcoming celebrations are available at the official dayforlife.org website.