The pro-life movement must be prepared for a protracted struggle as consciences become dulled by the "culture of death", the Bishop of Shrewsbury has said.

In a homily at a Mass for the National Pro-Life Pilgrimage to Walsingham, Norfolk, the Rt Rev. Mark Davies said that the relentless advance of the “culture of death” meant the movement must be ready to respond to many new challenges in the years ahead.

They would include “repeated assaults on both the laws and the social environments of care, which have long protected and cherished the lives of society’s weakest members”, the Bishop said.