Catholic World News News Feature

Brazilian bishops' pro-life drive gets papal backing February 07, 2008

Pope Benedict XVI has sent a message to the bishops of Brazil, underlining the importance of opposing assaults on human life.

The Pope's message-- released at the start of the annual Fraternity Campaign conducted by Brazilian Catholics during Lent-- strong supports the efforts of the Brazilian hierarchy to counteract new drives for the acceptance of abortion, the distribution of condoms, and the availability of the morning-after pill.

In a letter addressed to Archbishop Geraldo Lyrio Rocha of Mariana, the president of the Brazilian bishops' conference, the Pope stresses that "all threats to life must certainly be resisted." He applauds the bishops' choice of this year's Fraternity Campaign theme: "fraternity and defense of life."

Recalling his visit to Brazil last year to participate in the 5th general conference of the Latin American bishops' conference, Pope Benedict reminded the Brazilian bishops that he had warned of the development of "a culture against human beings." He mentioned, too, that the final document approved by the Latin American bishops had seen the encounter with Jesus Christ as "the starting point from which to oppose these paths of death, and to choose life."

In an apparent reference to the Brazilian bishops' disputes with government officials in recent weeks, the Pope wrote that he hoped "the various institutions of civil society will show their solidarity with the popular will," arguing that the people of Brazil would choose to protect human life "from its beginning to its natural end."