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Wednesday November 16, 2005
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Pope Benedict Enters Italian Abortion Debate with Praise for Pro-Life Movement
VATICAN, November 16, 2005 (CWNews.com /LifeSiteNews.com) - Pope Benedict XVI offered his strong support to pro-life activism during his weekly public audience on November 16.
At a time when Italy is caught up in a heated debate about experimental use of the abortifacient drug RU-486, the Holy Father greeted a pro-life group that was in attendance at his public audience, saying that they were "writing new pages of hope for the future of humanity."
The Pope recognized the presence of about 50 young members of the Italian Movement for Life among the 22,000 people attending his Wednesday audience. The Movement for Life is dedicated to helping women find alternatives to abortion, and the Pope praised them for their "attentive activities in support of women and families." This weekend the group will hold a conference in Florence on "the freedom not to abort."
In related news, the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano has denounced the experimental use of the "abortion pill" RU-486 in Italy.
The pill, which has already been used on a trial basis in the Piedmont and Tuscany regions, may now be used experimentally at the Roman hospital of St. Philip Neri, if the health ministry gives its approval. L'Osservatore decried the trials as "the avant-garde of the negation of the value of life."
The notion that abortion pills allow for "the emancipation of women" is "a cruel and cynical hypocrisy," the Vatican paper continued. The paper argued that RU-486 and its pharmacological relative, the "morning-after" pill, may camouflage the real nature of abortion, but it remains "the suppression of an innocent human life," L'Osservatore continued.
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