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Catholic World News for Oct 7

VATICAN (CWN)—Argentinian President Carlos Saul Menem offered a strong public defense of the right to life in Buenos Aires yesterday, as he prepared for a visit to Rome and a meeting with Pope John Paul II.

Speaking from his national capital just before he traveled to Rome to open a new transplant unit at an Argentine medical facility there, Menem said, “We have joined with the Catholic Church in defending human life from time of conception.” He noted that Argentine law prohibits abortion, and promised to oppose any change.

President Menem is scheduled to meet with Pope John Paul in the morning of Saturday, October 11. That afternoon Msgr. Leonardo Sandri, the apostolic nuncio to Argentine, will be ordained a bishop in St. Peter’s basilica.

During his stay in Rome the Argentine president will also present honorific decorations to several cardinals serving in the Roman Curia and to Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls.