Pope John Paul II has again referred to the “urgent” need to defend life and family. Zenit reports that in a meeting with Rome’s city leaders yesterday the pope said, “proposals and measures in favor of maternity and the protection of life from conception to its natural end deserve sincere support.” He also said, “the family must be at the center of social policies and must be respected in its own identity, as a stable union between man and woman founded on marriage, which can never be assimilated to other forms of relation.”
The BBC reports that the funeral of the Siamese twin Mary is taking place near the family’s Maltese island home, while her sister remains in hospital in England. https://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1125000/1125515.stm
The Catholic News Service reports that youth in Nairobi, Kenya are pledging chastity to avoid AIDS. “Only abstinence will save our generation,” said David Odero of True Love Waits, a group of young Kenyans who tour schools, universities and television chat shows preaching the message that sex before marriage is wrong. True Love Waits Kenya is a nondenominational movement but has received substantial funding from the Catholic Church in Kenya.