By John-Henry Westen
VATICAN CITY, February 4, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Speaking at the noon Angelus yesterday, Pope Benedict XVI addressed thousands of pilgrims on the ‘Day of Life’ being celebrated in Italy, on the theme ‘Serving Life’. The leader of the world’s one billion Catholics said that it is up to “each according to his or her possibilities, profession and responsibilities, to feel in themselves an obligation to love and serve life, from its beginning to its natural end.”
“It is, in fact,” he continued, “everyone’s duty to welcome human life as a gift to be respected, protected and promoted, even more so when it is fragile and in need of attention and care, either before birth or when it is in its final stages”.
The Holy Father thanked all those in attendance who defend and promote the right to life. He also reiterated a statement of the Italian Bishops Conference from their message for the Day of Life: “A civilization is measured by its ability to be at the service of life.”