Thousands of Catholics are to gather Wednesday for the sixth World Meeting of Families, which Pope Benedict XVI will attend only by video link, in a city where abortion, quick divorce and same sex unions are legal.The five-day meeting will be the first to take place without the pope's presence since it was created by the late John Paul II in 1994, who visited Mexico five times during his papacy, gathering massive crowds.
The current 81-year-old pontiff, who seldom travels abroad, was thought to have pulled out of the event due to the high altitude of the Mexican capital, at more than 2200 meters (7300 feet) above sea level.
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican Secretary of State, will represent the pope and hold a mass on Sunday before an expected 50,000 faithful at the Basilica of Guadalupe, a major Catholic symbol in Latin America.
The pope will address two video messages to participants: a recorded message at the opening and another to be transmitted live at the close, organizers said.
Thirty cardinals and 200 bishops have signed up for the event, as well as 6,000 people from 98 countries.
The family-promoting event is due to debate sensitive issues including abortion, divorce, euthanasia and new family structures.
It takes place in a city where the left-wing government has led measures to allow abortion for up to 12 weeks of pregnancy, homosexual unions and the interruption of medical treatment which prolongs the life of patients suffering from terminal illnesses.
The Mexican leftist Social Democratic Party (PSD) plans demonstrations during the gathering to call for the respect of the secularism of the Mexican state, and a halt to attacks on laws which decriminalize abortion and same sex unions.
The party will call for the meeting to respect new family models "like single-parent families led by women, those in which two women or two men look after children, and those where grandparents care for their grandchildren," said their leader, lawmaker Jorge Diaz Cuervo.
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(Source: AP)