Saturday, May 18, 2013

Francis backs Europe-wide bid to limit access to abortion

https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/934052_450183945075054_130705439_n.jpgPope Francis has strongly backed a new pro-life movement in Italy which is trying to place legal restrictions on access to abortion across Europe.

The Pope praised some 40,000 participants from the third annual March for Life who gathered on Sunday outside St Peter's Square where he had just concluded the first canonisation ceremony of his pontificate.

Francis noted that signatures were being collected in many Italian parishes to support a petition called "One of Us", which has been organised by the European Citizen's Initiative, and aims to guarantee juridical protection of the embryo from conception.

Signatories are calling on the European Commission to stop financing abortion, research or any other activities that lead to the destruction of human embryos.

At the Mass, Francis declared two women religious from Mexico and Colombia as saints, along with 800 Martyrs of Otranto (Italy) who were killed in the fifteenth century by invading Turks for refusing to convert to Islam.