"How not to highlight the zeal and passion with which he worked, carrying out an indefatigable action to protect and promote the family and Christian marriage? How not to thank him for the courage with which he has defended the non-negotiable values of human life?" With these words, the Pope commemorated today card. Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, who died a few days ago, aged 72, during the funeral rites officiated by card. Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals. "We have all admired his indefatigable work", said Benedict XVI in his homily: the fruit of his work is the "Lexicon" that the Pontiff defined "a precious textbook for pastoral workers and a tool to communicate with the contemporary world on the basic issues regarding Christian ethics". "We cannot but be grateful to him for the relentless battle he fought to defend the ‘truth’ of family love and the spreading of the ‘Gospel of the family’", stated the Holy Father as he went over the main steps of the Colombian bishop’s pastoral work, lingering in particular on the years when he was president of the Vatican Ministry for the Family. "The enthusiasm and determination with which he worked he added were the fruit of his personal experience, specially related to the ordeal suffered by his mother who died at the age of 44 of a very painful disease".
