“Every human life, as such, deserves and demands to be defended and promoted at all times”. This was said yesterday morning by Benedict XVI before the Marian prayer of Angelus, as he commented the Day of Life, “a precious opportunity he said for praying and reflecting on the defence and promotion of human life, especially when it is in distress”. In greeting the volunteers of the Pro-Life Movement, who were in Saint Peter’s Square, headed by card. Camillo Ruini, the Pope made an appeal for every humen life to be defended: "We know very well he added that this truth risks being often contradicted by the widespread hedonism of the so-called affluent societies: life is extolled as long as it is pleasant, but one tends not to respect it any more when it is sick or maimed. One must be spurred instead by a deep love for everyone if one wants to be able to accomplish effective forms of service to life: from newborn lives to lives affected by marginality or suffering, especially at their final stages”.
