MANILA, Philippines, JAN. 24, 2003 (Zenit.org).- The theological congress that opened the World Meeting of Families ended with a special delivery: A Philippine attending the meeting gave birth to her 10th child.
The news was announced at the closing of the congress by Cardinal Alfonso López Trujillo, the Pope’s special legate to the families meeting.
The international event continues Saturday and Sunday with massive closing celebrations. On Saturday, John Paul II will address those present via television.
In a homily to close the theological congress, Cardinal López Trujillo referred to a «fundamental battle between light and darkness.»
«At times it seems that shadows prevail,» said the president of the Pontifical Council for the Family. «Families and life are openly or furtively attacked; violence threatens peace and, above all, there is a tendency to impose ethical codes against the will of God and the good of man.»
«Many iniquitous laws have passed by the will of some majorities in Parliaments, who speak of ‘political truth,’ advocating ethical relativism that the Holy Father strongly condemns,» the cardinal continued.
However, «the Church is committed in a beautiful historical battle, using the weapons of the Gospel,» because otherwise «the law of the strong would prevail over the weak,» the cardinal explained.
«These poor, as a new category, are the children eliminated in the womb of their mothers; the disabled with terminal illnesses; the elderly and the sick of a civilization without a soul, who are considered as unbearable burdens,» he continued.
The cardinal exhorted his 5,000 listeners to «welcome the children, the new lives with love and responsibility» and to perceive «in the face of every man and woman the radiance of the face of God.»
