In a homily given at Fatima, Portugal, on May 13, 1991, the anniversary of the assassination attempt against the Holy Father and of the apparition of our Lady seen by four shepherd children, Pope John Paul II made an impassioned plea for every family to fight abortion by witnessing to life.

The families that do not refuse their relative obligations of procreation, within a proper sense of responsible parenthood and of confidence in divine providence, give the world a unique witness of higher values.

These challenge the anti-birth mentality current and rightly condemn this mentality which denies life in such a way that it comes to the point of sacrificing it — in many cases while it is still in the mother's womb by means of abortion, a hideous crime as the Council declares. I beg of you then, dear families, this generous service of respecting life.

Against the pessimism and selfishness which cast a shadow over the world, the Church stands for life: in each human life she sees the splendor of that ‘Yes’, that ‘Amen’ who is Christ himself. To the ‘No’ which assails and afflicts the world, she replies with this living ‘Yes’, thus defending the human person and the world from all who plot against and harm life(No. 6).