On June 25, 1988, the Holy Father flew to the Hörschling Airport at Enns-Lorch at the Dioceses of Linz and Sankt Pölten in Austria. He preached the following homily about the value of children's lives.
In light of this Christian courage for the future, I cry out to you: Take joy in your children, accept the gift of new life, refuse to destroy life. Treat it with love and respect from its very first moment. Children are not simply commodities to be considered financially and eventually discarded.
Have a heart for young people as well. They put to us new, seemingly weighty questions, and they are often impetuous and impatient. They also need preparation and hope for the future; they themselves are truly our hope and future.
What else does the Bread of Life strengthen us for? With its power we can resist evil.
Sometimes it seems that the hour of darkness is upon us; wars, oppression, injustice and catastrophes dominate the daily news. Personal pain, often borne and suffered in loneliness, oppresses individuals no less. None of this is meaningless; in all of this lies God's challenge to seek the power of salvation and liberation, first of all for one's self, then also in solidarity and unity (Nos. 5-6).