In an ad limina address to German bishops last month, Pope John Paul II spoke out against the participation of the German Church in abortion counseling programs that result in the issuing of certificates that can be used to obtain an abortion. In his Nov. 18 address, the Holy Father alluded to the Nazi regime that came to power in Germany and, later, in his own native Poland as being a primary reason for his strong pro-life posture. (See ProLife ProFile, this page).
“Perhaps Providence has entrusted the Chair of Peter to me to be a passionate ‘advocate of life’ on the threshold of the third millennium. In fact, I had to experience from an early age, during a particularly dark chapter in the history of this tormented century, how human life was trampled upon and systematically destroyed not very far from my native town of Wadowice!”