AMERICA/EL SALVADOR - Members of Congress in El Salvador unanimously sign the “Book of Life,” promising to defend life from conception to natural death.

San Salvador (Agenzia Fides) – On June 5, 2008, all of El Salvador’s Congressional representatives signed the “Book of Life” in the Legislative Assembly of the Republic of El Salvador. The “Book of Life” is an initiative that began in Honduras on March 27 this year, with the signing of 108 representatives, in honor of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Human Rights Convention. The 84 representatives of El Salvador’s Congress, in signing the Book of Life, make the commitment to defend life from conception until natural death. The organizers hope that the document will become the rubrics for all Central American countries. The next on the list are Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Costa Rica, however some are already suggesting that Panama and Mexico should be included.
The solemn act was attended by Archbishop Fernando Sáenz de Lacalle of San Salvador; Reverend Juan Manuel Martínez, Presiding Pastor of the “Alianza Evangélica de El Salvador” (The Evangelical Alliance of El Salvador); Mariella Peña Pinto, Member of El Salvador’s Congress and President of the Family Commission; José Alejandro Arévalo, Member of Guatemala’s Congress, to whom the Book of Life was presented, so as to carry out the same initiative in his country; and Marta Lorena de Casco, Congress member from Honduras, in addition to two members of the Foundation “Sí a la Vida” (Yes to Life) of El Salvador and Guatemala. Other representatives of the pro-life movement in these countries were also present. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 20/6/2008)