EUROPE/GERMANY - Pro-Life Week: “entrusted to us from the beginning: life starts before birth”

Berlin (Fides Service) - “Entrusted to us from the beginning: life starts before birth”. This is the theme of a Pro-Life Week to be held in Germany from 29 April to 6 May. The initiative organised by the German Bishops’ Conference and the Council of the German Lutheran Church is one is a series in a programme launched in 2005 with the title “Children are a source of Blessing and Hope for Life” which will conclude in 2007. Pro-Life Week will be celebrated all over the country with various initiatives in parishes, organisations and Catholic and Lutheran joint work groups.
Families today are ever less inclined to have children: the birth rate continues to drop. Pro-Life Week 2006, like previous similar initiatives, aims to encourage people to consider every child as a gift and a blessing, necessary for the future of society and not only from the economic point of view.
The ecumenical initiative will be presented on 29 March 2006 at a press conference in Berlin by the president of the German Bishops’ Conference Cardinal Karl Lehmann and the president of the president of the Council of the German Lutheran Church Bishop Wolfgang Huber who will illustrate the central themes of the Pro-Life Week. The officially opening ceremony will take place on 29 April in Stuttgart. (MS) (Agenzia Fides 23/03/2006 - 23 righe, 282 parole)