AMERICA/ECUADOR - 1st National Pro-Life And Pro Family Congress vows to promote respect for life, better marriage preparation for young couples, support for married couples and study programmes to include respect for value of human life

Guayaquil (Fides Service) - The first pro-life and Por-Family national congress in Ecuador on the theme "The whole truth on Life and the Family concluded with the celebration of the Day of the Unborn Child on March 25. During the Congress in a paper on the Family, the Shrine of Life Cardinal Pedro Rubiano Saénz Archbishop of Bogot, stressed the need to announce "the Gospel of the family with joy and conviction”, in this third millennium when "the family is a victim of forces which wish to destroy and deform it…our struggle on the pastoral level - he said - must be to fight the culture of death”.
Archbishop Raúl Vela Chiriboga of Quit, read a paper "Life in Law and Legislation ", prepared by Cardinal Antonio González Zumárraga unable to attend for health reasons. The paper focused on three aspects: Law and Morals, International offensive to promote a culture of death, and Offensive pro culture of death in Ecuador. The Catholic Church upholds the "right to life. In the name of the truth of the human person, to defend human freedom which cannot exist without respect for life”. Pressure groups fight the culture of life as something “outdated unjust, and inhuman i…! Incredibly death is presented as a worthy thing and life as an unworthy thing! ".
About 5,000 people took part in a night March for Life in Santiago de Guayaquil to the monument of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Among those present Bishop Néstor Herrera of Machala, president of the Bishops’ Conference; Archbishop Antonio Arregui of Guayaquil; Bishop Gonzalo López Marañón of Sucumbíos, Bishop Marcos Pérez auxiliary of Guayaquil.
Congress conclusions and resolutions included: commitment to defend life from conception to natural end and the family; improve pre-marriage preparation for young couples and pastoral care for married couples and families; parents, first educators of their children should strive, through example, to teach them to love and respect human life; promote study programmes which include education to values and the truth on human life; the media have a responsibility to defend life and promote a culture of life; Catholic laity, priests and consecrated persons, each in their own field must bear courageous witness to Gospel values and promote them in society to defeat the culture of death. A final document will be drafted and distributed to dioceses across the country. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 26/3/2007; righe 40, parole 592)