Take Strong Stand Against Divorce Bill, Pope Tells Argentina
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CORDOBA, Argentina — Pope John Paul II urged Argentina’s Roman Catholics today to take a strong stand against a pending politically sensitive divorce bill, warning it will lead to general moral decline.
“The Pope has come to ask you, in the name of God, a particular task: that you take with the highest interest the reality of matrimony and the family in this time of trial,” he said in a sermon for a morning outdoor Mass before 700,000 people.
The Chamber of Deputies approved a bill legalizing divorce in Argentina last year by a vote of 177 to 35, and the outraged Catholic hierarchy responded by recommending that bishops in Argentina deny communion to deputies who voted to approve.
That stunned and outraged many Catholic lawmakers, none of whom recanted their vote.
To become law, the bill must be adopted by the Senate, where it is still pending.
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