Pope Benedict: If we want peace, let’s defend life!

When popes hit the road, there’s often a notable contrast in which part of the church’s social message they stress, depending on which global neighborhood they’re in. In very broad strokes, the peace-and-justice stuff tends to loom largest in the developing world, while the pro-life message and the perils of secularism take pride of place in the West.

On his previous 23 foreign journeys, Benedict XVI largely had followed that pattern. It’s no accident that his most developed reflections on secularism have come in France, the U.K., and Germany, while some of his most fiery social rhetoric has come on outings to Brazil in 2007 and to Africa in both 2009 and 2011.

Today, however the pope broke that mold, instead offering a memorable phrase to express the idea that being pro-peace and pro-life is one organic whole: “If we want peace,” he said, “let’s defend life!”

Benedict may not exactly be a sound-bite machine, but there’s probably a bumper sticker there someplace.

Read entire article from the NCRonline