Pope Blasts U.N. for Support of Abortion, Contraception

Pope John Paul delivered another critical blast Thursday against a U.N. conference that he fears will promote unrestricted abortion and contraception.

The 73-year-old Pope, addressing a session of the monthlong synod of African bishops at the Vatican, thanked them for pledging to back his fight against the United Nations over a population and development conference to be held in Cairo in September.

He said the United Nations, which has declared 1994 the Year of the Family, was destroying the family rather than promoting it.

“You cannot destroy the family in the name of family,” he said.

The pontiff called for a “Maginot Line” against the conference, referring to the fortified defensive line that France touted as unbreakable but which German armies outflanked in 1940.

“But it must be more effective than the original one,” he said.

The U.N. conference is drawing up a 20-year plan to stabilize world population at 7.27 billion by the year 2050. Programs include the right to abortion, contraception, and primary health care for women and infants.

The Pope rarely attacks international organizations but has pulled out all the stops in an attempt to influence the conference.

Sunday, he fulminated against some aspects of the draft of U.N. final document.