ROME, 15 (NE) Pope John Paul II renewed yesterday his call for scientists, educators, families, journalists and, especially, legislators, to commit themselves in defense of the right to and promotion of life. During his address to participants in the sixth plenary assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life, on the day commemorating the fifth anniversary of the publication of the Encyclical Evangelium vitae, the Pope denounced an anti-life mentality expressed in several legislations and their dramatic consequences.

    The Pontiff manifested his concern for a increasingly common "mentality of abdication", considering policies against life almost as a "social necessity", when in fact "it constitutes the seed of the corruption of society and of its foundations. Civil and moral conscience cannot accept this false inevitability, just as it cannot accept the idea of the inevitable nature of war or inter-ethnic slaughter."

    Before the great number of facts that "prove with growing clarity that anti-life policies and legislation are causing the decay of society, not only in a moral sense but also demographically and economically", the Holy Father stressed that the message of Evangelium vitae "may be presented not just as a true and authentic signpost to moral rebirth, but also as a point of reference for the salvation of civil society".

    During his address, making reference to the relationship between civil and moral law, he called for "a renewed and unanimous commitment, especially from legislators, to modify unjust laws that legitimize or tolerate this violence. May no path be left untried to eliminate legalized crime, or at least to limit the damage of such legislation." The Pope also stressed that "the modification of laws can only be preceded and accompanied by a modification in mentality and behavior."