Uran Focuses on Family, Calls for Peace and Respect for Life

Brezje, 15 August

The archbishop and metropolitan of Ljubljana used his sermon on the Assumption of the Virgin Mary holiday to discuss the role of family, birth rate and the issue of embryonic stem cell research. He has also urged the international community and the Slovenian government to advocate the immediate end of wars.

Addressing nearly 10,000 believers from around Slovenia and neighbouring countries in a televised Mass, Alojz Uran pointed to "mutual respect, love and peace" as the most vital values for the family of today. No less important are "honesty and truthfulness that should be present in everything".
Uran, giving the Mass in front of the Mary Help of Christians basilica at Brezje, some 50 km NW of Ljubljana, also believes that as a nation which lives relatively well, we should not forget about those who are worse off, and stressed that "one billion of people live in hunger and another in war".
"Together with the pope and the bishops of Lebanon, we are again asking the international community and also our leadership as a player in the EU to do all in their power to stop the evil of war, in which so many innocent people are suffering."
This may be an indirect reaction to President Janez Drnovsek's message ahead of Assumption Day in which the president said that as a moral and religious authority the Church should do more to tell the world leaders that their action is far benefiting the world.
Uran also pointed to the recent Slovenian government decision to back a EU proposal to finance embryonic stem cell research, reminding that "according to the gospel, a human being must be genuinely accepted as a value and life respected from conception to natural death".
"The Church cannot stop spreading this truth even for the risk of becoming unpopular," he said and added that Slovenian Catholics do not intend to impose their conviction on anyone, but expect those with a different view to respect the conviction.
The archbishop also urged for more births in order for the nation to survive. He reminded that "the country has made extraordinary progress" since it gained independence 15 years ago, but if the birth rate remains at the 2004 level, the two-million nation will shrink to only around 560,000 in 2100.
"Caring for birth rate...is not a step back. On the contrary. It is a decision for the future of the Slovenian nation...," stressed Uran, who also believes that "a strong marriage between a man and a women" is the foundation of family, which beings joy into our society and nation.
Alongside Ptujska gora in the northeast and Sveta gora near the city of Nova Gorica in the west, Brezje is the country's major pilgrim's site. The basilica, with an adjoining chapel built in 1800, has been the site of mass pilgrimages since 1863.

Uran Focuses on Family, Calls for Peace and Respect for Life

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