POPE APPLAUDS CHILEAN ABOLITION OF DEATH PENALTY

VATICAN, Jun 18, 01 (CWNews.com) -- When he met on June 18 with a new
ambassador from Chile to the Holy See, Pope John Paul II expressed
delight
at the news that Chile has abolished the death penalty.

The Pontiff told Maximo Pacheco Gomez that the decision to drop the
death
penalty should inspire Chile to other efforts that might cut against
the grain
of modern ideology, such as the defense of family life and "a zealous
and
unyielding respect for the life of every human being, from conception
to
natural death."

In his reply to the Pope, the new ambassador issued an invitation for
the
Pontiff to visit Chile once again. (John Paul traveled to Chile in
1987.) The
envoy said that he had been specifically directed by Chilean President
Ricardo Lagos Escobar to make that formal invitation.