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Sunday January 29, 2012 www.totalcatholic.com

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Archbishop voices support for Olympic initiatives

With six-months to go before the opening ceremony of the London Olympics, bishops from the three London dioceses visited the Olympic Park this week to see how 504 acres of previously toxic East End wasteland have been transformed into a place of new life and immense beauty.

“The Olympic and Paralympic Games are a moment of great opportunity for us all,” said the Archbishop of Westminster.

“These great sporting events generate all sorts of good ideas and initiatives, particularly for young people, reminding all of us of the importance of good health, the dignity of our bodies, the care of our physical well-being and its spiritual meaning.” Pic by: Mazur/www.catholic news.org.uk

■ See page two

Adverts will ‘encourage abortions’ says cardinal

By Simon Caldwell and Mary McGinty

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor has accused media regulators of “encouraging abortions” by allowing private clinics to attract business through television and radio advertisements.

The cardinal severely criticised the Advertising Standards Authority for loosening the rules to allow clinics which carry out abortions for profit to advertise their services through the broadcast media.

He said the move, introduced under pressure from the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP), would lead only to an increase in the numbers of abortions in a nation already shamed by a high rate of terminations.

“I utterly oppose anything that leads to more abortions,” said Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor, the Emeritus Archbishop of Westminster.

“We have 200,000 a year,” he said. “This seems to be encouraging more people to have abortions and I think that’s a terrible thing.”

He added that it was vitally important for Christians to do all they could to oppose the deregulation.

“Anything we can do to influence public opinion and to influence the Government, we should do it,”

he argued.

The cardinal spoke after delivering a sermon on Christian unity to approximately 700 people gathered in Chester’s Anglican cathedral (see page seven).

In his homily, he also urged Christians to persevere in defending human life from conception until natural death.

■ Continued on page two

Stars back SCIAF’s Lent campaign Page 3

Horslips hit the high notes with Ulster Orchestra Page 27

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