Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, | Colombian cardinal, 72
Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, 72, a Colombian prelate who helped lead the Vatican's campaign against abortion and insisted condoms do not prevent HIV transmission, died of cardiac arrest Saturday night in Rome, one of his assistants said. In March 2007, Cardinal Lopez Trujillo traveled to Mexico to launch the Roman Catholic Church's aggressive campaign against plans in the predominantly Catholic country to legalize abortion. The cardinal inaugurated an international antiabortion conference in Mexico City by celebrating Mass in the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe, the most important Catholic shrine in the Americas. The next month, the Mexico City assembly passed a measure legalizing abortion in the capital during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Opponents appealed the law, and Mexico's Supreme Court is reviewing it. Cardinal Lopez Trujillo made headlines in 2003 for saying that condoms do not prevent HIV transmission. He contended that condoms may even help spread the virus by creating a false sense of security. Cardinal Lopez Trujillo was ordained a priest in 1960 and made a bishop in 1971 by Pope Paul VI. He later headed the Latin American bishops' conference, CELAM. He was archbishop of Medellin in 1979 when Pope John Paul II attended a CELAM conference, and in 1983 was elevated to cardinal's rank by the pontiff. - AP
Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, 72, a Colombian prelate who helped lead the Vatican's campaign against abortion and insisted condoms do not prevent HIV transmission, died of cardiac arrest Saturday night in Rome, one of his assistants said.
In March 2007, Cardinal Lopez Trujillo traveled to Mexico to launch the Roman Catholic Church's aggressive campaign against plans in the predominantly Catholic country to legalize abortion. The cardinal inaugurated an international antiabortion conference in Mexico City by celebrating Mass in the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe, the most important Catholic shrine in the Americas.
The next month, the Mexico City assembly passed a measure legalizing abortion in the capital during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Opponents appealed the law, and Mexico's Supreme Court is reviewing it.
Cardinal Lopez Trujillo made headlines in 2003 for saying that condoms do not prevent HIV transmission. He contended that condoms may even help spread the virus by creating a false sense of security.
Cardinal Lopez Trujillo was ordained a priest in 1960 and made a bishop in 1971 by Pope Paul VI. He later headed the Latin American bishops' conference, CELAM. He was archbishop of Medellin in 1979 when Pope John Paul II attended a CELAM conference, and in 1983 was elevated to cardinal's rank by the pontiff.
- AP