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Pope arrives in Sao Paulo at beginning of visit to Brazil

Pope Benedict XVI stressed the traditional family and spoke out against abortion as he arrived in Brazil on Wednesday for his first visit to Latin America, home to nearly half of the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics.

Soon after stepping off the papal plane in Sao Paulo, the conservative pontiff stated that the Church "will not fail to insist on the need to take action to ensure that the family, the basic cell of society, is strengthened."

And the 80-year-old pontiff referred again to the need to promote "respect for life from the moment of conception until natural death as an integral requirement of human nature."

The remarks come just two weeks after the Church lost a key social battle when Mexico City, an important Catholic bastion, decriminalized abortion.

During a news conference on the papal plane en route to Brazil, Benedict backed a threat by Mexican bishops to ex-communicate lawmakers who voted for the bill.

nothing arbitrary

"It is written in the [canon] law that murdering a child is incompatible with communion, and the bishops have done nothing arbitrary. They have only put the spotlight on what is allowed by Church law," he said.

Mexico City is one of the few places in Latin America where abortion is allowed without restrictions in the first three months of pregnancy.

The pope rode for about 5km in the Popemobile as crowds thronged his route, despite a steady drizzle, to the 17th-century Sao Bento monastery in the oldest part of Sao Paulo where he is residing.

Speaking to pilgrims from a balcony in the complex, Benedict said: "In every corner of the world people are praying for the fruits of this journey."

The main purpose of the visit will be to open a conference of Latin American bishops in the nearby sanctuary town of Aparecida on Sunday which is expected to focus on ways to counter a surge of evangelical sects in the region.

falling

In Brazil, 64 percent of the population is Catholic, but the figure has fallen from 74 percent a decade ago, according to a recent study.

Meanwhile the number of Pentecostal evangelicals has risen to 17 percent from 11 percent, said the Datafolha institute study based on 44,642 interviews.

"We should be more missionary, or more dynamic, to offer responses to the thirst for God," said Benedict during the on-board news conference.

"People want to be close to God ... and at the same time they accept those who promise solutions to their problems of daily lives," he said.

Also on Wednesday, gay and lesbian groups opposed to the pope's pro-family stance wrote an open letter calling for real guarantees of a secular state in Brazil, criticizing the Vatican for wielding pressure against the passage of laws favoring homosexuals.

"We denounce the public pressure that religious groups, beginning with the Vatican, place against the approval of laws that benefit gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transvestites and transsexuals around the world," the letter said.
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