The World Congress of Families mourns the passing of a heroic champion of the natural family, Cardinal Alfonso López Trujillo.

Contact: Larry Jacobs, World Congress of Families,815-964-5819, 513-515-3685 cell, media@worldcongress.org

MEDIA ADVISORY, April 21 /Christian Newswire/ -- WCF International Secretary Allan C. Carlson described, López Trujillo (who headed the Pontifical Council for the Family) as, "A great friend of World Congress of Families, and someone who inspired and deeply understood our guiding concept of the natural family."

The Cardinal spoke to pro-family leaders of many different religions at all four Congresses to date: Prague (1997), Geneva (1999), Mexico City (2004) and Warsaw (2007) − although his Warsaw remarks were delivered by an aide, Father Grzegorz Kaszak, due to the Cardinal accompanying the Pope on a Latin American trip.

At Cardinal López Trujillo’s behest, Carlson was invited to attend two conferences at the Vatican: on fatherhood (1995) and the economics of the family (1999). On each occasion, Carlson was privileged to meet Pope John Paul II.

The Cardinal was a strong and eloquent voice against abortion, same-sex marriage and embryonic stem-cell-research. Last year, he led the fight against legalized abortion and euthanasia in the Mexican Federal District encompassing Mexico City. Sadly, the measures were eventually passed by the City's legislative assembly, though the law is now under judicial review.

Other leaders of the World Congress of Families had additional praise for the Cardinal and his tireless defense of the "natural family."

Christine Vollmer, a member of the World Congress of Families Managing Committee and President, Latin American Alliance For the Family, shared these heartfelt thoughts about Cardinal Alfonso López Trujillo, "The Cardinal had incredible gifts of a powerful intelligence, discernment and a grasp of strategy that explain why the cause of the family advanced on many fronts.  He valiantly tackled the thorniest and most embattled subjects, such as sex education, the economy and population, as well as the question of handicapped children in the family, pushing to the fore, world experts, regardless of their religion.  Perhaps for me the most notable example was his hosting of economists in a high level meeting where Nobel Prize winner Gary Becker thanked the Church for her sound Social Doctrine, and her protection of the family, the well-spring of Human Capital.  Alliance for the Family and ALAFA are immensely grateful for the Cardinal's enthusiastic endorsement of our program, Alive to the World (a universal method of teaching values, character and a healthy approach to sexuality), and consider it key to its eventual success."

Austin Ruse, WCF Planning Committee Member and President of the Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute (C-FAM), expressed his sadness, "There is no greater champion of the unborn and the natural family than the Catholic Church.  And they had no greater champion in the Vatican than López Trujillo.  He was taken from us too soon and he will be sorely missed."

Bill Saunders, a member of the World Congress of Families Managing Committee and Senior Fellow at the Family Research Council , said that with the Cardinal's passing: "The international pro-family movement has lost a great leader.  Cardinal López Trujillo was a leader not of Catholics only, but of all people of good will who recognized the importance of the natural family.  He was a tireless worker, and a dedicated defender of the family.  He will be sorely missed."

For more information on World Congress of Families, go to www.worldcongress.org, or contact WCF Global Coordinator Larry Jacobs at 1-800-461-3113.

The World Congress of Families (WCF) is an international network of pro-family organizations, scholars, leaders and people of goodwill from more than 60  countries that seeks to restore the natural family as the fundamental social unit and the ‘seedbed’ of civil society.  The WCF was founded in 1997 by Allan Carlson and is a project of The Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society in Rockford, Illinois (www.profam.org).  To date, there have been four World Congresses of Families – Prague (1997), Geneva (1999), Mexico City (2004) and Warsaw, Poland (2007).