From .......... Associated Press

November 18, 1994

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Pope John Paul II asked world leaders Friday to help finance research and education in what the Church calls natural family planning.

The method, long endorsed by the Church, is based on avoiding sex during periods of fertility.

"Indeed, it is the duty of states and international organizations which recognize the principle of freedom of conscience to facilitate access to methods which respect the ethical convictions of couples,"

he told participants at a seminar organized by the Vatican Academy of Sciences.

The pope said Roman Catholics should shun contraception which he said artifically interrupts

"a process which of itself is open to life."

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