Pope unlikely to convert Clinton on birth control

A BRIEF meeting between the Pope and President Clinton on Thursday promises to become another episode in the Pope's fiery crusade against contraception and abortion.

The Pope effectively announced this when, addressing crowds in St Peter's Square on Sunday, he abandoned his prepared address and said: 'I have to meet the powerful of the world again and I must speak . . . I must tell them: Understand] Think again]'

The burning issue for the Pope is 'the family', which primarily means his personal battle against abortion and contraception and particularly against the UN Conference on Population and Development to be held in Cairo in September. 'The United Nations wants to destroy the family,' he declared in April.

For months the Pope has campaigned in vain against the conference, or at least the intention to discuss birth control and abortion, with letters to heads of state, a televised appeal and public statements. Pressure on Mr Clinton, including a personal telephone call to use his influence, also failed. Indeed, the President recently permitted experimentation with the morning-after pill - anathema to the Vatican - and signed laws prescribing jail and stiff fines for sabotage of abortion clinics.

As he grows older and more fragile, the Pope appears an ever lonelier figure in his dedication to a crusade which elicits reservations among many clergy, which is falling on deaf ears among ever greater numbers of the faithful and which has contributed to the Church's loss of authority in once deeply Catholic countries like Poland and Italy.

The UN Population Fund estimates that world population will rise from 5.5 billion at present to 10 billion in 2050, but only if a serious world family-planning campaign is started now. If not, the number by 2050 will be 12-13 billion. The Vatican says the answer is to provide more food.

Pope's stand on women, page 15