Pope makes strong, silent anti-abortion statement

Pope Francis has generally avoided hot-button "culture war" issues like abortion, arguing that the church's doctrine on the sanctity of life is well-known and that he'd rather emphasize other aspects of church teaching.

But he made a strong, albeit silent anti-abortion statement today during his visit to South Korea, stopping to pray at a monument for aborted babies in a community dedicated to caring for people with the sort of severe genetic disabilities that are often used to justify abortions.

Francis bowed his head in prayer before the monument, a garden strewn with simple white wooden crosses, and spoke with an anti-abortion activist with no arms and no legs.

He also spent an hour blessing and caressing dozens of disabled Koreans who live in the Kkottongnae community.