NEWS & EVENTS

PROGRESS ON THE ROAD TO AMSTERDAM

Following the International Planning Committee Meeting (Amsterdam, January 27-29) the WCF Management Committee and the Local Organizing Committee have made significant progress on finalizing the program and deciding on speakers for World Congress of Families V (August 10-12).

The program will include the following speeches and panel discussions:

• The Value of Marriage as the Basis of Family Life

• Changing Social and Cultural Values Since the Sixties:
The Value of Traditions in Modern Times

• The Family As The Fundamental Unit of Society

• The Value of The Faith and Family Approach In Counseling

• Threats to the Family From Addiction to Drugs, Gambling and Pornography

• The Right of Privacy and The Family

• Sex and Marriage: For Love and For Life

• Strengthening Marriage In Your Community

• Families In Developing Countries

• The Impact of Modern Media on the Family

• The Importance of Intergenerational Solidarity Within Families

• Family and Demography HIV/AIDS and the Family

• Solutions for the Future Depend on Respect for Human Life and Human Rights

• The Influence of the United Nations, International and European Law on the Family

• Cloning and Stem Cell Research

• Euthanasia and Palliative Care and

• Character Education and Values: The Key to The Future of The Family.

Some Invited speakers for World Congress of Families V will include:

• Theresa Okafor (organizer, World Congress of Families Dialogue of Civilizations,
Abuja, Nigeria)

• Dr. Albert Mohler (President, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary),

• Sir Jonathan Sacks (Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom),

• Dr. Allan Carlson (International Secretary, World Congress of Families)

• Dr. Simon Polinder (Chairman, Local Organizing Committee),

• Pat Fagan (Family Research Council),

• Fr. Jaroslaw Szymczak (Institute of Family Studies, Poland),

• Don Schmierer (His Servants),

• Marie-Claire Hernandez (Family and Society, Mexico),

• Bill Saunders (Family Research Council),

• Enrique Gomez Serrano (Red Familia, Mexico),

• Miguel Moreno (Leadership Institute),

• Pastor Rick Warren (Senior Pastor, Saddleback Church),

• Dr. Janice Crouse (Senior Fellow, Beverly LaHaye Institute),

• Steve Mosher (President, Population Research Institute),

• Don Feder (Communications Director, World Congress of Families),

• Philip Longman (New America Foundation),

• Anna Zaborska (Chairwoman of the Committee for Women’s Rights, the European Parliament),

• Gwen Landolt (National Vice Chairman, REAL Women of Canada),

• Benjamin Bull (Senior Counsel, Alliance Defense Fund),

• Christine de Marcellus Vollmer (President, The Latin American Alliance for The Family) and

• Cardinal Ennio Antonelli (president, Pontifical Council for the Family).

• Maria Panayotopoulos- Cassiotou (representative, Greek Confederation of Large Families),

• Ursula von der Leyen (Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens and Youth, Federal Republic of Germany)

• Henk Jochemsen (Professor of Molecular Biology, medical ethics expert),

• Kees van der Staaij (MP, Dutch Reformed Party),

• Rev. Dr. Moise Napon (Chairman, Board of Directors of SPONG (network of NGOs in Burkina Faso), and

• Bishop Paul E. Mususu (Executive Director, Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia).

An Inter-Parliamentary/NGO Conference will be held in Riga, Latvia on the 15th or 22nd of May. The theme is – “What A State Can/Must Do To Support Healthy, Natural Families And The Consequences of Ignoring That Imperative.”

The one-day conference will include 6 speakers, followed by 3 work groups focusing on: (1) Legislation to Promote the Natural Family, (2) Spiritual Dimensions of the Family and (3) The Challenges of A Culture of Death.

It’s anticipated that the conference will produce a memorandum, which participants will be invited to sign.

The Organizing Committee consists of I.Virbule, (Assistant to the Vice Mayor of Riga), B.Buks-Vaivade (Manager of Riga government foreign affairs department), I.Feldmane (Saeima – Latvian Parliament deputy), Vjačeslavs Kostigins,( representative from Foundation for Family), I.Šlesere, (Saeima Deputy) and Marika Bertule (manager of Crisis Pregnancy Center in Riga) profiled in the November World Congress of Families News.

Click here to reach Marika Bertule, the conference coordinator

The Foundation for African Cultural Heritage (FACH) is making impressive strides toward its much-anticipated “World Congress of Families Dialogue of Civilizations,” June 4-7 – WCF’s first African conference.

Theresa Okafor, one of the organizers, expects 300 African activists, policymakers and scholars to attend the conference at the Transcorp Hilton in Abuja, Nigeria’s national capital.

The conference theme is “Plan of Action On The Family In Africa.”

Speakers (invited and confirmed) include Nigerian Senator Eme Ufot Ekaette (Chairman, Senate Committee on Women’s Affairs and Youth Development), Senator Umaru Dahiru (Chairman, Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Law), Prof. Mark Nwagwu (Cell Biologist and Professor at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria), Allan Carlson (International Secretary, WCF), Austin Ruse (Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute), Don Feder (WCF Communications Director), Dr Farooq Hassan (barrister and law professor, President, Pakistan Family Forum), Mr. Akeredolu (President, Nigerian Bar Association), Chantal Epie (Professor, Pan-African University), Congressman Chris Smith, the Most Reverend Dr. Valerian Okeke (Archbishop of Onitsha Archdiocese and Bishop Chairman of the Family and Human Life Committee of CBCN), Beverly Rice (President, United Families International), Cristina Burelli (Executive Director, Alliance for the Family, Latin America), Ray Mutura (President, Voice of Africa, Kenya), Miguel Moreno (Director of International Programs, The Leadership Institute), and Dr. Salisu Shehu (International Institute of Islamic Thought, Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria).

For the FACH website, with updated information on the conference, click here.

To reach conference coordinator Theresa Okafor, click here.

Look for more details of the Abuja conference in the April World Congress of Families News.

The Spanish Family Forum, working with the Redmadre Foundation, has started a national campaign to bring a pro-life message to 1.5 million Spaniards.

Launched at a February 16 press conference in Madrid, the campaign has adopted the slogan, “Your Baby’s Life Is Your Life: the Defense of Life, a Challenge for the 21st Century.” Speakers at the press conference included Benigno Blanco, president of the Spanish Family Forum, Carmina Garcia-Valdes, chairman of the Redmadre Foundation, Amaya Azcona, campaign spokesman, and Miriam Fernandez – an abortion survivor.

Azcona explained: “During the 43 weeks between March and December (approximately the duration of a normal pregnancy), 10,000 volunteers will give 11,180 talks and lectures throughout Spain. With 260 local representatives and an average of 5 speakers per province, we aim to be speaking to over a million and a half people.”

Miriam Fernandez (age 19) told the press conference: “They wanted to abort me because of malformations: I have cerebral paralysis because of an air bubble in the brain. Thanks to the fact that my parents had adopted me; I am a national swimming champion, I won a singing competition on TV and now I’ve started studying at the university. I think adoption is one of the most important solutions if you’re thinking of having an abortion.”

Click here for a presentation of the campaign

Click here for information on Redmadre

In her just-published book, “Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement,” feminist author Kathryn Joyce sees World Congress of Families as the vanguard of an international pro-family alliance.

Joyce, who covered World Congress of Families IV for The Nation, writes of WCF, “It is a locus for heavyweight U.S. conservative actors from the Heritage Foundation, the Family Research Council and James Dobson’s Focus on the Family – to network with representatives of the Vatican, conservative Christians from developing nations, and a smattering of Muslim groups seeking allies to fight gay and women’s rights at the United Nations. The result is the spread of U.S. culture war tactics across the globe, from the Czech Republic to Qatar… .”

Regarding the burgeoning alliance of U.S./European profamily leaders and activists, Joyce writes: “The architects of WCF have persuaded isolationist American conservatives (Joyce is 60 years behind the times) to care about the fate of secular, impious Europe… . ‘If Europe is lost to demographic winter and radical secularism, much of the world will go with it,’ Carlson warns.”

World Congress of Families International Secretary Allan C. Carlson responded: “Joyce gives us too much credit. We’ve never aspired to be the leader of the multi-national alliance she describes. Still, this recognition of our work by a dedicated foe is appreciated.”

WCF Communications Director Don Feder was invited by the College Republicans to speak on hate crime laws at a forum at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst on March 11.

Due to frequent outbursts, sign-waving and heckling by several hundred protestors -- including a coalition of feminists, socialists and homosexuals -- Feder was unable to finish his speech.

Feder had intended to speak on hate crime laws as an attack on both free speech and religious freedom, among other examples, citing the case of Swedish Pastor Ake Green, who was sentenced to a month in jail for a sermon on homosexuality in which he cited Scriptures. The ruling was later overturned by the nation’s high court, when Green’s lawyers threatened to take the case to the European Court for Human Rights.

Feder also intended to mention the Philadelphia 11, a group of Christians who were arrested and prosecuted for protesting quietly and peacefully at a 2005 homosexual celebration (“Outfest”). If convicted of all charges, each defendant could have faced sentences of up to 47 years in prison, and $90,000 in fines. At trial, after viewing a videotape of the incident, a judge dismissed all charges.

Protestors, who wouldn’t allow Feder’s lecture to continue, called his talk “hate speech.” A number of students from various political perspectives expressed dismay at Feder’s treatment. Later in the evening, Feder gave an impromptu speech and took questions at a private gathering of about 50.

Click here for Feder’s speech

TABLE of CONTENTS

PROGRESS ON THE ROAD TO AMSTERDAM

NGO AND PARLIAMENTARY MEETING
 IN RIGA, LATVIA IN MAY

WCF DIALOGUE OF CIVILIZATIONS,
NIGERIA – JUNE 4-7

SPANISH GROUP LAUNCHES NATIONAL CAMPAIGN TO REACH 1.5 MILLION WITH
PRO-LIFE MESSAGE

FEMINIST BOOK SEES WCF AS LEADER OF INTERNATIONAL PRO-FAMILY MOVEMENT

WCF COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR’S SPEECH DISRUPTED BY DEMONSTRATORS

SECOND INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM
ON EUTHANASIA AND ASSISTED SUICIDE, May 29-3030

Family News from Around the Globe

WCF: Profiles in Leadership

  Join Us In AMSTERDAM:
 10-12 AUGUST 2009

 Thank you to all WCF Co-Sponsors
for your continuing support.

CALENDAR

April 25 – Larry Jacobs will address the Illinois Lutherans for Life conference, on Demographic Winter.

May 29-30 – Second International Symposium on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide in Washington, D.C.

June 4-7 – World Congress of Families Dialogue of Civilizations in Abuja, Nigeria

August 10-12 – World Congress of Families V in Amsterdam, the Netherlands

November 6-7 – Pro-Life World Congress, Saragossa, Spain www.saragoza2009.org

May 24-26, 2010 – Global Summit on the Family, in Moscow (tentative)

Parliamentarians of Australia’s Green Party are threatening to force a vote on requiring foreign aid to fund abortion. Like the United States under the Mexico City Policy (repealed by President Obama), Australia currently bans the use of international aid to fund abortion. The policy (in place for the past 13 years) was strongly supported by the conservative government of former Prime Minister John Howard. Pro-abortion MPs are pressing his successor, Kevin Rudd, to repeal the ban. Ron Boswell, a member of the Australian Senate for the National Party, warns of a backlash if Rudd caves to the Greens’ demands. Noting that no nation has come to Australia to request abortion funding, Boswell said Rudd solicited church support in the past campaign. “If he does this to them then they’ll turn on him,” Boswell predicted.

A research group affiliated with the nation’s ruling socialist government has discovered rampant “homophobia” in Brazil. To the statement “God made men and women with different sexes so that they could fulfill their role and have children,” 92% agreed. Moreover, 58% said “homosexuality is a sin against God,” 41% think “homosexuality is an illness that should be treated,” and 64% objected to homosexuals kissing and hugging in public. Extrapolating, the survey concluded that 99% of Brazilians are “homophobic.”According to the newspaper O Globo, the survey will be used to support a law which would make it illegal to criticize homosexuality. The Lula government (the most radically pro-gay in Latin America) will launch a National Plan for the Promotion of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Citizens in May. “What is surprising is how a population that is 99% against homosexuality can tolerate accepting passively that its 100% pro-homosexuality government is lifting homosexual acts to the level of inviolable sacredness,” says Brazilian pro-family activist Julio Severo on his blogspot, “Last Days Watchman.”

Click here for Severo’s blogspot

A Year Apopulation conference in Shanghai reported the following statistics: There are 13 million abortions a year in China. Roughly 25% of women in their 20 s have had an abortion. A survey of 10 Beijing hospitals showed 36% of women were having a second abortion shortly after their first. A recent survey by China’s Family Planning Commission showed 70% of Chinese women want to be allowed to have two or more children. (Beijing has steadily maintained that the nation’s one-child-per family policy – backed by draconian penalties, forced abortion and involuntary sterilization – enjoys widespread public support.) That policy – coupled with the traditional desire for male children – has lead to a significant imbalance in the male/female ratio, which in turn has led to a nation of bachelors (where men in their 20s have difficulty finding wives), as well as increased sex-trafficking and prostitution.

Click here for a report on LifeNews.com.

On February 26, Washington State’s assisted-suicide law went into effect. Last year, it became the 2nd state to legalize assisted suicide, after Oregon. Opponents are working hard to persuade doctors and medical centers not to be involved in the deaths of patients. The law has an opt-out provision based on conscience. In neighboring Oregon State, a new report shows the number of people who have killed themselves by assisted suicide increased 30% in the last two years. Prescriptions for lethal medications increased from 65 in 2006 to 88 in 2008. Pro-life advocates say only two individuals received proper psychological evaluations before getting lethal drugs. If the state’s Supreme Court upholds a lower-court decision, Montana could join the ranks of assisted suicide states. Since 1997, assisted suicide has been defeated in California, Michigan, Vermont and Hawaii. Euthanasia Prevention International is holding the Second International Symposium on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide in Landsdowne, Virginia, May 29-30.

Click here for more details.

Send us news of pro-family developments in your country and around the world. We’re particularly interested in the activities of pro-life and pro-family groups outside the U.S.

To reach the editor of the World Congress of Families News email dfeder@rcn.com.

This continues our regular feature celebrating the women and men who have contributed to the growing success of the international pro-family movement.

REV. FRANK PAVONE

Father Pavone is one of the most prominent pro-life leaders in the world. Originally from Port Chester, New York, he received a Bachelor of Divinity Degree from St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers. He also has an honorary degree from the Franciscan University of Steubenville (Ohio). Fr. Pavone was ordained in 1988 by Cardinal John O’Connor and specialized in Biblical Studies. In 1993 Fr. Pavone became National Director of Priests for Life. He is also the President of the National Prolife Religious Council, a coalition of groups from many different denominations working to end abortion. In these capacities, he travels throughout the country, to an average of four states every week, speaking to and working with groups from all denominations. Fr. Pavone conducts seminars on pro-life strategy and is regularly invited to speak at national and international pro-life gatherings and appears daily in Christian and secular media. Fr. Pavone produces regular broadcasts for media outlets such as Salem Communications, Bott Radio Network, Sky Angel TV, EWTN, and other media. He is heard on Dr. James Dobson's broadcasts, and serves on the Focus on the Family Institute. Fr. Pavone was asked by Mother Teresa to address the clergy of India on the life issues. He has also addressed the pro-life caucus of the United States House of Representatives. In 1997, Fr. Pavone was asked by the Vatican to help co-ordinate pro-life activities throughout the world as an official of the Pontifical Council for the Family. He has been a spiritual guide for Norma McCorvey, the former “Jane Roe” of the Supreme Court’s abortion decision Roe vs. Wade, and helped her become a full-time pro-life activist. Father Pavone’s latest book is “Ending Abortion; Not just Fighting It,” a series of stirring and informative pro-life essays. Click here to order “Ending Abortion; Not Just Fighting It.” Click here for the website of Priests for Life.

Beverly Beckstead Rice is the President of United Families International, a nondenominational pro-family organization which has defended the family, traditional marriage, parental rights and religious liberty for over 30 years.

As an NGO with consultative status at the United Nations, UFI works with countries around the world to strengthen family rights.

Prior to serving as UFI president, Rice was the organization’s California State Director. As such, she was a leader of the coalition that secured the passage of Proposition 8, the defense-of-marriage amendment.

Rice was responsible for coordinating the coalition’s speakers’ bureau – more than 300 speakers who did interviews and participated in debates. She personally traveled the length and breadth of California speaking on behalf of the marriage amendment to groups as large as 1,000 and as small as 10.

Beverly represented UFI at U.N. Conferences on HIV-AIDS and the Status of Women (both in 2008). She recently participated in the 2009 U.N. Conference on the Status of Women.

On December 10, 2008 (the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights), Beverly was one of a number of profamily leaders from around the world who presented a petition -- signed by more than 437,000 individuals from 168 countries – calling on the United Nations to return to the original understanding of the Declaration as protecting a right to life and the natural family. The petition was presented at the U.N. headquarters in New York.

Rice has worked in a variety of industries including banking, aerospace, healthcare, computer technology, telecommunications, administration, automotive, universities and local governments.

Rice has been a faculty member at the University of Southern California, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, Orange Coast College, Coastline Community College and Utah State University.

Rice graduated cum laude with a Bachelors degree in Public Relations and Spanish from Utah State University, and a Masters degree in Organizational Communication and Behavior from the University of Southern California, where she attended on a full fellowship.

Beverly Rice has been married for 26 years and is the mother of two children, ages 20 and 23.

Click here for the website of United Families International

Click here for the UFI Blog