NEWS & EVENTS

The program for World Congress of Families V (Amsterdam, August 10-12) will be posted on the WCF website shortly.

In the meantime, here’s a partial list of confirmed speakers, along with the title of their speeches:

Katarzyna Mazela (Vice President, Forum of Polish Women), Theresa Okafor (Life League, Nigeria) “Report on ‘World Congress of Families Dialogue of Civilizations’ in Abuja.” Einars and Inesse Slesere, (Latvian Parliament) “Report on WCF Latvia Inter-Parliamentary/NGO Meeting,” Dr. Allan Carlson (International Secretary, WCF) “Why We Are Here: The International Perspective,” Dr. Simon Polinder (head of Dutch LOC) “Why We Are Here: Dutch Perspective,” Cardinal Ennio Antonelli (President of the Pontifical Council on the Family) “The Work of Pro-Family Associations in View of the Cultural and Sociological Challenges of Our Day,” Dr. Michael Farris (founder, The Home School Legal Defense Fund) “The Right of Parents In Home Schooling,” Fr. Jaroslaw Szymczak (Institute for Studies of the Family, Warsaw) “The Values of The Faith and Family Approach In Counseling,” Marie Claire Hernandez (President, Family And Society, Mexico) “Addiction to Internet Pornography,” Bill Saunders (Management Committee, World Congress of Families)

”The Rights of The Family,” Enrique Gomez Serrano (Board of Directors, Red Familia, Mexico) “Sex and Marriage: For Love and For Life,” Julie Baumgardner (Executive Director, First Things First) “Strengthening Marriages in Your Community,” Dr. Ted Baehr (Chairman, Christian Film & Television Commission) “The Impact of Hollywood on Family Values,” Brent Bozell (Chairman, Media Research Center) “The Contribution of Modern Media to Social and Economic Development,” Father Maxim Obukhov (President, Life Orthodox Association, Russia), Dr. Richard Land (president, The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention) “The Role of Faith and Churches in Keeping Families Together,” Dr. Margaret Ogola, MD (National Executive Secretary, Kenya Episcopal Conference, Catholic Health Commission) “The Role of Health Professionals In Keeping Families Together,” Janice Crouse (Senior Fellow, Beverly La Haye Institute) “Human Trafficking in Women and Children,” Steve Mosher (President, Population Research Institute) “The Consequences of Cultural Preferences for Male Babies,” Don Feder (Communications Director, WCF) “The Social and Economic Effects of Declining Birth Rates,” Kevin Andrews (MP, Australia) “Family Policies that Work,” Dr. Byron Calhoun, M.D. (National Medical Advisor, National Institute of Life Advocates) “How Biotechnology and Ethics Affects the Family,” Dorothy Patterson (First Lady, Southwest Baptist Theological Seminary) “Who Wants To Be A Mother In This Time?” Benjamin Bull (Chief Legal Counsel, Alliance Defense Fund) “The Importance of Religious Liberty and Freedom of Speech to the Family,” Gwen Landolt (National Vice President, REAL Women of Canada) “The Importance of Inter-Religious Cooperation To Family Policy Development: UN, National and Local Levels,” Pat Fagan (Research Fellow, Family Research Council) “How Can People With Mutually Exclusive Ways to Family Life Live Together in Free Societies,” and Christine Vollmer (President, Latin American Alliance for the Family)“Character Education and Values: The Key to the Future of the Family.”

The foregoing are only some of the confirmed speakers. Space did not permit a full listing, including panel chairs. Others will be mentioned in the May World Congress of Families News.

Some invited speakers include Margarita Zavala de Calderon (First Lady of Mexico), Professor Dr. Jan Peter Baklenende (Prime Minister of the Netherlands), Mr. Andre Rouvoet (Dutch Minister of Youth and Family), Sir Jonathan Sacks (Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom) and Dr. Wanda Franz (President, National Right to Life Committee).

Click here to download the World Congress of Families V flyer.
(Please circulate as widely as possible.)

Click here to register.

An Inter- Parliamentary Meeting for pro-family parliamentarians and NGOs will be held in Riga, Latvia, May 15. The conference will consist of three working groups – “Legislation to Promote The Natural Family,” “Spiritual Dimensions of The Family,” and “The Challenges of a Culture of Death.”

Confirmed speakers include: Larry Jacobs (World Congress of Families Managing Director), Catherine Vierling (General Secretary, European Forum for Human Rights and The Family), and Inese Slesere and Ainars Bastiks (both members of the Latvian Parliament). The Meeting is co-sponsored by the Riga City Council and will be held in Riga City Hall, in the historic Old City of Latvia’s capital.

The Meeting is by invitation only, but profamily parliamentarians and NGOs are welcome.

For more information, contact Gunta Irbe at mgirbe@apollo.lv.

The venue of “World Congress of Families Dialogue of Civilizations” (Abuja, Nigeria, June 4-7) has been changed to The National Centre for Women’s Development in Abuja.

A partial list of confirmed speakers at this historic conference – our first in Africa – include:

Dr. Farooq Hassan (distinguished lawyer and head of the Pakistan Family Forum and a member of the Planning Committee for World Congress of Families V) “Civilizational Dialogue and the Future of the Family in The Current Millennium,” Don Feder (World Congress of Families Communications Director) “Demographic Winter: The Worldwide Decline of Birth Rates and What It Means for Humanity’s Future,” Larry Jacobs (World Congress of Families Managing Director) ”The World Congress of Families and WCF V,” Senator Eme Ufot Ekaette (Chairman, Committee on Women’s Affairs and Youth Development, Nigerian Senate),“Reproductive and Sexual Rights and the African Women,” Senator Osita Izunaso (Chairman, Committee on Oil and Gas, Nigerian Senate), Professor Danny McCain (University of Jos, Department of Religious Studies)“Preserving Family Values Through Religious Education In Public Schools,” Dr. Ideh Obi and Theresa Okafor (Directors, Doctors’ Health Initiative and Life League Nigeria) “A Critique of the African Union’s Plan of Action on the Family: Rights to Social Services,” and Most Reverend Dr. Valerian Okeke (Archbishop of Onitsha Archdiocese) “The Family As A Microcosm of Society.”

Click here for more information on the “Dialogue of Civilizations,” available at the Foundation for African Cultural Heritage website – www.fach-ng.org, where you can also register online.

Campaign Life Coalition is sponsoring The 12th Annual National March for Life in Ottawa, Canada’s federal capital, May 13-15.

This year’s March will observe the 40th. anniversary of the legalization of abortion in Canada. More than 8,000 attended last year’s March, almost half of them youth.

The goals of the March are: To witness to policymakers in Ottawa, Canada’s national capital, To educate those attending the March with some of the best prolife speakers, To reach the mainstream media (which maintains that Canadians don’t care about abortion), and To allow pro-life activists from all over Canada to connect with others who share their commitment to the unborn.

The March will include a Mass and candlelight Vigil (May 13). On May 14th, there will be a Mass and prayer service, a gathering on Parliament Hill, a march through downtown Ottawa, testimonies from abortion survivors (Silent No More) and a Rose Dinner.

There will be a youth conference on May 15, for those 16 to 29 years of age.

Click here to download the National March for Life flyer.

For more information, contact Wanda Hartlin at 613-729-0379 or
wandaclcottawa@bellnet.ca

Dr. John Howard, founder of The Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society (parent organization of World Congress of Families) addressed the Philadelphia Society in New Orleans on March 28. His speech was titled “Culture Makes or Breaks an Ordered, Free Society.”

In the course of his speech, Dr. Howard remarked, “No dictatorship or godless form of government can tolerate any authority superior to its own, so religion and family are authorities that must be eradicated or, at least, discredited and smothered.”

Founded in 1964, The Philadelphia Society is a membership organization of educators, journalists, and business and professional leaders dedicated to deepening the intellectual foundations of a free and ordered society.

John Howard is the author of “Christianity: Lifeblood of America’s Free Society.”

Click here to order his book.

Click here for the full text of Dr. Howard’s speech.

TABLE of CONTENTS

World Congress of Families V
 – Program Takes Shape

Inter-Parliamentary / NGO Meeting
– Riga, Latvia

WCF Dialogue of Civilizations,
Abuja, Nigeria (June 4-7)

Canadian National March for Life
– May 13-15 in Ottawa

Dr. John Howard Addresses
Philadelphia Society

Part II of “Demographic Winter”
Scheduled for Release in June

Bill Saunders To Speak At
Anti- Euthanasia Symposium

Family News from Around the Globe

WCF: Profiles in Leadership

WCF Welcomes
Three New Co-Sponsors to Its Growing List
 of Allied Organizations

  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.

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

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

According to Nsaba Buturo, minister of state for ethics and integrity, Uganda will continue to resist pressure from the United Nations and foreign governments to legalize homosexuality. “Uganda will not be forced to legalize practices that are illegal, unnatural and abnormal,” Buturo told journalists recently. In a message to Uganda’s representative to the United Nations, the minister stated: “They (the UN and foreign governments) have no right to call us names, to call us extremists.” Buturo said his government would communicate with nations that share its perspective on homosexual relations. Uganda is considering a comprehensive law which would make it a criminal offense to promote homosexuality, especially among youth. Uganda’s stand against homosexuality has been condemned by international groups seeking to advance the homosexual agenda.

Click here to read a WCF Press release responding to a U.N. statement calling for the legalization of homosexual relationships

By a 95-18 vote, the Belgium parliament condemned the remarks of Pope Benedict XVI on condoms and the spread of AIDS. During a recent trip to Africa, a continent ravaged by the epidemic, the Pope said condoms were ineffective and actually exacerbated the problem. The resolution demanded that the Belgian government “react strongly against any state or organization that in the future brings into doubt the benefit of using condoms to prevent the transmission of the AIDS virus” – thus raising condom advocacy from medical issue to political dogma. Dr. Edward C. Green, a senior researcher at the Harvard School of Public Health, says “current empirical evidence” supports the Pope. Based on his evaluation of said evidence since 2003, Green observes that “condoms have not worked as an intervention in the population-wide epidemics of Africa.”

Click here to sign a petition supporting the Pope.

On March 17, more than 1,000 Spanish professionals signed “The Madrid Declaration, in favor of human life.” Signers included lawyers, professors, psychiatrists, pediatricians and gynecologists. The Declaration states that human life begins at conception, when the “unique genetic identity” of the individual is established. Monica Lopez, a doctor of biomedicine and consultant to the United Nations on bioethics, observed, “The single-cell embryo, or zygote, is a human life and an individual of the human race.” Dr. Lopez argued that humanity is not conferred by virtue of the number of cells an individual has or “the number of kilos he weighs.” A subcommittee of the Spanish Congress has proposed lowering the age at which a woman will be allowed to have an abortion without parental consent. The Declaration demands that women be provided with information which will allow them to make an informed choice, including information on post-abortion syndrome.

For more information, contact Foro Espanol de la Familia, by clicking here.

Nina Fedoroff, a science advisor to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, told the BBC “One Planet Program” that – despite the worldwide decline in birth rates – there are too many of us on the planet. “We need to continue to decrease the growth rate of global population; the planet can’t support many more people. There are probably already too many people on the planet,” Fedoroff told an interviewer. (According to the UN Population Division, with current resources the earth could probably support a population of 30 billion, roughly 5 times the current population.) The documentary “Demographic Winter: the decline of the human family” discusses the worldwide decline of birthrates, more than 50% in the past 30 years. Presently, nations with 50% of the world’s population have below replacement birth rates. By 2030, the worldwide average will be below replacement.

Click here to order the DVD, “Demographic Winter: the decline of the human family” or to watch a 4-minute trailer for the documentary.

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.

Dr. Charmaine Yoest is President & CEO of Americans United for Life (a World Congress of Families Partner), the first national prolife organization in the nation, whose legal strategists have been involved in every pro-life case before the United States Supreme Court since Roe v. Wade.

Dr. Yoest began her career in The White House during the Reagan Administration and recently served as a Senior Advisor to the 2008 Huckabee for President Campaign. She is also the co-author of “Mother in the Middle,” an examination of childcare policy, published by HarperCollins.

A regular political commentator, Dr. Yoest has appeared on all of the major networks and cable stations. Dr. Yoest is quoted regularly in the print media, and has been published widely.

Dr. Yoest has also testified before committees of both the United States House of Representatives and Senate.

Previously, Dr. Yoest served as Director of the Family, Gender and Tenure Project at the University of Virginia, a nationwide study funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. She was also a recipient of Mellon, Olin, Bradley and Kohler Fellowships, the last from the Howard Center. She also served as a Vice President at the Family Research Council, one of the largest pro-family public policy organizations in the country, and a World Congress of Families Partner.

Dr. Yoest has a Ph.D. in Politics from the University of Virginia. She and her husband, Jack, live with their five children in the Washington, DC area.

Click here for the Americans United For Life website

World Congress of Families is delighted to welcome three new Co-Sponsors. Along with our Partners, these organizations will play an integral role in World Congress of Families V (Amsterdam, August 10-12)

National Right to Life (www.nrlc.org) is the largest single-issue, grassroots pro-life organization in the United States. Founded in 1973, NRLC, is a federation comprised of 50 state affiliates and 3,000 local chapters nationwide. The work of National Right to Life is divided among three main entities: the National Right to Life Committee, which focuses on passing life-affirming legislation at the federal and state levels that protects unborn children and helps their mothers; the National Right to Life Educational Trust Fund conducts extensive research of the abortion industry and the impact of abortion on the nation, and produces fact-sheets and full-color brochures designed to help pro-lifers educate their communities about abortion and the humanity of the unborn child; and the National Right to Life Political Action Committee (www.nrlpac.org), the nation’s largest pro-life political action committee which works to elect pro-life men and women to Congress and the Presidency.

Of particular note among National Right to Life’s activities, is “the pro-life newspaper of record,” the National Right to Life News (www.nrlc.org/news) – published monthly -- which provides subscribers with the latest news and information affecting the pro-life movement in the United States and abroad. Since 1985 it has produced a five-minute daily radio program, Pro-Life Perspective, (www.prolifeperspective.com) that is aired on radio stations nationwide. And, through the Horatio R. Storer Foundation, an outreach organization, National Right to Life supports academic research and works in the Research Bulletin of the Association for Interdisciplinary Research in Values and Social Change (www.abortionresearch.us) and Issues in Law and Medicine, published by the National Legal Center for the Medically Dependent and Disabled.

Most recently, through www.stoptheabortionagenda.com, National Right to Life has been rallying pro-life Americans to fight the radical pro-abortion agenda of Barack Obama and his administration, which threatens many of the life-saving gains that have been made in the last three decades.

The National Right to Life Committee’s 2009 convention will be held June 18-20 at the Blake Hotel in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Click here to register.

For more information on becoming a World Congress of Families Co-Sponsor, click here or contact
Don Feder – dfeder@rcn.com (508-405-1337) or Larry Jacobs- Larry@profam.org (815-964-5819).

Founded in 2001, HatzeOir.org’s mission is to promote Spanish citizens’ participation in politics. It believes this is the best way to recover the dignity of a true and just democracy and to make the governing of Spain a participatory event for all citizens during the four years that pass between elections.

H azteOir.org believes that the interest of the public comes before the interests of politicians, parties, and the state, that politics is essentially a service to the community, and that leaders must listen to the public.

From both humanitarian and Christian concepts of society, only by protecting values such as liberty, justice and solidarity can citizens retain their rights and dignity.

HazteOir.org seeks to contribute to the construction of a fair society in favor of all citizens, regardless of sex, religion or origin. Its projects promote: 1. political participation 2. human dignity and 3. the value and integrity of human life.

HazteOir.org focuses on the pro-life battle and opposes efforts by the nation’s socialist government to weaken restrictions on abortion. It was the principal organizer of the March 29 Marches for Life -- conducted in 80 cities across Spain -- that brought half-a-million to the streets of Madrid under the slogan: “There is no right to kill. There is a right to life.”

Click here for the website of HazteOir.org, in Spanish.

Priests for Life (PFL), founded in the United States and a Private Association of the Faithful since 1991, is dedicated to ending abortion and proclaiming the Gospel of Life around the world. PFL acts in communion with the Magisterium of the Holy Roman Catholic Church, working within the structure of the Church to infuse it with pro-life vigor, enthusiasm and effectiveness under the leadership of Fr. Frank Pavone. More than 70,000 active lay and religious souls comprise Priests for Life / Gospel of Life now working in 85 countries where they motivate priests, train and encourage the laity, and link up lay projects with the leadership of the clergy.

The organization’s ministries have expanded over the years to include the interdenominational Silent No More Awareness Campaign in which women and men speak out publicly about the devastating emotional and physical pain of abortion, and Rachel’s Vineyard offering weekend retreats for souls hurting from abortion, in places as diverse as Ecuador, Australia, Cameroon and Ireland. Fr. Pavone’s Defending Life television series is broadcast weekly in numerous countries on the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN). Priests for Life distributes pro-life materials addressing all aspects of abortion and euthanasia and operates a Speakers Bureau through which PFL priests and pro-life leaders preach at parishes and give presentations at conferences and events.

Additionally, Priests for Life operates on the global stage as a Non- Governmental Organization (or NGO) with Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. It has worked closely with the Pontifical Council for the Family for many years.

Through its various international ministries, Priests for Life / Gospel of Life is continuously active and provides clear and compassionate pro-life teaching and action.

Click here for the website of Priests for Life – updated daily! – and sign up for Fr. Pavone’s biweekly Pro-Life Commentary.

Click here to order Fr. Pavone’s book “Ending Abortion; Not Just Fighting It.”

Click here to read about PFL’s international outreach and resources.

Also, click here for Hispanic Outreach with Spanish video clips and materials.