Moscow Demographic Summit: "Family and the Future of Humankind"

The World Congress of Families (WCF) report  that the Moscow Demographic Summit: "Family and the Future of Humankind" held on June 29-30 was a great success.  According to the WCF website for the event this was the first ever International Demographic Summit to be held on Earth and the first time an international Pro-Life and Pro-Family event of this scale took place in Russia. It was held the Russian State Social University, Russia's largest university. More than 1,000 participants took part in the Summit: 300 foreign guests (including top demography & family researchers, scientists and activists, US Congressmen and Senators) and 700 participants from all over Russia and the CIS.

The summit concluded with the adoption of a Declaration demanding that governments everywhere adopt pro-family demographic policies.  

Translated from Russian, The Declaration states in part:

"We, participants of the Moscow Demographic Summit, representing families from various social, ethnic and religious communities, leading experts in the field of the family and demography, public activists, NGOs, leaders of parents associations, representatives of the leading business, educational and diplomatic institutions, members of national Governments and Parliaments and other responsible forces of the civil society, representing 65 countries of the world, hereby declare that the Natural Family is the basic unit of society and the fundamental social value, that is a necessary prerequisite for the very existence of world civilizations and the whole humankind.

"We express our deep concern about the dangers of the approaching worldwide depopulation. Despite wrong and biased information about 'overpopulation' threat promoted by some mass media and international institutions, in reality already for several decades in a row we have been witnessing a global process of demographic degradation.... In the nearest historical period, the negative demographic trends can bring about extinction of whole peoples, destruction of States, and disappearance of unique cultures and civilizations. Even according to conservative estimates by the UN, within next three decades, the total fertility rate will go down  below the population replacement level all over the world. In reality, it can happen much earlier, thus making the whole world community face the unprecedented social and historical problem of humankind survival.

"We are alarmed by the fact that the family institution is in a state of grave social crisis which consists in the destruction of universal family, conjugal and parental roles based on traditional family values; in the disruption of the reproductive function of the family; in an epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS, caused by the imposition of contraceptive thinking (in terms of safe sex) and destructive premarital and extramarital sex patterns; in widespread divorce; in the spreading of cohabitation without marriage; in increasing numbers of single-parent families; a wave of social deviations (abortions, homosexuality, pedophilia, drug addiction, refusal of marriage and childbearing (the child-free phenomenon), prostitution, pornography, etc.); disruption of the process of socialization of young generations; cutting of ties among relatives and alienation of different generations within one family, etc.

"We call on the governments of all nations and on international institutions to develop immediately a pro-family demographic policy and to adopt a special international pro-family strategy and action plan aimed at consolidating family and marriage, protecting human life from conception to natural death, increasing birth rates, and averting the menace of depopulation."

Click here to read the Declaration of the Moscow Demographic Summit in its entiriety

Pope Benedict's teaching on the importance of the right to life of the unborn

The importance of the decision by Pope Benedict XVI to hold a vigil for all nascent human life and his request to Bishops world wide to do the same is a truly historic event. Pope Benedict in doing this is asking the entire Church and encouraging others to focus on the undeniable value of human life from the moment of conception and he is doing so at very significant time, the beginning of the new church year, the first act of  Advent in the lead up to the celebration of Christmas, the annual feast of the Nativity.   Pope Benedict has on many occasions reminded us that the right to life of every innocent human being, born or unborn, is absolute and applies equally to all people with no exception whatsoever.  

As a reminder of  the importance Pope Benedict places on the right to life of the unborn the following is an extract from his address to the Bishops of Kenya on the occasion of their ‘Ad Limina’ visit to Rome some years ago:

‘A key focus of unity in a community is the institution of marriage and family life, which the people of Africa hold in particular esteem.  The devoted love of Christian married couples is a blessing for your country, expressing sacramentally the indissoluble covenant between Christ and his Church.  This precious treasure must be guarded at all costs.  All too often, the ills besetting some parts of African society, such as promiscuity, polygamy and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, can be directly related to disordered notions of marriage and family life.  For this reason it is important to assist parents in teaching their children how to live out a Christian vision of marriage, conceived as an indissoluble union between one man and one woman, essentially equal in their humanity and open to the generation of new life.

‘While this understanding of Christian family life finds a deep resonance in Africa, it is a matter of great concern that the globalized secular culture is exerting an increasing influence on local communities as a result of campaigns by agencies promoting abortion.  This direct destruction of an innocent human life can never be justified, however difficult the circumstances that may lead some to consider taking such a grave step.  When you preach the Gospel of Life, remind your people that the right to life of every innocent human being, born or unborn, is absolute and applies equally to all people with no exception whatsoever.  This equality “is the basis of all authentic social relationships which, to be truly such, can only be founded on truth and justice” (Evangelium Vitae, 57).  The Catholic community must offer support to those women who may find it difficult to accept a child, above all when they are isolated from their family and friends.  Likewise, the community should be open to welcome back all who repent of having participated in the grave sin of abortion, and should guide them with pastoral charity to accept the grace of forgiveness, the need for penance, and the joy of entering once more into the new life of Christ.’ 

These words, needing only a change of name of location, could equally apply to so many other countries of the world, and it is sad to realise that Kenya – in particular – is one of the latest places to be targeted by UN agencies in an effort to destroy traditional family life and to impose abortion on that country.

The Marvellous Reality of Marriage between Man and Woman

At a time when the family based on marriage is under particular threat from all sides I am reminded of the statement made by Pope Benedict XVI at the fifth world meeting of families in 2006

‘To help us advance along the path of human maturity, the Church teaches us to respect and foster the marvellous reality of the indissoluble Marriage between man and woman which is also the origin of the Family. To recognise and assist this institution is one of the greatest services which can be rendered nowadays to the Common Good and to the authentic development of individuals and societies, as well as the best means of ensuring the dignity, equality and true freedom of the human person. This being the case, I want to stress the importance and the positive role which the Church’s various family associations are playing in support of Marriage and the Family …’

[Pope Benedict XVI to Fifth World Meeting of Families, 2006]

Misleading article on effects of the Lisbon Treaty

The Irish Catholic newspaper in an article quoting the new President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek misrepresents a number of critical aspects of the Lisbon Treaty. The article, quotes Mr Buzek as saying “it is not possible for the EU to change any member – state’s abortion law […]”, yet this is precisely what happened when Slovakia attempted to protect the conscience rights of medical personnel in respect to abortion and other life issues

In 2004 the European Commission obtained an opinion from a Network of so-called fundamental rights “experts”, it had appointed, concerning a Concordat then under negotiation between the Holy See and Slovakia which would have guaranteed freedom of conscience to all medical practitioners to decline, without sanction, to participate in abortions, euthanasia, cloning, IVF etc. The Legal Opinion came to the astonishing conclusion that there is a presumed ‘right to abortion’, which obliges a State to guarantee access to abortion where national law provides that it is legal and where such access meets obstacles, these must be removed. The opinion rejected a right to conscientious objection for medical practitioners in respect of abortion. The interference of the Commission in the internal affairs of the Slovakia caused a national crisis which resulted in the fall of the Government and the Concordat was not ratified.

The article also quotes Mr Buzek as saying that “the Lisbon Treaty cannot affect our laws in other so called ‘socio-ethical’ areas for example family law”,
Once again this is misleading, Article 9 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights : Right to marry and right to found a family says:

“The right to marry and the right to found a family shall be guaranteed in accordance with the national laws governing the exercise of these rights”.

Firstly this article has been subdivided into two separate rights and expressed in a way that implies that the founding of a family need not be contingent on marriage.
Secondly according to the legal preamble to the Charter, this Article is based on Article 12 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) -

men and women of marriageable age have the right to marry and to found a family, according to the national laws governing the exercise of this right

– but as is clearly evident the Article in the Charter excludes the first part of the ECHR article which limits marriage to men and women of marriageable age. The legal preamble also explains that the wording has been modernised to cover cases where national legislation recognises arrangements other than marriage for founding a family. According to the explanation, the Article does not prohibit same sex marriage.

The article also refers to the so called guarantees given to Ireland with regard to abortion and family law. The Lisbon Treaty has not been altered in any way, it is he same Treaty the Irish people rejected last year, not one comma has been changed. There are certainly promises of future guarantees, but currently there are no guarantees. We are told that the so called guarantees will be part of a later accession treaty but this is completely unacceptable. The minimum requirement in this regard is that guarantees of this nature should become actual protocols to the Lisbon Treaty and without them the Treaty should once again be rejected.

Officially the EU has no competence in the area of family which is the prerogative of the Member States. Indirectly, however, EU policies - especially as articulated in resolutions of the European Parliament and some co-decision procedures - impact negatively upon critical national issues, and slowly erode, as “soft law measures, on many areas of national sovereignty, including the traditional family by what has been described as “competence creep”.

Competence creep can happen in a number of ways - through EU directives such as those on equality and non-discrimination, the free movement of services and in other critical areas such as, sex education and protection of minors, to name a few.
One critical issue is the future interpretation of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, when and if, it comes into effect through ratification of the Lisbon Treaty. The history of previous approaches to sensitive questions by the European Commission such as the Slovakian Concordat causes grave concern as to how the Charter may be interpreted.

The mandate of the previously mentioned network of experts ended in 2006 but a similar group - which includes many of the same individuals - has reappeared under the name of FRALEX (Fundamental Rights Agency Legal Experts). FRALEX has been appointed as the exclusive provider of so-called expertise on fundamental rights to the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) based in Vienna. This places FRALEX, in an exclusive and very powerful monopoly position - to feed its ideology into the law-making process of the EU and, indirectly, of the Member States.

The FRA is also empowered, to provide advice to the EU institutions, not only when it is specifically asked to do so, but also on its own initiative. In this way, it is possible for FRA to set the agenda for the political institutions of the EU (i.e., the Commission, the Council, and the Parliament) by issuing reports in which in which ‘concern’ over specific human rights issues is expressed, and recommendations are given.

One of the first actions of FRALEX consisted of a direct attack on the traditional family based on marriage by supporting the rights of same-sex pairings, when it came to the astonishing conclusion that EU Member States had a legal duty to recognise same-sex ‘marriage’.

To sum up, irrespective of the view that the EU has no competence in critical areas such as the abortion issue and the traditional family based on the marriage of a man and a woman, the EU has found ways through competence creep to change national laws, in particular through equality and non discrimination legislation and in the area of the free movement of services. It has also done this through the so called ‘network of experts’ which, in its original form in 2004 concluded that there is a presumed right to abortion, and now as the newly constituted FRALEX, says that EU Member States have a legal duty to recognise same-sex ‘marriage’

I completely concur with the comments made by Fr Brendan Purcell in the same article and share his misgivings.

Bearing in mind the foregoing the Irish people should once again reject the Lisbon Treaty and vote NO to protect life and family values.

Colonialism disguised as Aid

Aid to the Church in Need has criticised western aid agencies operating in Africa for importing their own ideologies regarding sexuality and family life to the continent, with little respect shown for the pro-family and pro-life values at the heart of many African countries. Christine du Coudray of ACN, who has recently returned from a fact-finding trip to Africa, praised African Family Life Federation for its work in support of families and the building of a culture of life in Africa.

Du Bist Deutchland

I came across this post on Felix Randal, the blog of a young Irish teacher who comments on the lack of awareness among his students that they may become parents one day. He includes a German video (subtitled), entitled 'You are Germany', which offers a touching and humorous vision of parenthood.

For children growing up in a world where procreation is increasingly seen as an irrelevant and undesirable aspect of sexuality, videos like this offer a welcome introduction to the exhausting, awe-inspiring, maddening and overwhelmingly beautiful experience that is parenthood.