Among other speakers at its closing session, World Congress of Families IV heard from Cardinal Alfonso López Trujillo, head of the Pontifical Council on the Family, and Margarita Zabala Gomez Del Campo, First Lady of Mexico.
The letter from Mexico’s First Lady observed, “Today, more than ever before throughout the world there is a need to think of the family, because when you protect the family, you are protecting society and the nation.”
The 3,300 delegates to the Congress brought together pro-life advocates from across the globe to talk about the latest political and social issues.
Andrea Summers, student at Arizona State University, said she appreciated her time there. “When I go back to my campus in the fall, I’ll be better prepared to confront abortion advocates,” she said. That platform has no legal binding but is designed to give family advocacy groups from around the world the backing of a larger coalition as the groups lobby their local and national lawmakers.
Sessions included: “Pro-Family Initiatives;” “Marriage As a Social Good – Why Get Married?”, “Bioethics – 21st Century Challenge to Human Dignity,” “Beyond The Contraceptive Mentality” and “Legalized Euthanasia or Family Care.”
As a euthanasia panelist, Fr. Thomas Euteneuer, the president of Human Life International, stated, “When in any society, the natural family is denied its basic rights to care for its members or when it is deprived of its social and legal protections, it very soon becomes victim of the aggressive forces that promote killing on a massive scale and stands before these forces vulnerable to their depredations.”
Delegates agreed that much needs to be done to counter deleterious trends and make governmental leaders and the general public aware of the indispensability of the gift of human life.
[14May07, LifeNews.com, Warsaw, Poland]