Third International Rome Life Forum gathers to defend life and family

6 May 2016

Many of the world’s most prominent Catholic pro-life and pro-family leaders are meeting today in Rome to discuss how to promote and defend Catholic teaching on life, marriage and the family during the current crisis engulfing Church and society.

Maria Madise, Manager of Voice of the Family, welcomed delegates this morning and spoke of the urgency of mobilising “the laity to assist Catholics at every level of the Church to grow in knowledge of, and to spread more effectively, the Gospel of Life and of the Family.”

She continued:

“The confusion inside and outside of the Church has made this urgency more evident. Pro-life advocates, who hold the sanctity of human life so dear in our hearts, should be alongside Catholic bishops and priests and be more alert to defend the sanctity of divine life in the Eucharist, when it is threatened and attacked.

“Where pro-life and pro-family goals come together is in the restoration of a truly Christian society with Christ acknowledged as king over individuals, families and societies. The rest flows from our Fiat!

“We need to examine our experience in various disciplines to chart the way forward, including studies of history, theology, philosophy, medicine and our own political activities. Pulling together the principles and experience of all these disciplines is one of the hopes for this Rome Life Forum in order to illuminate the way forward for us in our very diverse countries and circumstances.”

Delegates at the Rome Life Forum will be hearing from leading figures in a wide range of disciplines over the next two days. Later today His Excellency Bishop Athanasius Schneider will be speaking on “Catholic Faith and confession of truth.” Tomorrow His Eminence Raymond Cardinal Burke will give the closing address by speaking of “Martydom for the Faith in our time”. On Sunday delegates will participate in the Rome March for Life.

This year’s Rome Life Forum is sponsored by Associazione Famiglia Domani, Family Life International, Human Life International, LifeSiteNews and the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Children.

Texts of talks given at the conference will be posted below:

Friday 6th May 2016

Professor Roberto de Mattei, The Current Crisis in the Context of Church History

Matthew McCusker, Key doctrinal errors and ambiguities in Amoris Laetitia

John-Henry Westen, Gender ideology and other dogmas of the new global order

Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Catholic Faith and Confession of Truth

Saturday 7th May 2016

Fr Shenan Boquet, “Put out into the deep” (Lk 5:4)

Dr Anca-Maria Cernea, Cultural Marxism: A Threat to the Family

John Smeaton, Building a Catholic Resistance Movement

Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke, Martyrdom for the Faith in Our Times