Human life sacred from conception to natural death: World Congress of Families
May 30, 2012: Over 3,000 participants at the sixth annual World Congress of Families
in Madrid, Spain issued a declaration calling the family essential in solving present-day
crises. “We assert that the lasting solutions to human problems, including the current
economic crisis, come from families and from small communities,” reads the statement
titled, the Declaration of Madrid.
Ignacio Arsuaga, president of the civil
rights organization Hazteoir.org, told CNA that the closing of the May 25-27 congress
was “one of the most moving” of all the events. During the closing ceremony, Fernando
Benzo Saiz – Spain's undersecretary for the Ministry of Education – was interrupted
by applause “three times” during his speech, in which he denounced modern attacks
on the family, Arsuaga recalled.
Members of the international committee of
the World Congress of Families also called this year's event in Madrid one of the
best organized since the first was held in 1997. The declaration, read aloud by Allan
Carlson, president of the Howard Center, first underscores the “sanctity of human
life from conception to natural death. Each newly conceived person has the right to
live, to grow, to be born and to share a home with his or her natural parents united
in marriage,” it says, adding that “Abortion, euthanasia and all forms of manipulation
of human beings in an embryonic or fetal state, therefore, are attacks against human
life.”
The World Congress of Families' document also criticized population
control efforts, arguing that “the world is abundant in resources. The weakening of
the traditional family and moral and political failings, not human 'overpopulation,'
have cause poverty, hunger and the decline of the environment,” the statement asserts.
The real demographic danger that the earth faces in this new century is the crisis
of births and the aging of the population. Our societies need more people, not less.”
After
affirming the rights of parents to educate their children without interference from
the State, the declaration states that all human beings have the right to religious
freedom, which must be respected by politicians. The World Congress of Families was
held in anticipation of the 7th World Meeting of Families, which is now taking place
from May 30-June 3 in Milan. Pope Benedict XVI is slated to attend the event.