General Information

Vida Humana Internacional (Miami-based HLI's Hispanic outreach) is organizing, together with the Movimiento Anónimo por la Vida of Chile, the first pro-life/family international conference in that country. Mrs. Magaly Llaguno and Adriana Tapia Moya, President of Chile's pro-life organization, Movimiento Anónimo por la Vida (Anonymous Movement for Life), prepared the program for the Conference, for which we have already sent over 700 pounds of educational materials and plan to send 400 more.

Pro-life/family experts and participants are expected to come from all over Latin America, Spain and Portugal for this extremely important event. One of the three speakers from Spain, Dr. Gonzalo Herranz, a bioethicist from the University of Navarra, has recently been appointed to the Board of Directors of the recently created Pontifical Academy for Life. Fr. Habiger and Fr. Marx themselves will also be speaking at the Conference, as well as to seminarians, both in Chile and in Argentina. Except for the opening day, Friday August 19, there will be three simultaneous sessions during the whole Conference.

Dr. Juan de Dios Vial Correa, Rector of the Pontifical University in Santiago, where the conference will take place, has given us permission to use all of the University's facilities free, at the request of Cardinal Alfonso López Trujillo. Dr. Correa has been recently appointed by John Paul II, President of the Pontifical Academy for Life, the post held previously by Dr. Jerome Lejeune, who recently passed away (to the Heavenly Academy for Eternal Life!).

VHI Prepared Training Sessions for Chile and Other Conferences

We adapted Brian Clowes' training sessions to Latin America. Our plans are to conduct a two-day training and strategy planning program just prior to the Chile Conference on August 17 and 18. We have told our Latin American Council for Life and Family leaders that participation in these sessions is by invitation only. Participants will be approved directly by either the Council leaders or by ourselves.

What follows is a tentative outline and summary of these training sessions:

INTRODUCTION

1. The need for adequate training for effective pro-life work.

2. Program to be followed: 1 ½ hour sessions that include lecture, Q/A and group discussions, for a total of about 8-10 hrs).

3. Topics to be presented and discussed.

I. THE PRO-LIFE/FAMILY BATTLE AS PART OF THE WIDER CONTEXT OF THE SPIRITUAL BATTLE

The purpose of this session is to show the participants the "bigger picture" the pro-life/family battle is part of. It is very important that pro-life/family activists understand that the pro-life struggle must be seen from a faith perspective: the wider context of the battle between God and Satan, good and evil.

Since God has ultimate victory the pro-lifer can move forward in confidence without loosing heart or faith. They will also realize they cannot fight only with human weapons, but must make use of spiritual ones (cf Eph 6:10-13). Finally, they also need to realize that the ultimate origin of the anti-life position is found in Satan himself, father of all lies and murderer from the beginning (cf Jn 8:44).

II. THE PRO-LIFE MENTALITY AND ACTIVITY

In this session we will show the importance of having a clear main goal in the pro-life mission, from which all other long and short range goals derive. But this main pro-life goal is in turn derived from the ultimate Christian mission of conquering the world for Christ (cf Mt 28:19-20). For pro-life non-believers the ultimate goal is to make a decent place out of this world, in which all human life and family values are respected. From this ultimate Christian mission is derived the ultimate pro-life mission: to convert the world so that it will be pro-life/family. The other pro-life goals are derived from this ultimate goal by taking into consideration (1) the structure of the Christian mission: evangelization and Church incorporation, catchetical instruction, and apostolate; and (2) the different general areas of pro-life work: education, political and legal action, pastoral assistance, and organization and finances. Each of these areas is described and illustrated with examples of particular goals, human and material resources, etc.

III. THE ANTI-LIFE MENTALITY AND ACTIVITY

The purpose of this session is to show the importance of understanding the anti-life mentality for the pro-life battle. We need to know how the anti-life forces think (and thus operate) in order to defeat them. Participants will be shown that roots of the anti-life mentality are found in original sin, a sin of pride instigated by Satan's lie. Lying is precisely Satan's main weapon (and that of his followers), and he uses it to accomplish his purpose: to kill. In fact, all anti-life strategies, slogans and concepts consist of clever lies. Accordingly, examples of anti-life texts and propaganda will be shown in order to indicate the euphemistic language anti-lifers use to change people's opinions about abortion, contraception, sex education, etc. Participants will learn how to unmask these slogans and concepts and show their true meaning. They will also be shown how anti-lifers have corrupted the authentic meaning of fundamental principles, such as freedom, responsibility, conscience, ethics, family, sexuality, etc. They will understand that the ultimate purpose of liberals deceived by Satan is total freedom from morality and religion (relativistic or situational ethics) in order to do whatever they want (hedonistic individualism). Applying the principle of gradualism or of the slippery slope, anti-lifers seek to reconstruct society by reconstructing sexuality by means of the following fundamental steps: first, sex education, which then opens the door to contraception and sterilization, which in turn paves the way for abortion, then euthanasia, and together with all of this they propagate New Age, homosexuality and all kinds of ideologies and pseudo-religious aberrations. Anti-lifers accomplish these steps by taking over education, the law, the media, the Church and ultimately the family. In the process of explaining all this, we will describe in summary fashion the most important anti-life/family organizations, how they are interconnected and how they have been operating in Latin America.

IV. HOW TO FIGHT THE ANTI-LIFE MENTALITY AND ACTIVITY

In this session participants will be shown mainly how to debate, either formally or informally, and refute the anti-life myths, but always in the spirit of 1 Pe 3:15. How to fight anti-lifers at the political and legal levels will be left for the following day. Finally, the importance of networking between the different pro-life/family groups will be stressed.

V. IMPORTANCE OF THE SPIRITUAL LIFE

The training sessions will finish with the same topic they began: the spiritual battle, but under a different aspect: that of the spiritual life and of the brotherly relationship among pro-lifers. Without indicating any particular type of spirituality, the importance of prayer, the Eucharist, the Bible, etc will be stressed. A call will also be made to pro-life activists to know how to relate well to each other, in a spirit of cooperation and charity. Participants will need to understand that the best way to convince the world of the truth of the pro-life cause is the same way of convincing it about the truth of Christ, by being one (cf Jn 17:21-22).

The next day will be less hectic, in order to allow more time for interaction and strategizing together. Chosen pro-life leaders will give presentations on their specific area of expertise. Jorge Serrano, Mexico's pro-life leader, Astrid Tamayo from Colombia, and Adriana Tapia, the pro-life leader of Chile, will speak about setting up crisis pregnancy centers. Page Cunningham, from the US, Puertorican lawyer Marlene Gillette and another lawyer from Chile will speak about the political and legal aspects of the pro-life battle. Page Cunningham (Americans United for Life president) will also speak at the Conference and to lawyers at the Pontifical University, as well as at the University of los Andes.

Other Activities Around the Chile Conference

One of the main speakers at the Conference, Dr. Herranz, will also speak at other universities as part of a mini-conference in bioethics that is being planned to take place before the Conference.

Dr. Wilke expressed interest in the Chile Conference. Since the program was already planned we decided to put him in contact with the Dean of the School of Medicine of the Pontifical University of Santiago, so that he could speak together with Dr. Herranz. We also recommended a not too experienced translator for his materials, which could then be distributed (hopefully free) in Chile, to the doctors who attend his talk at the university. (We are not sure he has been scheduled).