JOHN SMEATON, DIRECTOR OF SPUC: Major international pro-family conference in Moscow

Thursday, 11 September 2014

Major international pro-family conference in Moscow - SPUC represented

Today and yesterday, a major pro-family conference entitled International Forum ‘Large family and the future of humanity’ has been held in the Kremlin, Moscow. SPUC staff, as well as many colleagues from other pro-life/pro-family, are in Moscow, making a major contribution to the conference:

Maria Madise, SPUC's International, UN and Research Officer
Pat Buckley, one of SPUC's representatives at the United Nations
Dr Thomas Ward, founder and former President of the National Association of Catholic Families (NACF)
Obianuju "Uju" Ekeocha, who runs Culture of Life Africa (COLA)

John-Henry Westen of LifeSiteNews.com, who is one of the keynote speakers, reports that the conference has been attended by

"1,000 delegates from all over the world including over 200 from the West ... Put on by the St. Andrew the First-Called and the St. Basil the Great Foundations, the conference is sanctioned and supported by the federal government."

Below is the statement issued before today's plenary session:

“Our World is going through an epoch of instability and social crisis closely inter-related with the global transformations in all key spheres of human development and civilisation,” states the concept of the International Forum for Large Family and the Future of Humanity, held in Moscow, 10 and 11 September. An impressive document composed to define the key principles of human existence and family that cannot change continues:

The most important factor in this epoch is the transformation of what it means to be a living, human being and to experience human dignity as intended by the Creator.

[… H]uman beings created in the image of God are no longer … the conceptual and ethical center of the whole of Creation.

With the profound philosophical transformations of the human concept, the historical foundations of civilized human life are now being forced to change and the concept of the family is not an exception. According to the overwhelming majority of people this modern-day ambiguity, relativity, and indeterminacy regarding family, creates the threat to the civilized existence of societies.

Only precise and univalent definitions may permit us to understand that behind the fuzzy explanations of modern humanism and jargon, there hides traits of degradation and deception that would lead to the death of humanity. Only truthful and accurate definitions contradicting the contemporary views allow us to make the conclusion: our era is not so much about the family crisis as the foundation of society, but the very idea of family.

Today, the meaning of family in the context of global ideological competition from self-interested post-modern humanists and challenges to ensure the survival and sovereignty of modern states grows to such an extent that the protection of the classical notions of normative behaviour, civilized man, the human family, and the definition of marriage have to be enshrined in national constitutions.

Humanity must move forward into the future based on the understanding that the natural family has been and remains the foundations of the civilization; and the family was – and still is – and forever will be the marriage between man and woman with many children.

The speakers include:

Natalia Yakunina (Russia; Chairwoman)
Archpriest Dmitrtry Smirnov (Russia)
Konstantin Malofeev (Russia)
Anatoly Antonov (Russia)
Donald Feder (USA)
Elena Mizulina (Russia)
Lawrence D. Jacobs (USA)
Hilarion (Chairman of the Department of exernal Church Relations, Moscow Patriarchate)
Francisco S. Tatad (Philippines)
Thomas Ward (UK, President of the National Association of Catholic Families)
Sharon Slater (USA, President of Family Watch International)
Christine Vollmer (Venezuela; President of Latin American Alliance of the Family)
Theresa Okafor (Nigeria; Director of Foundation for African Cultural Heritage)
Holy Patriarch Kirill (Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia)
Vladimir Yakunin (Russia)
Aymeric Chauprade (France)
Patrick Buckley (Ireland)
Obianuju Ekeocha (Nigeria/UK)
Radim Uchac (Czech Republic)
Archpriest Maxim Obukov (Russia)
John-Henry Westen (Canada)

The first day of the Forum with grand artistic celebrations for the family was held in the State Kremlin Palace. The plenary session and 10 roundtables today are taking place in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour.

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About Me

I became involved in SPUC after graduating, when I established a branch in south London in 1974. I have worked full-time for SPUC for 42 years. I became chief executive of SPUC in the UK in 1996, having been general secretary since 1978. I was elected vice-president of International Right to Life Federation in 2005. At UN conferences in Cairo, Copenhagen, Beijing, Istanbul and Rome, I helped coordinate more than 150 pro-life/pro-family groups resulting in pro-life victories in Cairo, Istanbul and Rome. I was educated at Salesian College, London, before going to Oxford where I graduated in English Language and Literature. I qualified as a teacher, becoming head of English at a secondary school. I am married to Josephine. We have a grown-up family and we live in north London.