Last week I wrote about
my address to the ninth annual session of the Rhodes Forum:
"Dialogue of Civilizations". I am very pleased to share with readers a talk given by Dr Thomas Ward (pictured) at the same conference. Dr Ward is a retired general practitioner, is the founder and former president of
The National Association for Catholic Families (NACF) and a corresponding member of the Pontifical Academy for Life. He is married to Dr Mary Ward who are proud parents and grandparents.
Towards a new Civilisation of Life: Parents the Primary Educators and Protectors of their children
Madam Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen our Forum’s invitation to analyse the viability of global civilisation is timely. The word viability is from the French vie, life and able capable of – so capable of life. Of course, a viable civilisation depends upon the viability of its basic units, its families. My topic is the viability of the current paradigm of Western élites for the families of the world.
Alexandra Kollontai, (1872 –1952) the first Soviet People’s Commissar for Social Welfare wrote in 1920:
Communist society will take upon itself all the duties involved in the education of the child Kommunistka (1920) Communism and the Family.
In 1922 Lenin called a meeting of Marxist intellectuals to study why the Bolshevik Revolution had not spread to the West. According to the major conservative thinker Ralph de Toledano “this meeting was perhaps more harmful to Western civilization than the Bolshevik Revolution itself'”. The two key strategic objectives decided upon at the meeting were:
• Judeo-Christian belief was to be erased by the use of sexual instinct.
• The family and its rights over education were to be eradicated.
These intellectuals moved to Frankfurt becoming known as the
'Frankfurt School' and then to the United States where they used Ameriacn commercial, academic and media resources to spread their silent world revolution.
This silent revolution in the West has never stopped. For example Saul Alinsky who died in 1972 was an American transitional Marxist. He supported the Frankfurt School’s “long march through the institutions ”, churches, trade unions and existing political parties. He dedicated his creed in Rules for Radicals to Lucifer, whom he called the "first radical". His two best known disciples are Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton. In 2010 our U.K. Prime Minister, David Cameron,
claimed Alinsky as the inspiration for his Government’s present agenda for Britain.
This agenda was promoted in my own parish a few weeks ago.
Dr Brock Chisholm (1896 –1971) the first Director of the World Health Organisation in 1948 wrote:
Children have to be freed from.. .. religious and other cultural “prejudices” forced upon them by parents and religious authorities…
He went on to explain how:
…sex education should be introduced in the 4th grade, (i.e. for nine to ten year olds) eliminating “the ways of elders” if necessary by force. (ref: Valerie Riches, Sex & Social Engineering, 1986)
A Family Planning Association spokeswoman:
Parents – they’re the most dangerous people of all - (The Times, 5 April 1974, ref: Valerie Riches, Sex & Social Engineering, 1986)
Lady Helen Brook, (1907-1998) who was the successor to Marie Stopes and the first to make contraceptives generally available to the young in the United Kingdom, wrote in 1980:
It is now the privilege of the Parental State to take major decisions - objective, unemotional, the State weighs up what is best for the child.... (The Times, 16 February 1980)
The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), the world's largest abortion provider, say in their document
'FAQs on young people, their sexuality and their rights'
Parents ……do not have ‘rights’ over their children
And in their
Youth Manifesto for the 21st Century they say
All young people (from the age of ten)* must have information and education on sexuality and the best possible sexual and reproductive health services (including contraceptives).
All young people must be able to choose from a full range of contraceptives including the latest advances in contraception.
In Germany in 2006, in the case
Konrad v.Germany the European Court of Human Rights ruled that German Christians did not have the right to home school because it believed that it would set up “parallel societies”.
Again in Germany, in 2009 ten Christian parents who refused to allow their ten year old children to attend compulsory sex classes have now completed a second prison term (forty-three days) during which the State exercised even greater control over their children.
In Spain there are currently:
• 50, 000 parents formally complained to the government asking for the option to remove their children from classes promoting blasphemy against Our Lord, homosexual** behaviour and Communism. The Government refused.
• 2,000 parents brought law suits to obtain this opt out. The Government refused.
• 305 parents asked the European Court of Human Rights for this opt out. The judgement is awaited.
But the corpus of law protecting your rights as parents is overwhelming, particularly in
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948, which starts:
Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind
And later continues:
The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State. Article 16 (3)
Because Hitler had used the educational system to indoctrinate children the drafting committee added:
Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children. Article 16 (3)
This prior right to educate ones children with the support of society and the state is a fundamental human right which should be enshrined in every national constitution in the world.
How was this prior right removed in England?
English clerical liberalism has been an essential ally of the birth control lobby. The crucial year was 1930 when, for the first time in Christian history, the Church of England morally sanctioned contraceptives in marriage. This gave the Anglo-Saxon world, the dominant world culture, the moral justification for contraception. Contraception has been the locomotive of the sexual revolution.
The current head of the Anglican Church teaches that since non pro-creative sex is acceptable in contraception it must logically follow that homosexual acts are justifiable.
An affiliate of IPPF started the provision of contraceptives for the young. The international headquarters of IPPF
are in London. Contraceptive provision and indoctrination in schools have been the locomotive of the removal of parents’ rights. This indoctrination now includes the promotion of homosexuality.
In 1974 in the U.K parental rights were removed on contraception based on advice given by an affiliate of IPPF. As direct legal consequences in 1985 parental rights to consent to general medical treatment were greatly diminished and in 2004 parental rights on abortion were removed. This May the last Catholic adoption agency was closed down by law because it refused to sanction homosexual adoptions. Currently the website of the British Foreign Office provides a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual toolkit to promote these legal changes worldwide. Such changes bring a real risk that parents throughout the world who try to protect their children from homosexual indoctrination could themselves be charged with indoctrinating the “hate crime” of homophobia. There would then be possibility of their children being put into care. The parents would have no legal recourse if the carers appointed were homosexuals.
Some of the consequence of our broken society are:
• marriages down by 50%
• the mean number of sexual partners for adults is nine
• 45% of children illegitimate
• 40% of children aged fifteen or younger having sexual intercourse
• the subjective well being of our young people is the worst of the thirty-four states of the OECD
• Family breakdown costs £20 billion yearly.
Our Prime Minister speaking after the riots confirmed that our society is broken, immoral and irresponsible. He said:
If we want to have any hope of mending our broken society, family and parenting is where we’ve got to start...
He continued:
The potential consequences of neglect and immorality on this scale have been clear for too long...Children without fathers; schools without discipline...crime without punishment; rights without responsibilities...
So our Culture of Death is dying. We the Christians of East and West, both of the lungs of Europe, must replace it with God’s Civilization, the Civilization of Life based on love within the family. The Holy Church of God cannot accomplish its mission in society except through the family and its mission. Ladies and gentlemen, we have to go to the entire world to tell everyone that social, cultural, economic and political life must be
for the family, and no longer
at the cost of the family.
The first step towards this new civilization is to restore to parents their right to educate and protect their children in conformity with their moral and religious convictions. Parents are the primary educators of their children. This right is God given in the Commandment. “Honour your father and your mother” (Exodus 20:12). It is affirmed by Our Lord in His teaching and in his His life. “He went down with them to Nazareth, and lived there in subjection to them. And his mother kept all these words in her heart. And so Jesus advanced in wisdom with the years.” (Luke 2: 51-52)
This right is fundamental. It is founded upon parental transmission of life to and love for their child. The Social Doctrine of the Russian Orthodox Church teaches “Children become fruits of their love and communion, and their birth and upbringing belong, according to the Orthodox teaching, to one of the most important goals of marriage.”
This right is inalienable. It is irreplaceable. Again as the Social Doctrine of the Russian Orthodox Church teaches: “The role of family in the formation of the personality is exceptional; no other social institution can replace it”.
As a family doctor and a Christian father of seven children and nine grand children I will share with you my own thoughts on family life. Your homes where your children learn to love by knowing that you love them are the cradles of the new civilization. Your example as good Christian parents provides the role model for the next generation. Children will naturally absorb sound attitudes on love, marriage and the true meaning of sexuality from good parents.
Confidently forbid any damaging sex instruction. Teach each child individually the beauty of chastity, modesty and sexuality as appropriate to his or her maturity. Only you are in the position to know what, when and how. Form associations of families. Encourage your children to intensify their Christian lives through family prayer and closeness to the Church. Such beautiful families are the Civilization of Life
In conclusion: a new Civilization of Life is dawning. The Civilization of Life is God’s civilization. It is your civilisation.
*The words "from the age of ten" do not appear in the body of the text in the linked to document. However if you hover your cursor over the words "Young people" you will see that IPPF mean "[t]hose who are aged between 10-24 years". Interestingly, just above that the same device is used to provide the definition of "youth". You will see there that "The World Health Organization refers to those in the 15-24 age range as youth". I have used a bracket in my quote because that is the effect of this device, although on the webpage the information that IPPF think that all ten year old children must have sex education and access to contraception is not immediately apparent to the reader. I wonder why?
** Why is the Catholic Church's teaching on homosexuality (and sexual ethics generally) important specifically for the pro-life movement? The late Pope John Paul II, the great pro-life champion, taught in no. 97 of his 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae that it is an illusion to think that we can build a true culture of human life if we do not offer adolescents and young adults an authentic education in sexuality, and in love, and the whole of life according to their true meaning and in their close interconnection.
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