JOHN SMEATON, DIRECTOR OF SPUC: CORRECTED Extraordinary Synod on the Family: Report from Rome

Saturday 4 October 2014

CORRECTED Extraordinary Synod on the Family: Report from Rome

Voice of the Family team
at work in their HQ in Rome

(Some readers experienced broken links in the original version of this blogpost. These link have now been corrected. Please accept my apologies for any inconvenience.)

Maria Madise, SPUC's International, UN and Research officer, and manager of the Voice of the Family team here in Rome, reports yesterday:

The beginning of the Extraordinary Synod is only two days away. Voice of the Family team has settled into the daily routine of ora et labora, prayer and work in our Rome headquarters at the Salvatorians' Motherhouse just a few metres from St Peter's Square. We have acquired our press passes from the Holy See Press Office, met with a few Italian pro-life leaders and made preparations for our receptions next week to host prelates and fellow pro-lifers present here in Rome.

By taking a leading role in forming this international coalition of pro-life and pro-family groups, SPUC has brought together already 12 organisations and the alliance is growing. To date, Voice of the Family includes:

Yesterday a joint press release was sent to European and American media, and published on LifeSiteNews.com

New stories are published every day on Voice of the Family website. Please subscribe, if you have not done so yet, to follow the news and reflections from Rome during the Extraordinary Synod on the Family this month.

Please do pass this message on to anyone of your contacts who might be interested in receiving this information.

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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.