WARSAW (ABP) — Poland is one of the few European countries to maintain traditionalist Catholic stances in the international debate over social issues like abortion, gay marriage and embryonic stem-cell research.
That's one reason why leaders of the World Congress on Families decided to hold their fourth-ever event there May 11-13. Besides being geographically convenient for attendees from Asia, Europe, North and South America, Poland has resisted a “totalitarian onslaught” twice: first from Nazism and then from communism, organizers said. In their opinion, cultural liberalism is another such dangerous onslaught.
“The family is probably more besieged in Europe [than elsewhere] because of the European Union bureaucracy and secularism,” said Don Feder, communications director for the World Congress and a former syndicated columnist for the Boston Herald. “Europe is a battlefield. Poland, in part, is symbolic.”
Indeed, Poland in particular has come under increased international criticism after allegedly anti-gay comments by some senior government officials, who have said it is not in the interest of any society to increase the number of homosexuals there.
In May, the European Court of Human Rights ruled against Poland for refusing to authorize gay-rights rallies in Warsaw two years ago. And French, Italian and Dutch members of the European Parliament have branded Poland as “hateful” and “repulsive” for refusing to allow teaching about homosexuality in its public schools.
In the United States, critics have said World Congress leaders undermine programs instituted by organizations like United Nations Population Fund, which promotes reproductive rights, sex education and condom use.
Others have called World Congress delegates “ultraconservative” and said they force anti-abortion and anti-contraception language into international conference documents.
According to Ms. Magazine, which published a story critical of the 2004 World Congress event in Mexico City, many nongovernmental organizations that participate in the congress have consultative status with the United Nations, meaning they can attend official UN meetings and lobby to affect the actions such conferences take.
Speakers at the three-day meeting, held at the Soviet-era Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw, point to such criticism as evidence of a deep dichotomy within the European worldview. As marriage rates decline through much of Europe and population rates stagnate in countries like Russia, France and Germany, European leaders are scrambling to thaw the “demographic winter” that seems to be descending on the continent.
But the World Congress attendees have very different views on how to do that than many of their European counterparts.
Countries in Eastern Europe, including Latvia, Croatia and Slovakia, have become increasingly skeptical of the European Union as its rulings expand beyond simple economic mandates. On the other hand, some EU countries are increasingly angered by what they see as intolerant and narrow policies pushed by conservative members of the union.
For instance, Poland, with most of its 38-million-member population adhering to traditional Catholicism, recently became the only country in Europe to define marriage as a heterosexual-only union. Representatives from the Vatican, several Muslim nations and conservative Catholic and African nations have supported this move. Meanwhile, the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, Canada, South Africa and the state of Massachusetts have legalized marriage.
Bill Saunders, a senior fellow at the Family Research Council in Washington, said the trend toward redefining marriage is a slide toward narcissism.
“[A] threat to human dignity is the growth of self-centeredness in the Western world. It's radical individualism,” Saunders said. “Radical individualism leads to self-centeredness. Sometimes that is not seen as selfishness, it's seen as wisdom.”
Paul Mero, president of the Sutherland Institute, echoed that sentiment, saying the “culture of individualism is narcissism.” The institute is a conservative “think tank” based in Utah.
“In Utah, where I'm from, we have a saying: 'An unmarried man over the age of 30 is a menace to society,'” he said, adding that narcissism leads to a false consciousness. “In this conference, people here are more ethically and theologically aware than that, but it's very widespread. … Each one of us has to struggle against evil to do good. That's the challenge of our lives.”
It was a common refrain for the nuns, economists, priests, theologians and parliamentarians who addressed the 3,000-plus participants. The gathering has met in previous years in Prague, Geneva and Mexico City.
The event was organized by the non-profit Howard Center for Family, Religion and Society in Rockford, Ill. Allan Carlson, an evangelical Lutheran and the founder of the center, has long led conservative opposition to legalization of gay marriage, embryonic stem-cell research and euthanasia.
This year, congress participants released the “Warsaw Declaration,” a document defining the “natural family” as a creation of God, fundamental in human history and based on the “lifelong marriage between a man and a woman in which new individuals are conceived, born and raised.”
It continued, “there is no more efficient way for the rebirth of the society than its rebirth through healthy families that are faithful to their conjugal and parental vocations.” It also called on political bodies to “mainstream the family” in public policies and to “promote economic solutions that provide dignified living conditions to all families.”
Promoting intact, heterosexual families with many children was a major objective of the event. In a May 11 address, Austin Ruse, president of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, called the family a gift, “a perfect expression of love between a man and a woman.”
Enrique Gomez Serrano, director of the Family Network of Mexico, said only in the family can one learn to be a true human being, and “a man and a woman who respect the true fundamental values are the true society.”
Inese Slesere, a member of Latvia's parliament, said healthy family life “enhances personal liberty and regulates the role of the state.”
And Paige Patterson, the former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, said the “procreative fruit” brings the greatest joys in life. “There is simply no substitute for the family as a transforming instrument in society.”
Rhetoric aside, some experts have said it may be too late to change the course of public policy in Europe. Critics have called Carlson's efforts reactionary and urged for a more realistic plan to bolster European economies.
But Carlson and others like him reject that charge. It's never too late, they say, for people of faith take action. Ruse, a knight in the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, talked about a “crisis of saints” who had not lived up to their “baptismal promises.” Still, the Holy Spirit “blows where he chooses and inspires human hearts where he chooses, even in rocky places,” he said.
Ewa Kowalewska, a Polish journalist and director of Human Life International-Europe, agreed. A board member of the Polish Federation of Pro-lifer Movements, Kowalewska is a prominent European activist against abortion rights.
“Unity in diversity is the front of this congress,” she said. “We are attacked because of our position, but Poland is not alone. Your presence here gives us strength. Poland is and will be guarding the family.”
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Read more:
European conservatives say acceptance of gay marriage renders it meaningless (5/16)
Women caught in the crosshairs of global debate over families (5/15)
European conservatives: Preserving traditional marriage best for society (5/14)
Controversial gathering aims to focus Europeans on 'pro-family' politics (5/11)