Since December last year, Pope Benedict XVI has repeatedly denounced two threats that are menacing freedom of religion for Christians throughout the world: open persecution in Islamic countries and veiled persecution in secularist European countries.
Mr Magdi Cristiano Allam MEP, in his most impressive presentation given at our Bureau last week, addressed the first of the two threats.
Our next speaker, Ignacio Arsuaga, will address the second threat by taking events in Spain as an example.
Ignacio Arsuaga is a celebrity in Spain and Hispanic America, although not as well known in English and French speaking nations. He is the founder and president of Hazte Oir, the grassroots organisation behind the 1.5 million rally against abortion in Madrid last Spring.
He will be talking to us and our friends about:
The Zapatero Project
Chronicle of an anti-Christian assault of the Spanish society
February 8th, at 6:30 PM
49 rue du Taciturne, Bruxelles
Mr Arsuaga is a lawyer, very fluent in English—having completed his studies in the US—and has co-written the book The Zapatero Project – Chronicle of an assault of society, already distributed to 100,000 homes throughout Spain.
This book denounces Zapatero’s hidden agenda aimed at profoundly changing Spain in the ideological, cultural, legislative, social and political fields. “The change we invoke,” Zapatero acknowledges, “goes far beyond a mere change in government. The change is the transformation of society.”
The Zapatero Project shows that this transformation represents a new totalitarianism involving the brainwashing of children, the destruction of the family, the denial of the right to life, the eviction of the Catholic Church from the public square and the deconstruction of the nation.
However such a program is not limited to the borders of Spain. It is the same secularist program being pushed by many European governments and by many elected and non-elected bodies of the European Union.
Like Mr Zapatero, they aim at a legal and social order “inspired by philosophical and political systems which call for strict control, if not a monopoly, of the state over society,” as Pope Benedict XVI denounced last week to the Vatican diplomatic corps.
So mark the date of this talk right now in your agenda and come to listen to Mr Ignacio Arsuaga. We can also speak with him personally afterwards over light refreshments on such an important subject as this: the secularist threat for our Christian faith and European civilisation.
Hoping to see you at this soirée on 8th February, I assure you of my cordial regards.
To be invited to this conference, please send us an email. Thanks.
Paul Herzog von Oldenburg
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Mrs. Anna Záborská's conference on the family
"The family is dying, the family is dead" we would be tempted to cry out—paraphrasing Bossuet—in light of recent developments regarding the most vital of human institutions.
And alas! Europe is at the forefront of this steady march towards the abyss:
- declining marriage, more divorce and rising cohabitation, where first partnerships are formed at increasingly younger ages;
- rapid rise in the percentage of births outside of marriage;
- steady growth of single parent families;
- increase in the number of people living alone, etc.
The solution proposed to remedy this crisis of the family is “once again more ofthe same,” on the assumption that we must adapt thisoutdated institution to theevolution of the mores of our times.
Based on the premise that "Family is where there are children" (cf. former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder), the EU Member States manipulate this fundamental cell of society through their fiscal and social policies as if it were a piece of clay capable of assuming anyshape.
The result has been a constant "collectivisation" of the family: in Sweden, 85% of toddlers are cared for in public nurseries instead of staying at home with their mothers during this crucial period of their formation. And these nurseries are financed by the families who raise their children at home but do not receive any social assistance in return. Even worse, they are discriminated against by a tax system that favours unmarried couples.
Can we really wonder why Europe is faced with the advent of a "demographic winter", the challenges posed by an aging population, and rampant immigration?
The good news is that a healthy reaction is taking place at a European level with the formation—for a second term—of the European Parliament Intergroup "Family, Child Welfare and solidarity between generations," chaired by Mrs. Anna Zaborska, MEP/EPP from Slovakia.
The Federation is convinced that many people will want to know more about this resistance movement now gaining momentum within the European Parliament. That is why it is organizing the conference
"The Christian Family: An outdated model or a springboard for the regeneration of Europe?"
by Mrs. Anna Zaborska, MEP
to be held on Tuesday, 11th May 2010 at 18:30 h
at the office of Pro Europa Christiana Federation
Rue du Taciturne 49, 1000 Brussels
Nobody is better placed than Mrs. Zaborska to answer all your questions about current developments of the institution of the family and thebest strategies to restore it to its traditional role.
She is a mother who defied the communist regime in her country, a Paediatrician specialising in Otorhinolaryngology (ORL), an executive member of the Christian Democratic Movement, a former Member of the Slovak Parliament, as well as a Member of the European Parliament and former Chairwomen of the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality in the previous legislature.
Last but not least, Mrs Zaborska does not put her Christian faith in her pocket when it comes to defending the indissolubility of marriage between a man and a woman as the main foundation of the family!
If you wish to come, listen to Mrs. Zaborska and then speak to her personally afterwards over light refreshments on this subject, please sent us an email.
Paul Herzog von Oldenburg
Conference on Climate Change
Depuis la Conférence de Copenhague sur le climat (et le rude hiver qui ne finissait pas de finir), la polémique sur la crédibilité scientifique des prophètes de malheur qui responsabilisent le développement industriel pour le prétendu « rechauffement climatique » ne cesse d'enfler.
Même des voix se lèvent – comme celle de Donald Trump – pour réclamer qu’Al Gore remette son prix Nobel et son Oscar ou alors pour dénoncer les visées totalitaires de la « révolution verte », comme l’a fait l’ancien ministre socialiste français Claude Allègre dans son best-seller L’imposture climatique, où il dit rien moins que ceci :
« À quoi correspond la montée en puissance, à travers le monde, des mouvements écologistes ? Clairement, depuis l’effondrement du marxisme et le recul des religions, ils remplissent, jusqu’à la griserie, le vide idéologique. De leur côté, profitant de ce vide, quelques technocrates de l’ONU n’ont pas hésité à manipuler l’opinion mondiale comme les chefs d’Etat… avec succès. »
C’est pour analyser de près tout cela que la Fédération Pro Europa Christiana a organisé la conférence-débat
« Changement climatique : écologie humaine ou idéologie malthusienne ?»
qui sera donné par M. Stéphane Buffetaut
le mardi 13 avril 2010, à 18 h 30
au siège de la Fédération
Rue du Taciturne, 49 - Bruxelles , 1000
(traduction en anglais disponible)
Monsieur Buffetaut est juriste de droit européen et spécialiste du droit environnemental et préside actuellement l’Observatoire du développement durable du Comité économique et social européen. Il a été député au Parlement européen et Maire-adjoint de Versailles durant treize ans.
Marié et père de quatre enfants, Stéphane Buffetaut est aussi un spécialiste des questions familiales en Europe, auteur d’un rapport sur le thème « politiques familiales et démographie en Europe » et a participé à la rédaction d’un ouvrage collectif sur ce thème.
En l’écoutant, vous pourrez répondre à la question – tellement actuelle – de savoir si nous sommes vraiment en face de l’application du principe de précaution ou tout simplement devant une gigantesque manipulation idéologique.
Bref, puisque le climat change : Peut-on inverser ou bloquer le phénomène ou faut-il avant tout s’adapter ? Ou encore : Assistons-nous à la résurgence d’une néo religion animiste au XXIe siècle ?
Autant de question auxquelles, Monsieur Stéphane Buffetaut tentera e répondre dans la vérité.
Pour recevoir une invitation à cette conférence, prière de nous envoyer un email. Merci
Federation's Brussels Bureau Inaugurated
The premises of the Fédération Pro Europa Christiana Brussels’ Bureau were inaugurated last December 8th, during a conference by Pr Roberto de Mattei, Vice-president of Italy’s State run Centre for Scientific Research.
Before an audience of many members of the European Parliament and 140 leaders of civil society, de Mattei pleaded for the calling of a European referendum before the admission of Turkey as full member of the EU.
The Italian scholar was vigorously applauded as he asked himself whether the exclusion of citizens from the debate didn’t come from the very fact that public opinion would voice “criticism regarding the political class that conducts the destiny of Western populations.”
“We deny,” he affirmed, “that the admission of Turkey into the EU could represent any benefit for Europe. Much to the contrary, we think that the entry of 90 million Turks within the European political and social structures would represent an irremediable catastrophe for our continent.”
According to de Mattei, the final responsibility for this catastrophe falls upon Europe itself, because ‘it renounced to its own role and threw away its very roots.” The way of revival passes by “the recovery of the non negotiable values,” i.e. “the principles of natural and Christian order upon which our civilisation is grounded.”
The first speaker of the evening, Mr Caio Xavier da Silveira, president of the Fédération Pro Europa Christiana, had explained that the idea behind the opening of a Bureau close to the EU buildings in Brussels was to make the premises available for all those promoting the same values and to favour collaboration among them, “each one contributing with his specific viewpoints and employing his own methods.”
This collaboration was considered particularly needed at this moment, because Christian values will be further undermined by the recent coming into force of the Lisbon Treaty and of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.
The chairman of the meeting – Duke Paul of Oldenburg, who will be the senior manager of the Federation’s Brussels Bureau – took advantage of his introduction of the main speaker to highlight that Pr de Mattei is the author of the book “Plinio Correa de Oliveira, the Crusader of the XXth Century,” the best biography of the Catholic leader who inspired the Societies for the Defence of Tradition, Family and Property and kindred associations gathered around the Fédération Pro Europa Christiana.
The soirée was prolonged around a cocktail during which activists and leaders of movements promoting Christian principles in public life were able to get acquainted with likeminded European officials and politicians.
