The “Dignitatis Humanae Institute” organized the second International Conference on the theme: “Crushed between European Laws and National Constitutions: Is there no Place for Christianity?”, on Friday and Saturday June 28th and 29th, at the seat of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, la Casina Pio IV, in the Vatican. The Institute was created within the European Parliament to promote the protection of the essential values of human dignity and life, from conception to death, through the participation of the Christian faith in public life and in political civilization, on the basis of the anthropological truth that man is born in the image and likeness of God. The Honorary President is the Card. Renato Raffaele Martino, President Emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. The guest of Honor at the opening day was Card. Raymond Leo Burke, Prefect of the Apostolic Signature.

 

Among the moments on the program, there are two dedicated to European legislation in relation to national family policies and to the protection of life and human dignity. On the first issue, moderated by Dr. Pavel Parfentiev, Director of the Movement for policies for the protection of the family, Msgr. Piotr Mazurkiewicz, of the Pontifical Council for the Family, was one of the speakers.

 

In his lecture Msgr. Mazurkiewicz asserted, among other things, that there is a kind of “conflict” between the European institutions and national policies on the family. Notably, some States and certain ideological groups and lobbyists are using international institutions to impose their particular, so-called “advanced” ideas, often in the name of “democracy.” However, as we read in John Paul II’s encyclical “Centesimus Annus” (no. 46): «As history demonstrates, a democracy without values easily turns into open or thinly disguised totalitarianism». The role played by the International Courts is transforming democracy into “juristocraty,” Msgr. Mazurkiewicz says. The growing importance non-governmental organizations are acquiring in the direction of politics of general relevance is one of the phenomena in the political theory that the German philosopher Jurgen Habermas defines as «refeudalization of civil society», since they do not represent the majority of civil society. Hence, although International Law was created on the basis of natural law, today we are witnessing what Benedict XVI called «the dramatic decline from the natural law to a conception of positivist functionalism». The ideology of “gender” is an «ideology of power», according to which marriage and family are «structures of oppression». «There is need for a genuine cultural response, a new humanistic synthesis, based on the Christian anthropology of love, communion and complementarity». Therefore, it is necessary for Christians to participate in the active life of politics and the formulation of strategies, clearly promoting the Christian position in the media and in the deputized institutions by delineating the multiple aspects of the matters (regarding marriage, for example, on the issue of children’s rights with respect to conception and adoption; conscientious objection in health services, in the system of education and in public administration; discrimination against heterosexual couples in the cancellation of terms such as “husband” and “wife” or “father” and “mother”; the restriction of religious freedom through the approval of wrong laws in the name of secularism). When calling for vigilance in choices that affect the lives of the peoples and of humanity, remembering the prophecy of the writer T. S. Eliot: «The world will end not with a bang but with a leap», Msgr. Mazurkiewicz concluded: «The barbarians are within our walls».