Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Mexicali (Agenzia Fides) - With the goal of promoting the culture of life, the 7th International Congress will be held in Mexicali, Baja California, on February 23-24. Some of the themes for discussion are: abortion, the value of life, and AIDS. Participants in the Congress include speakers from Ecuador, the United States, Uganda, Argentina, Spain, Poland, and Mexico, each one offering their history and experience, in efforts to transmit their knowledge on these topics that constitute an attack on life.
Some of the talks to be given are: “The Pro-Life Response to the Legalization of Abortion in Mexico City”, “The hidden UN negotiations in Latin America”; “The victory of the citizen over totalitarianism”; “The case of Spain: Living under an ideological dictatorship”; “World Youth Alliance: Youth working to improve the world”; “How to awake the consciences of millions.” In addition, there will also be various personal testimonies, such as: “A never-ending pain: I had an abortion eleven years ago” from Esperanza Puente (Spain), a victim of the feminist, pro-abortion ideologies that presented abortion as a right. She tells her traumatic experience of post-abortion syndrome that she lived over a period of eleven years. There is also a testimony entitled: “Silence…my voice”, of a 31-year-old from Mexico who suffers from complete paralysis and is confined to a wheelchair. He communicates through a system of signs and drawings. However, in spite of his limitations, he has dedicated his time to giving conferences, in order to transmit his love for life, through his testimony. Martin Ssempa of Uganda, one of the promoters of the program of abstinence and fidelity (ABC), will present “The key to success in the fight against AIDS in Uganda,” where the rate of AIDS contraction has dropped from 30 to 6.2 percent. Amparo Medina Guerrero of Ecuador will present, “The Intolerance of the Tolerants: Punished for believing in a cause.” Guerrero is a former functionary of the UN Funds for Population Activities (UNFPA), and also served as consultant and coordinator of the Project for Sexual and Reproductive Health in the Coastal Region in Ecuador. Following her untiring efforts in promotion of abortion, she discovered the truth and became one of the leading activists in defence of life.
There will also be a presentation of the “Legal triumphs in favour of life in Latin America”. The most significant have been: the constitutional reforms in Argentina and El Salvador, in protection of human life from the moment of conception; the constitutional reform in Honduras, forbidding same-sex unions; the Supreme Court ruling in Costa Rica, forbidding artificial insemination, as a violation of the right to life; the Supreme Court rulings in Chile, Argentina, and Ecuador, outlawing the so-called “emergency contraceptive” pill, for its abortive nature; the reform of the Penal Code in Nicaragua, classifying any type of abortion, including the so-called “therapeutic” abortions, as a criminal offence; and the Supreme Court ruling in Costa Rica, declaring as a constitutional act the prohibiting of same-sex marriages. (RG)(Agenzia Fides 21/2/2008 righe 39, parole 492)
