Contact: Don Feder, Communications Director, 508-405-1337, dfeder@rcn.com; Judy Hodge, 815-964-5819, media@worldcongress.org; both with World Congress of Families
ROCKFORD, Ill., May 25, 2012 /Christian Newswire/ -- World Congress of Families VI will open in Madrid's Palacio de Congresos on Friday, May 25 and runs through . The three day Congress -- whose theme is "Marriage And Family: The Future of Society" -- will cover such topics as: The Case for Marriage, Demographic Winter: The Worldwide Decline of Fertility, The Natural Family And The Revolution Against The Family, Family Economics And Social Capital, Authentic Women and Rediscovering Homemaking, Promoting Fatherhood and The Crisis of Manhood, Threats to Life And Family In International Law, The Culture of Life Versus The Culture of Death, The Social Cost of Pornography And Sex Trafficking, Hollywood And The Family, Chastity And Abstinence, Freedom of Education and Freedom of Religion.
There will also be an academic seminar, an International Parliamentary Forum and a Youth Forum.
More than 120 speakers from six continents will address the Congress, among them religious leaders, scholars, physicians, demographers, economists, officeholders and leaders of the pro-family and pro-life movements.
Representatives of major faith communities speaking at the Congress include Rabbi Moshe Bendahan (Chief Rabbi of Spain), Cardinal Ennio Antonelli (President of the Pontifical Council for the Family), Paige Patterson (President, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, former President of the Southern Baptist Convention), Erich W. Kopischke (Elder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), Father Jaroslaw Szymczak (Polish Family Institute), Archpriest Dimitry Smirnof (Moscow Patriarchate, Department for Relations with the Armed Forces, Russian Orthodox Church), and Bishop Juan Antonio Reig Pia (Bishop of Alcala de Henares, Madrid Archdiocese).
Other speakers from varied backgrounds include: Allan Carlson (International Secretary and Founder of the World Congress of Families), Larry Jacobs (WCF Managing Director), Lola Velarde (Institute for Family Policy, Spain), Austin Ruse (Catholic Family And Human Rights Institute), Janice Shaw Crouse (The Beverly LaHaye Institute of Concerned Women for America), John Mueller (Ethics and Public Policy Center), Dr. Ignacio Sánchez Cámara (University of Coruna Law School) Patrick Fagan (Family Research Council), Raul Sanchez (Spanish Federation of Large Families), Theresa Okafor (Life League, Nigeria), Gwendolyn Landolt (REAL Women of Canada) Peter Westmore (Australian National Civic Council), Piero A. Tozzi (Alliance Defense Fund)), Carmen Domínguez (Pontifical Catholic University of Chile)
Consuelo León (University of Catalonia), Yuri Mantilla (Focus on the Family), Jorge Scala (National University of Cordoba), William Saunders (Americans United for Life) Steven Smoot, (Family First Foundation), Igor Beloborodov (Demographic Research Institute , Moscow), Ewa Kowalewska (Human Life Int’l Europe), Natalya Yakunina (Sanctity of Motherhood Foundation), Jaime Mayor Oreja (Member European Parliament, Spain), Anna Zaborska (MEP, Slovakia), Grover Joseph Rees (former U.S. ambassador) and Alveda C. King (Priests for Life)
Gordon Macdonald (Care Not Killing Network, Scotland), Mats Tunehag (World Evangelical Alliance, Sweden), Mary Claire Hernández (Family and Society, México), Babette Francis (Endeavour Forum, Australia) Ted Baehr (MovieGuide.org), Ben Harris-Quinney (The Bow Group, UK), Brian S. Brown (National Organization for Marriage, U.S.), Francisco Tatad (former Majority Leader, Filipino Senate), Sharon Slater (Family Watch International), Alexey Komov (FamilyPolicy.Ru, Russia), Farooq Hassan (distinguished jurist, Pakistan and U.S.), Jaime Hernández (HazteOir, Spain), Pastor Ade Omooba (Christian Concern, UK), Alicia Latorre (Spanish Federation o Pro-Life Organizations), Marcia Barlow (United Families International), Rocco Buttiglione (Member of the Italian Parliament), Duke Paul Herzog Von Oldenburg (Tradition, Family and Property, Belgium), Dorothy Patterson (Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary), Christine de Vollmer (Latin American Alliance for the Famil)y and Mary Louise Fowler (Australian Family Association). Click here for a complete program
Larry Jacobs, World Congress of Families Managing Director observed: "WCF VI is our most timely and ambitious Congress – in terms of religious and national representation, issues to be discussed and professional background of speakers."
Those interested in attending World Congress of Families VI in Madrid (May 25-27) can register online at www.worldcongress.es.
WCF VI is organized by HazteOir.org (the local host committee) and The Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society. Co-conveners for WCF VI in Madrid include Alliance Defense Fund, Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute and Focus on the Family. World Congress of Families is also supported annually by our 35 partners, in 11 countries. Click here for a complete list of WCF Partners.
For more information on World Congress of Families go to www.worldcongress.org. To schedule an interview with Larry Jacobs, contact Communications Director Don Feder at 508-405-1337, dfeder@rcn.com or Judy Hodge 815-964-5819, media@worldcongress.org.
The World Congress of Families (WCF) is an international network of pro-family organizations, scholars, leaders and inter-faith people of goodwill from more than 80 countries that seek to restore the natural family as the fundamental social unit and the ‘seedbed’ of civil society (as found in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948). The WCF was founded in 1997 by Allan Carlson and is a project of The Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society in Rockford, Illinois. To date, there have been five World Congresses of Families – Prague (1997), Geneva (1999), Mexico City (2004), Warsaw, Poland (2007) and Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2009). World Congress of Families VI will be held in Madrid, Spain in May 25-27, 2012.
