Pro-Abortion Speaker Makes Rounds at World Youth Day/Or Did She?

By C-FAM Staff | 2005

    (NEW YORK – C-FAM) There was a flurry of international activity last week regarding speculation that Eveline Herfkens, a pro-abortion Dutch bureaucrat connected to the UN, would address World Youth Day in Germany. This was first reported by Catholic World Report and followed up by Lifesitenews.org. Tom Ward, president of the Catholic Family Association of Great Britain, spent a part of last week alerting American and other pro-life leaders of the impending speech by Herfkens. Human Life International, the Virginia based pro-life group, sent letters to the Vatican and to the Apostolic Nuncio in Germany. Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM), publisher of the Friday Fax, sent an email alert that resulted in thousands of complaint emails directed to Cardinal Meisner of Cologne, Germany, host of World Youth Day.

    In the end it is unclear whether Herfkens spoke at World Youth Day or at a loosely connected event. Human Life International received a letter from the German Nuncio who said Herfkens was not scheduled to speak at any official World Youth Day event. It is unclear from his letter whether she was uninvited or if her event was never a part of the official ceremonies. An email from a World Youth Day staffer said UN officials were speaking and said they may be pro-abortion but that the Church must reach out to all types.

    Herfkens is the executive director of the United Nation's Millennium Campaign, a world-wide effort ostensibly aimed at ending poverty but which in reality advocates making "reproductive rights" universal. More disturbing to pro-lifers is her past support of the abortion ship which performs abortions off the shores of countries with restrictive laws. As a high ranking member of the Dutch government, Herfkens declared the ship to be "a concrete answer to an awful problem" and suggested that her government help fund it.

    According to the Millennium Campaign's German website, Herfkens was to have given a speech at a program in Bonn celebrating the opening of the Millennium Gates, a large display of banners with text explaining the Millennium Development Goals. The site says the ceremony was an opportunity for the city of Bonn, the Church in Bonn, and the UN to stand side by side. On Tuesday, Herfkens was to participate in the International Youth Hearing for Justice and Peace, an event jointly sponsored by the German Federation of Catholic Youth and the German Commission on Justice and Peace. On Thursday the Millennium Campaign was promoting a discussion of the MDGs featuring Munich's Auxiliary Bishop Engelbert Siebler.

    Staff at Herfkens' office in New York confirmed that she was in Germany for WYD but could not say whether or not her planned speeches had been delivered.

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