St. John Paul the Great

By Super User | May 6, 2014

Building a Culture of Life at the UN and Beyond

St. John Paul the Great envisioned a grand alliance that would include people of all faiths banding together to defend life, faith and family at the international Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, Egypt 1994. He made a series of calls from St. Peter’s Square and thousands of individuals of all faiths and dozens of governments responded.

Catholics, Evangelicals and Muslims and others joined in a great defense of the things we hold dear. This coalition stopped the attempt to create a “right” to abortion at the Cairo Conference, then proceeded to stop the same anti-life movement at the fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing the very next year and then at the Istanbul Housing Conference and the Rio Conference on the Environment and on and on and on.

To this day, the coalition he created is called by our opponents the “unholy alliance.” They call us that name because when a proposition has been so successful, in this case, blocking a “right” to abortion and a redefinition of the family, all that is left sometimes is to call names!

In his many years as pontiff, what John paul the Great taught us all is to love our enemies; to defeat them in the arena of public policy and public opinion, but to love them all along the way.

Today you will hear from many of his collaborators from those days. You will learn what actually happened from deep inside the negotiations. You will also hear from those who were not at Cairo or Beijing but who were nonetheless inspired by him.

Welcome to St. John Paul the Great; Building a Culture of Life at the UN and Beyond.

Sponsoring Organizations

Benjamin W. Bull
Alliance Defending Freedom

Austin Ruse
Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute

Speakers

Dr. Robert Royal (left) and Austin Ruse (right) present the Maximilian Kolbe Medal to Renato Cardinal Martino

 Cardinal Martino was ordained on 20 June 1957, receiving his doctorate in Canon Law.

His Eminence is fluent in Italian, English, Spanish, Portuguese and French and has extensive international experience having worked for many years for the Vatican diplomatic service. From 1962 onwards, he served in Nicaragua, the Philippines, Lebanon, Canada and Brazil. Between 1970 and 1975, he worked within the Papal Secretariat of State, heading the Section for International Organizations. In 1980, following his work in the Vatican, he was appointed Titular Archbishop of Segerme, Pro-Nuncio to Thailand, and Apostolic Delegate in Singapore, Malaysia, Laos and Brunei. On 14 December 1980, he received episcopal ordination from the then Secretary of State, Cardinal Augustino Casaroli.

In 1986 the then-Archbishop was appointed Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, a post he held for sixteen years. During this time he was heavily active on a broad spectrum of international concerns including; global poverty, disarmament, the rights of minors, religious freedom, refugees, sustainability, the environment and the international promotion of human rights.

In 1991, in recognition of the additional humanitarian and conciliatory activities undertaken by the Church, which went beyond the diplomatic purview of the Holy See Mission to the UN, he established the Path to Peace Foundation.This organization strives to promote the message of peace, justice and charity throughout the international community. In 1994, he was the Pope’s official representative at the International Conference on Population and Development, showing great courage in defending the human life of the unborn child. On 1 October 2002, he was appointed by Pope John Paul II to head the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. He is noted for his great efforts during this tenure to promote peace in the Middle East, leading high-level diplomatic talks between Israel and Palestine, as well as for his efforts in Venezuela and Cote d’Ivoire. He was elevated as a Cardinal a year later. On 25 October 2004, he oversaw the publication of the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church.

In March 2006, Pope Benedict XVI extended Cardinal Martino’s mandate to include the Presidency of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People; a position he held until his retirement in 2009. During this time he was awarded an Honorary Degree of Science in International Relations from the University of Salerno and the Romanian Order of the Star from President Basescu of Romania. Following his retirement from this position in 2009, Cardinal Martino continues to hold the position of Chairman Emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and remains heavily involved in the mission of the Church.

Cardinal Martino was appointed Honorary President of the Dignitatis Humanae Institute in July 2010.

Benjamin W. Bull  
Chief Counsel, Executive Director of Global, Alliance Defending Freedom

Benjamin Bull serves with Alliance Defending Freedom as chief counsel, and executive director of Global. He oversees all global activities for Alliance Defending Freedom primarily from its headquarters in Scottsdale, Arizona, and currently practices exclusively in the areas of international human rights and American constitutional law. As executive director of Alliance Defending Freedom-Global, Bull supervises and directs all Alliance Defending Freedom’s international activities to keep the door open for the spread of the gospel across the world. Alliance Defending Freedom has offices at the UN in New York City, at the OAS in Washington D.C., in Vienna, Austria, Mexico City, Mexico, and Delhi, India. He joined Alliance Defending Freedom in 2001 and is an active member of the bars of Arizona, Virginia, the District of Columbia, and the US Supreme Court. He has practiced before most international bodies including the European Court of Human Rights. Bull has practiced law since 1975 and obtained his Juris Doctor from the University of South Carolina Law Center, and post-graduate studies at Harvard and Stanford.

Thomas Schirrmacher
Director, International Institute for Religious Freedom

Dr. Thomas Schirrmacher, Ph.D., DD, is Ambassador for human rights and executive chair of the Theological Commission of the World Evangelical Alliance, speaking for approximately 600 million Christians. He is also director of its International Institute for Religious Freedom (Bonn, Cape Town, Colombo). He is member of the board of the International Society for Human Rights.  Schirrmacher is professor of the sociology of religion at the State University of the West in Timisoara (Romania) and Distinguished Professor of Global Ethics and International Development in Meghalaya (India). He is also president of ‘Martin Bucer European Theological Seminary and Research Institutes’, where he teaches ethics and comparative religions.

Charmaine Yoest
President, Americans United for Life

Charmaine Yoest is President & CEO of Americans United for Life (AUL), the first national pro-life organization in the nation, whose legal strategists have been involved in every pro-life case before the United States Supreme Court since Roe v. Wade. Dr. Yoest began her career in the White House during the Reagan Administration and served as a Senior Advisor to the 2008 Huckabee for President Campaign. She is also the co-author of Mother in the Middle, an examination of childcare policy, published by HarperCollins. Previously, Dr. Yoest served as the Project Director of the Family, Gender and Tenure Project at the University of Virginia, a nationwide study funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. She was also a recipient of Mellon, Olin, Bradley, and Kohler Fellowships. She also served as a Vice President at the Family Research Council, one of the largest pro-family public policy organizations in the country.

Roger Kiska
Legal Counsel, Alliance Defending Freedom

Roger Kiska serves as senior legal counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom and is based in Vienna, Austria, where he specializes in international litigation with a focus on European law. He has developed the Alliance Defending Freedom allied attorney network in Europe, working with allies to litigate European cases that threaten religious liberty, life, and the family. He understands the international impact that judicial rulings in Europe and elsewhere have on Christians everywhere. He is particularly focused on cases at Europe’s most important international court—the European Court of Human Rights—a court looked to by judges around the world. After earning his J.D. at Ave Maria School of Law in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Kiska began his legal career in the Slovak Republic as an attorney with the firm of former Slovak Prime Minister Jan Carnogursky. He is admitted to the State Bar of Michigan and also passed the Solicitor’s Bar examinations for the United Kingdom. Kiska is fluent in English and Slovak.

Rocco Buttiglione  
Former Italian Minister of European Politics

Rocco Buttiglione is a Professor of Political Science at Saint Pius V University in Rome, and a member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. An academic and a Christian Democrat politician, Buttiglione has held various offices in Italian government including Vice President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies since 2008. He also served as a minister for EU policies from 2001 to 2006. In 2005 Buttiglione received an honorary doctoral degree from Francisco Marroquín University for his commitment to the ideas of liberty. Among his more recent publications are Karol Wojtyla: The Thought of the Man Who Became Pope John Paul II (1997) and The Moral Mandate for Freedom: Reflections on Centesimus Annus (1997). He studied law in Turin and Rome.

Luca Volontè
General Director of the Novae Terrae Foundation and Chair of Dignitatis  Humanae Institute

Luca Volontè was a member of the Italian Parliament from 1996 to 2013 and President of the European People’s Party at the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly. In February 2013, Cardinal Martino confirmed the appointment of Luca Volontè as Chairman of the Dignitatis Humanae Institute (DHI), also known as the Institute for Human Dignity. Volontè has been a Member of several Commitees at PACE, including the Presidential Commitee, PACE Bureau, Social Affairs and Development Commitee, Political Commitee, Monitoring Commitee, and Rules Commitee. His efforts were particulary focus on Cosciencious Objection, Freedom of Religion, Youths and Family, Life issues, including anti euthanasia mesures. He was the Italian Deputy from 1996 to 2013, and President of the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats (UDC) from 1998 to 2008. He was a Member of various permanent commitees, including Foreign Affairs, Constitutional Affairs, Social Affairs, Budget, Culture, Fiscal, Labour and Welfare, and Industry. Volontè worked in the foreign relations office at Filanto Spa in Milan from 1993 to 1994. He was, at the same time, General Director of the John Paul II Foundation.

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