Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Aug 7, 2006 / 22:00 pm

Hundreds of participants in a Brazilian conference titled, “Family and the Media: for the sake of a culture of life and of peace,” released a final statement at the conclusion of their meeting.  “We wish to proclaim that the family founded upon marriage carries out a central role for the Church and for society,” the attendees said.

In the final message, which was read by the leader of the Christian Life Movement in Brazil, Mr. Fernando Vidal, participants of the event underscored that, “love and respect for the family and for life is the basis of the peace which has always blessed our people.”   

The statement denounces attempts to, “impose an anti-life imperialism and ideology that gravely obscures the truth about the human person and the family.”  Such attitudes are made manifest in the, “numerous attacks upon human life and the family through abortion, contraception, euthanasia, eugenics, divorce, the mistakenly-termed ‘new forms of the family,’ homosexual unions,” and even “through the policies and agendas of international organizations,” the statement affirms.

It also deplored the breakdown of the family and the distortion of the true meaning of human sexuality, as well as the, “attacks on the right to religious and moral education,” and the poverty, inequality and social and domestic violence that make it ever more difficult for families, “to survive and develop.”

The statement was also a chance for participants to express their commitment to, “strengthening the Christian values that form the basis of identity of the Brazilian people,” to, “fighting for the defense and promotion of life and the family, especially for those most defenseless,” and to, “protecting the rights of pregnant women,” and “demanding decency in the media and on the internet.”

Organized by the Christian Life Movement, the event was attended by important leaders in the Church in Brazil and in Latin America, including the Archbishop of Rio de Janeiro, Cardinal Eusebio Oscar Scheid, and Alejandro Bermudez, director of the Catholic News Agency.