Healing the Deep Wounds in the Soul of Europe - Moral Relativism
Dr. Vincent Twomey

.. from the Youth 2000 website ..

When John Paul II set up Pontifical Institutes for Studies in Marriage and the Family and Bio Ethics, he decided to make the announcement on the Feast day of Our Lady of Fatima On 13th of May. Just before he could do so, however, at 5.19 pm, the Holy Father was shot by Mehemit Ali Agca. The attempted assassination delayed the process until the Feast day of Our Lady of the Rosary in the following year, Oct 7th. On that occasion the Pope entrusted the Institute to the care of Our Lady of Fatima, to whose intercession he attributed his miraculous survival on the day the Institute was to have been born, the anniversary of her first apparition. Since then Sessions of the Institute (which is based in the Lateran, Rome), have spread around the world and have been instrumental in influencing public debate and policy in the area of Marriage, Family and Life issues and counteracting in a most beautiful and positive way the Culture of Dissent in much of Catholic Academia. The one in Washington being very successful. The Irish Session only lasted from 2000 to 2003, yet so affected were many of the graduates by the formation they received that they continue in their own way to keep the vision alive through the annual JPII Society Conference. The purpose of which is to give many others a taste of what we received: where Scripture, Theology, Philosophy and the Human Sciences come together in a beautifully symphony of the Truth.

Think about how marriage and the family and the human person is under attack. If you cannot win the battle of ideas, of minds, you cannot win hearts. The Conference organized for All Hallows, Drumcondra, Dublin3 , Oct 7th and 8th is about challenging society to face up to the reality that Europe is in Crisis.

It literally is losing its soul because it does not want more souls. Human life is contracepted and aborted to such an extent that Europe is literally dying. Ireland must not follow the same self destructive path, instead it must lead Europe to rediscovering its Soul.

Our new Holy Father, Pope Benedict has correctly identified the recovery of the Faith in Europe as of great urgency. The theme of the Conference addresses that reality, thus the Title ‘Rediscovering the Soul of Europe’. The conference will be addressed by Rev Dr Vincent Twomey, of Maynooth, who did his Doctorate under Professor Joseph Ratzinger, the Present Pope. Also among the speakers will be, John Waters, Irish Times Columnist and writer who has studied John Paul II’s Theology of the body. The Conference is open to all, those who have the faith, those who are on the journey back, as well as those who just want to ‘come and see’ and are open to the Truth.

It says in the Holy Bible ‘Without vision the People perish’, (Prov). A new Vision for Europe must be Christ Centered only then can we have culture of Life and a civilization of Love. Rather than perishing, our Continent will once again become fruitful, prosperous and happy.

Contact martinwise@eircom.net for more details

.. and from the Family and Life website ..

The John Paul II Society, whose members are past students of the now closed JPII Institute of Ballina, Co Mayo, is hosting a conference in October. It is entitled Rediscovering the Soul of Europe, and will open on Friday evening, October 7, at 7.0 pm at All Hallows College, Drumcondra, Dublin 3, and continue for the whole day of Saturday, October 8.
Among the speakers will be Rev Dr Vincent Twomey, moral theologian at Maynooth College, John Waters, journalist at The Irish Times and The Voice Today, Dr Liz Holmes, sociologist, Dr Bernadette Flanagan, psychologist, very much in the Paul Vitz school of psychology, Martin Clynes, professor of genetics at Dublin City University, Rev Dr Kevin Doran, Bishops Conference spokesman on bioethics, Stratford Caldecott, director of the Oxford Chesterton Institute, Fr Jim Moore MA, graduate of JPII Institute and a curate of the Diocese of Cloyne.
Conference Fee: ¤70 including beverages and Saturday lunch. Lunch limited to the first 200 bookings. Fee for Saturday only without lunch: ¤50
Postal bookings: JPII Society Conference, c/o Youth 2000 office, ‘Aras Treasa’, 5 Coppinger Row, Clarendon St, Dublin 2.
Phone bookings: 087 982 7643 (Mark); 087 2996665 (Martin); 01 6753690 (Claire)