June 2, 2004
Volume 6 / Number 20
Dear Colleague:
The work of promoting and defending the sanctity of life and the family does not stop at the water’s edge. This is why Population Research Institute (PRI) has recently opened a Latin American office. And it’s also why PRI is now joining forces with several other pro-life groups around the globe–long-time allies in the building of a Culture of Life–to found Family Life International (FLI).
Steven W. Mosher
President
Population Research Institute Expands Reach; Joins in Founding Family Life International
Over the past few years, PRI has grown tremendously, most recently opening a branch office in Latin America. At the same time, as we continued to work closely with long-time allies around the globe, the urgent need for a truly global pro-life, pro-family organization became more and more evident.
We decided to call ourselves Family Life International (FLI). This is a name that Father Paul Marx, O.S.B., our common founder and inspiration, has long cherished and often used. Joining me in founding FLI are:
- Father Linus Clovis, representing FLI-Caribbean, who last year single-handedly stopped the legalization of abortion on his island home of St. Lucia. Fr. Clovis will also serve as PRI’s chaplain.
- Colleen Bayer is the dynamic director of FLI-New Zealand, founded by Father Marx in 1991. Colleen, who runs New Zealand’s most effective pro-life group (and the country’s only crisis pregnancy center), knows how to defend life.
- Dr. Claude Newbury heads FLI-South Africa. Dr. Newbury gave up a promising medical career to travel throughout Africa, spreading the pro-life message that all human life must be protected, from conception through natural death.
- Greg Clovis, (and the brother of Father Linus Clovis) is the leader of FLI-United Kingdom. Greg is renowned in Great Britain as an expert in natural family planning and as a teacher of chastity.
- Gail Instance, leader of FLI-Australia, is a leading pro-lifer in vast, underpopulated Australia.
We are all excited about this venture, not least of all, our founder, who recently told me that “FLI is the rebirth of the international pro-life, pro-family movement that I began in the eighties.”
I will serve as the president of this new alliance that, with the addition of our new PRI office in Latin America, will be able to confront the Culture of Death on five continents. Thus allied, we will be in a position to undertake global offensives. PRI, for example, provided crucial documentation that helped pro-lifers in Congress to defund UNFPA in the United States. But this is not enough. We must work to defund it in places like Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand as well. By working together, we can:
-Pass legislation to protect the unborn modeled upon successes in some of our member countries.
-Cut back or cut off funding for anti-life, anti-family groups like the U.N. Population Fund and the International Planned Parenthood Federation.
-Confront the epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS, by promoting healthy self control through education in chastity.
-Work to restrict the use of dangerous drugs, like the abortifacient Morning-After Pill, Norplant, Depo-Provera, and the like.
-Teach the truth about contraception–that it invariably leads to abortion and is often abortifacient–and the beauty of Natural Family Family.
-Work to restore a proper understanding of marriage as the natural and fruitful complementarity of man and woman, opposing cohabitation and faux “civil unions.”
-Oppose pornographic sex education that destroys childhood innocence and opens children to sexual exploitation and abuse.
-Stand up for the elderly and handicapped who are deemed by the IPPF and others as “useless to society,” but are in reality blessings for society.
Those, my friends, are FLI’s battles. Working together, we will achieve victories beyond our individual capacities.
Does this mean the end of PRI? Not at all. Rather, it means PRI’s reach will be greater than ever. Through FLI, PRI’s influence will be felt over five continents.
Nor does it mean that your continuing support for PRI is any less critical. PRI is the base upon which FLI will stand, and it is important that the base be rock-solid. Please be generous as we begin the summer months, historically slow in terms of fundraising, but chock full of challenges that we must meet at home and abroad.
Defending life is the challenge of our age. By working hand-in-hand with FLI and its many allies worldwide, PRI will be better able to face the enemies of life.
