September 30, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A few weeks ago I flew to Mexico City to join Latin America correspondent Matthew Hoffman in response to a request for us to speak at the Sept. 2-3, 4th Encounter of Leaders for Life, organized by Rights of the Conceived pro-life network. See the accompanying 5-minute video which will give you a brief overview of this wonderful meeting and some footage of Matthew and myself in action at the meeting. We included a bit of the Spanish comments to give you a true flavor of the event.
The invitation-only conference was attended by 55 Mexican pro-life leaders from several states. Our invitation came from Mons. Pedro Agustin Rivera Diaz, the Director General of the organization. He is a very well connected and fearlessly pro-life priest, who is also the rector of the newly restored old Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Matthew and I gave a full day of talks in five 80-minute sessions. Whew! However, it was a wonderful experience to be among these exceptionally warm and joyful Mexican leaders who expressed strong appreciation for the talks and important documents that we left them.
Matthew spoke Spanish during his presentations. I barely know four words of Spanish and was anxious about how this would come off. But the day was saved by Matthew (see him translating in the video) and a couple of very impressive Mexican youth who also took part in translating sections of the presentation.
This was our third LifeSiteNews work trip to Mexico City this year, trips that have led to excellent new working relationships with key pro-life leaders in this nation that is under intense assault from powerful international depopulation organizations. Just follow Matthew’s recent reports about the situation in Mexico and you will understand how serious their plight is. They need all the help they can get.
The Mexican presentations were so well received that Matthew Hoffman has now also been invited to a conference in Brazil and an all Latin America conference in Costa Rica, both in November. He has also been asked to speak at a different Mexican pro-life network’s conference taking place this fall.
As well, as a result of his talk last fall in Rome at an HLI conference attended by leaders from over 40 nations, Editor-in-Chief, John-Henry Westen was asked to consider coming to Australia for a pro-life speaking tour of the country. It was just confirmed that John-Henry will indeed be going to Australia next year.
International speaking engagements and meeting with leaders has become a demanding part of the LifeSiteNews mission. In this, our 15th year, this has been spontaneously growing in response to our international news reporting.
At the Encounter of Leaders for Life conference my presentation was on “Understanding the Crucial International Dimensions of the War Against Life and Family” – a LifeSiteNews specialty. Years of LifeSiteNews experience, as well as some details of my personal journey from pro-abortion to pro-life, were covered.
Afterwards, there were more requests for the paper copy of the talk than I had available at the time. This talk gave the “Big Picture” that we always emphasize and is very important for pro-life leaders to understand – and these good people recognized its importance.
The talk has since been translated into Spanish by one of the conference organizers, who is distributing it by email. If you would like to read the English language version, it is available here. I think many LifeSiteNews readers will find the information quite revealing.
We also gave all participants a bound copy of our most popular of all documents, “The Inherent Racism of Population Control,” in Spanish, (see English version of the 52-page document) as well as some extensive translated excerpts from the all-important, previously classified U.S. government document NSSM 200 and a number of other documents.
Matthew very capably presented a session titled, “Homosexuality and Homosexualism” and another on “The Pro-Life and Pro-Family Struggle” in Latin America. These also really opened the leaders’ eyes to important developments and connections that they were not aware of.
After all the talks were done there was a Mexican meal and then a Mexican Fiesta with traditional Mexican costumes, music and dancing. Both Matthew and I were urged onto the dance floor to join in the festivities.
I left the next day utterly exhausted, but very happy that we were able to contribute something of value to help our pro-life brothers and sisters in need of whatever we could give them. (Hear the touching comments from the organizers of the conference at the end of the video)
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God Bless,
Steve Jalsevac
Managing Director
LifeSiteNews.com