May 18, 2017 (Voice of the Family) – Today at Hotel Columbus, steps from the Vatican, commenced the fourth annual Rome Life Forum. This year’s gathering brings together over 100 life and family leaders from over 20 nations to discuss the crisis in the Church and in the family and especially the hope for renewal in Our Lady of Fatima.
For the past four years leaders have come together and recognised the crisis of faith in the Church itself as one of the greatest crises for the movements for life and family around the world.
Speaking at the Forum this year are some of the most heroic leaders in the Church, including Cardinal Raymond Burke, Cardinal Carlo Caffarra and Bishop Athanasius Schneider.
The centenary of the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima give this year’s Forum a hopeful way forward in anticipation of the sure triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
As usual the Forum will close with all the leaders participating in the Rome March for Life on Saturday.
“One hundred years ago, Our Lady warned us of the tragic errors that threatened to ravage the world,” said Maria Madise of Voice of the Family and the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), one of the Forum organizers.
“The 2017 Rome Life Forum comes at a critical time in the life of the Church: 100 years after the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima calling for repentance and conversion, and just over a year after the publication of Amoris Laetitia,” said John-Henry Westen, editor-in-chief and co-founder of LifeSiteNews, another Forum organizer. “The pro-life and pro-family movement faces increasing persecution inside and outside the Church. Our Lady showed three little children in Portugal a clear path to renewing humanity and saving souls. We must listen to her as disorder reigns in the Church and the world.”
“There is no more necessary time than now for the pro-life leaders who love the teaching of Christ about marriage, life, and family to gather in the capital of Christendom, show their support for one another, and forge relationships that will carry forward their work on a global scale,” Madise said.
Human Life International, Associazione Famiglia Domani (Italy), and Family Life International New Zealand are also sponsors of the conference.
Duke Paul Von Oldenburg of Federation Pro Europa Christiana and Italian Professor Roberto de Mattei of the Lepanto Foundation will also speak at the Forum.