04.10.2021,
On 23-24 September 2021, Prof. Dr. Christiaan Alting von Geusau, who is both ITI’s Rector and the President of the International Catholic Legislators Network (ICLN), participated in the IV Budapest Demographic Summit. The Hungarian Minister for Families, Mrs. Katalin Novak, who welcomed the assembly of the Summit, defined it as a “forum where politicians, Church leaders, experts, and representatives of the media, the corporate sector, and science meet every two years since 2015 to discuss the main issues affecting families.” The institution of the family is being attacked by different ideologies today; some of them would blame families and children for causing harmful changes in our environment. As an answer to that ideological attack on family values, the topic of demography and sustainability was chosen for this year.
Inspired by the talks and discussions at the Summit, Prof. Dr. Geusau comments: “This high-profile event gave me hope in these uncertain times where as Christians we see the God-given foundations of society - the right to life, the sanctity of marriage and the stability of families - being systematically destroyed, also by many of our fellow Christians. It was thus refreshing to be at the IV Budapest Demographic Summit where - rarely seen these days - heads of government, Church leaders, and academics spoke out in unison in favor of openness to life and large families, marriage as the union between one man and one woman, and the nuclear family, and proposed proven policies and strategies that may help turn the tide on a pandemic of broken families and the relentless demographic winter in many countries. Other countries can derive some inspiration from Central and Eastern European societies that have all experienced communist totalitarianism that was bent on destroying the family, and who now see the same destructive ideologies coming from the woke and illiberal classes in the West, which they are not tolerating, something even the reputed Economist newspaper warned against explicitly on a recent title page main editorial.”
Sharing his Thoughts on the Role of the Family in Europe, Dr. Christiaan Alting von Geusau concluded with the following points. He called those present to give the same attention to human nature as to the natural environment, which is no less violated today than the natural environment. He emphasized that it is important that we teach why the reality of human nature is as it is and why we have been created as male and female. He condemned possible manipulations to human nature and the ways we understand it and closed his address with the powerful observation that “without healthy and stable families there will be no Europe.” You can watch the video of his talk here.