European Assembly 2017 in Prague, Czech Republic presentation: Stuttgart Group (Creating a Family Curriculum) - Report from December Meeting

11 participants Jacques Marion Dieter Schmidt Christian Hausmann Hildegard Piepenburg Gerhard Toelke Heiner Handschin Carolyn Handschin Laurent Ladouce Jennifer Lambert Jesus Gonzales Juraj Lajda (with the wonderful hospitality and support of Stuttgart members, Patricia Wenzel, Nina, etc.)

In our initial discussion on the purpose and format of the project, we agreed to work on a 2- day seminar content that would combine 6 or 7 lectures. Our audiences would be at first political, religious and civil society leaders – but eventually more diversifiedgroups: women, youth, etc.

Participants contributed several summarized presentations, as basis for discussion: • Jacques Marion on the IEF lectures “Consequences of the Sexual Revolution” and “Family-School of Love” • Dieter Schmidt on the process in the brain related to sexual love • Laurent Ladouce on “Absolute Sex” • Hildegard Piepenburg on “The Family – Indispensable institution for human life” and “Attachment and Family” • Gerhard Toelke on “Fatherless Society and Secular Democracy” • Carolyn Handschin on “UN and Family Mainstreaming” • Jesus Gonzales on “Conjugal Love” and “Human Rights”

We came up with a series of 6 themes to be developed in a 2-day format. It is a work in process: Titlesand contentneed review and further thinking. We need to get advice from “inside” and “outside” experts (Peace Ambassadors), etc. We need an “Academic coordinator” for the project, in my opinion.

We plan to have monthly zoom call conferences. We plan to meet again after about 3 months. I am thinking to organize initially a seminar in Central Europe (Hungary?).

Here is the current plan of themes/content, with people who will focus specifically on a theme.(Our final discussion time was short, so this is still a rough plan to be worked on)

We will need an introduction to the Seminar explaining its relevance and purpose, introduce its interreligious / intercultural dimension, etc.

1/ Promises and reality of the “radical socio-cultural revolution” • (Dieter Schmidt, Jacques Marion, Carolyn Handschin) • Healthconsequences (STDs, etc.) • Psychological and social consequences (pornography, early sexualisation of youth,…)

2/ Roots and trends of this“socio-cultural revolution” • (Laurent Ladouce, Jesus Gonzales) • The last 500 years: decline of faith, rise of atheism, materialism, etc. • Errors and decline of the traditional family • Ideological underpinnings of the sexual revolution : Freud, Reich, Marcuse, etc. • “Deconstruction” philosophy. • Rise of radical feminism • Rise of fatherless society • De-humanization • New sexual morality, etc.

3/ Current issues • (Heiner and Carolyn Handschin, Jennifer Lambert, Christian Haussmann) • Family policies (UN resolution / European Parliament / national policies • Gay marriage, • ComprehensiveSexuality Education • Pro-life and abortion • Surrogacy, abortion

4/ Family –School of Love • (Hildegard Piepenburg, Dieter Schmidt, Jacques Marion) • Introducing about God, heart, true love, 4 realms of heart, 3 great kingships • Being sensitive to people without good experiences with love and family • Complement TF’s teaching on heart and love with research-based explanation on attachment and case studies • True parent true teacher, true owner

5/ Conjugal love and absolute sex • (Laurent Ladouce, Jesus Gonzales, Jennifer Lambert, Juraj Lajda) • Meaning of conjugal love • Absolute sex (as presented by Laurent Ladouce) • Sex as a “frontline of good and evil”

6/ Family ethics, social ethics, core philosophy of peace • (Juraj Lajda, Jacques Marion, Gerhard Toelke) • Natural order, family order, social order • Dignity • Sovereignty of the family • Family ethics as a basis for a society of interdependence, mutual prosperity