"What I think you really need to get here is that it's not just this channel that's seeing this massive paradigm shift, this major change in direction of the social and cultural winds in Europe, towards a fully conservative nationalist and traditionalist vision of life."
In this excellent episode, Dr. Steve Turley urges his audience to join him in Verona, Italy at the end of March for the most important social conservative event of the year, the World Congress of Families. Russian Faith editor Fr. Joseph Gleason published a long article describing the event in great detail, which he is attending. We highly recommend reading it if you are interested.
Turley explains why how he's likely to go into 'full-blown groupie mode' when he sees deputy Prime Minister Salvini speak, and talks about the huge strides in pro-family policies achieved by the Hungarian government, which is sending a high-level delegation, and other countries.
Turley is an invaluable resource, and we highly recommend subscribing to his YouTube channel.
The full transcript of this video follows below. It is highly interesting.
Transcript:
If you're like me and you live in a part of the world that gets rather cold and snowy and gray this time of year, you might find yourself dreaming of getting away and spending a week in a far more lovely warm climate … oh, I don't know, maybe like imagining what it would be like to spend a week in, say, Verona Italy perhaps at the end of March, like right around the Springtime, you know, the beginning of Spring in the city of Romeo and Juliet, wouldn't that be just lovely?
Well that's exactly what I'm going be doing and I want to invite you to do it as well. I'm inviting all of you to the 13th annual World Congress of Families that will be taking place on March 29th to the 31st in beautiful Verona, Italy.
I'll be speaking there as well as a couple of others you may have heard of, some Italian guy, Matteo … Salvini something ...
If you want to see me go into a full-blown groupie mode just watch me when I'm around Salvini taking the stage, he’s the Deputy Prime Minister of Italy. It's also featuring Igor Dodon, he's the President of Moldova.
It's featuring many, many other dignitaries and notables from Hungary, from Poland, from all around the globe who are leading this massive renaissance, this unbelievably exciting, pro-life, pro-family, conservative renewal going on now in many parts of the world, most notably of course in Central and Eastern Europe and now of course, in Italy.
If you've been a frequent viewer you may remember that we actually talked about the World Congress of Families several months back with regard to their last international meeting in Moldova’s capital city of Chisinau. The World Congress of Families is an annual event sponsored by the International Organization for the Family. They are THE premier social conservative organization in the world today which focuses on protecting and perpetuating the traditional family against the unrelenting attacks from the left-wing liberal forces of globalization, particularly George Soros.
The International Organization for the Family began back in 1997 in Illinois. They gather thousands of people every year at their international conference conference which has been held in places like Warsaw, Madrid, Sydney and Amsterdam. They were recently in Budapest with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban who of course is a hero on this channel. He was their keynote speaker and the host of the entire Congress in Budapest.
The World Congress Families really is a wonderful networking conference that brings together the frontline leaders in this global cultural war, this epic battle between anti-traditionalist globalization and the fully re-traditionalist nationalism that's going on quite literally all over the globe.
The theme for this year's conference is just a perfect extension of what this channel is dedicated to. The theme is ‘Wind of Change, Europe and the Global Pro-family Movement’.
What I think you really need to get here is that it's not just this channel that's seeing this massive paradigm shift, this major change in direction of the social and cultural winds in Europe, towards a fully conservative nationalist and traditionalist vision of life.
You're going to hear from leaders such as Matteo Salvini himself say those very same things. Indeed the international organization of the family has been on the front lines of this European renewal, this massive shift back to the nation, culture, custom and tradition and most especially a thoroughly pro-life, pro-family political policy that's beginning to dominate so many nations in Europe.
We've actually talked about a nationalist baby boom going on in Central and Eastern Europe of late, for example in Viktor Orbán's Hungary. They instituted a policy in 2015 called the Family Housing Allowance Program that gave very generous subsidies to buy or build new homes based on the number of children the couple had. They also introduced several other pro-family measures, and the like.
Now the data is coming in after the last few years of the implementation of these pro-life policies, and what we're seeing is that Hungary has indeed experienced a baby boom over the last few years. The total fertility rate is rising quite dramatically from 2010, nearing the 2.1 children per couple replacement level. In fact hungary has so effectively reversed its population decline that it is just behind France and Austria in terms of the highest birth rates in Europe. We're seeing something very similar going on as well in Poland and Russia.
In Poland the conservative Law and Justice party has been implementing pro-family measures similar to those in Hungary and again the data is in. Poland has gone from one of the lowest birth rates in Europe to having one of the highest, literally in just a matter of months. They were in 20th place among European re-population statistics in 2015. Today Poland ranks fourth just behind Hungary which is just behind France and Austria.
We're seeing very similar results in Russia as well. Russia experienced a 20% birth increase over the last couple years. 2015 was the first year that Russia experienced an increase of births since the fall of the Soviet Union we can see every year a ceremony at the Kremlin where Vladimir Putin himself honors publicly families that have like 8 or more children, you know these superfamilies, as it were. He publicly honors them as symbols of a flourishing future for Russia.
We can keep going and going. We could say similar things for the Republic of Georgia.
In fact a recent Rand study found that virtually all European states and just with just a handful of exceptions virtually all European states has seen fertility rate increases between the years of 2000 - 2008 and those increases were primarily the result of native Europeans having children was not the result of immigration. Immigration contributed to the numbers but the overall impact of immigration on fertility increases was rather negligible.
Europe is more and more turning back to a thoroughly pro-life, pro-family foundation for the future of European civilization and so there really is indeed a civilizational renewal going on in many many parts of Europe and the wider world. At the heart of that renewal is of course the revitalization the traditional family that along with the church and local community provides the foundation for a flourishing culture and social order for the wider nation
So needless to say if you're a nationalist of course you ought to be pro-life, pro-family, and pro tradition as these are the social and moral grounds by which a distinctively conservative nationalist vision of life is both forged and sustained.
You're not going to find a more vibrant pro-life, pro-family, pro-civilizational organization than the International Organization for the Family and their annual Congress so go ahead click on that link that I provided below, take a look at the offerings that they have for you this year in just a few months, and really think about coming out and joining us in beautiful Verona Italy on March 29 to the 31st
I'll be there with my wife - we're going to make a wonderful week of it's sort of like a second honeymoon. We’re going to meet and hang out and network with like-minded folks from all over the world I can't think of anything more exciting and enriching than that to really get a sense of this revolution that's going on.
It would be wonderful for me to meet you and spend time with you in beautiful Verona which by the way has just declared itself officially a pro-life City. I don't know if you know this but Verona now requires public funding be provided to anti-abortion organizations and pro-adoption ad campaigns so not only will the networking with like-minded folks be wonderful, and not only will the picturesque setting be beautiful, but will actually be supporting the economy of a self-declared pro-life City in the heart of Europe.
What could be better right? So click on the links below, take a look at the various speakers and offerings make sure to sign up for their newsletter and alerts and let's do this!
Come on out and join me and many others, who's that Italian guy again? ... I forget ... but anyway, come on out for a wonderful week in Verona as we celebrate the nationalist populist renewal of the traditional family which will only serve to awaken a thriving Europe for generations to come.
See you in Verona. God Bless