Highlights of the 2006 National Pro-Life Conference in Vancouver
By Carroll Rees

This year’s conference had an international appeal with speakers from the Life Principles Institute who presented educational workshops and sessions based on the thought provoking principles presented in Fr. Robert Spitzer’s book Healing the Culture: A Commonsense Philosophy of Happiness, Freedom, and the Life Issues.  Fr. Spitzer, president of Gonzaga University and world renowned speaker and author, and Camille De Blasi Pauley, co-founder and president of Healing the Culture, presented six plenary sessions outlining the life principles.  Break out sessions provided opportunities to apply those principles to the life and family issues.  

The conference was opened by Rabbi Daniel Lappin, founder and president of Toward Tradition and host of a nationally syndicated radio talk show, who stressed the need to ‘defend the culture’ not just ‘heal the culture’ as the title of the conference implied.  Rabbi Lappin used humour to drive home the fact that values and morality are constantly being imposed on us: he can’t smoke his cigars in public, is pressured to park his SUV since it is bad for the environment and now is being asked to recycle towels in hotel rooms rather than use fresh ones each time he showers.  The point is that values are constantly being imposed upon us and so we should not shy away from “imposing our values”.  We should in fact be more concerned about teaching and sharing our Judeo-Christian tradition because our values and morality are good for society. 

The theme of being agents of cultural change was carried through to the plenary sessions on Healing the Culture using the Life Principles.  It was pointed out that we are not as successful as we would like to be in sharing our pro-life values because our secular society does not view life or persons as we do.  We want to share our pro-life heart and mind with others so that they will be motivated by love and start seeing people and life in different ways.  Our secular culture views a person as no more that the sum total of its material parts so naturally adopts a utilitarian view of the world.  People living in today’s world have a hard time accepting the reality that human beings have intrinsic worth and dignity and that there is value in suffering.  Of course, all this is a result of our culture turning away from God but we also recognize that it is not easy to change course.  Our culture may not recognize that it is dying because it does not have God so we need to figure out how to strategically insert Godly values into it. 
           
This is where the Life Principles come in giving us tools to train individuals to use the Healing the Culture program to bring about change in our personal relationships, organizations and the culture at large.  In the opening sessions, Camille led conference attendees though an explanation of the four levels of happiness which form the entire framework of the Life Principles program.  According to Healing the Culture “the way we define happiness will determine how we live our lives, what we think is most important, how we treat other people, what we mean by “success” and “quality of life,” how we view human rights … even how we view ourselves as human beings.” 
           
If an individual or community defines happiness based on physical pleasure and/or material possession they at a level one happiness.  If happiness is defined in terms of ego-gratification, seeking “to advance [self] at the expense of others” that individual or community is operating at a level two happiness.  When contributing to society and others as well as self-giving as gift becomes the main source of happiness, a level three happiness has been attained.  The highest form of happiness, level four, is achieved when individuals or communities put their faith in God’s unconditional love.  Camille explained that if one particular level becomes an end in itself the result can be anything from addiction, loss of focus, depression, frustration, anger, cynicism, aggression and even arrogance; however, when level four “become the focus of [life], all other levels become balanced and healthy” and “the peace that comes with surrendering all of who we are to God” becomes the reality and driving force of life.  
           
After learning the principles of happiness which define the human person and relationships Fr. Spitzer explained the Ten Life Principles, which are basically the philosophical principles that governed society until the enlightenment.  The Life Principles provide the building blocks which lead us through the four levels of happiness and help us develop from seeking personal gratification in levels one and two to searching for the truth and ways to make a difference in level three to finally surrendering to God’s loving will in level four.  Fr. Spitzer really challenged us to grow to our full potential as human beings and impact our relationships, organizations and culture.
           
Fr. Spitzer has had many opportunities to address large corporations, political bodies and religious organizations to share his wisdom about building strong and ethical leadership using these principles.  The impressive list includes Boeing, Caterpillar, Toyota, Costco, British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Cabinet, the leadership of Costa Rica, Protestant and Catholic leadership in Northern Ireland, and the Orthodox Church in Russia.
     
The plenary sessions were followed by eight workshops which presented practical ways to teach the Life Principles or use them to talk about pro-life and pro-family issues.  

Carroll Rees is the Executive Director of LifeCanada