Event: International Symposium: The Two Shall Become One

In anticipation of the re-opening of the Synod on the Family in October, an international symposium on the creation of Adam and Eve as the foundation of the Catholic doctrine on Holy Marriage will be held on September 26, 2015, at the Centro Congressi Cavour – Via Cavour 50/A (near Termini Station) in Rome. Experts in theology, philosophy, and natural science will demonstrate that the traditional doctrine of the Church on the divine creation of Adam and Eve harmonizes with the best arguments in theology and philosophy, as well as with sound natural science, including the latest findings in biology, genetics, and paleontology.  

At the end of the nineteenth century, the first wave of the modern assault on Holy Marriage began as social revolutionaries attempted to introduce divorce into Catholic countries.  In response to these coordinated attacks on Holy Marriage, Pope Leo XIII exhorted the Bishops and theologians of the Catholic Church to defend the divine institution of Holy Marriage on the foundation of the divine creation of Adam and Eve.  In his encyclical Arcanum he told the Bishops:

The true origin of marriage, venerable brothers, is well known to all. [...] We record what is to all known, and cannot be doubted by any, that God, on the sixth day of creation, having made man from the slime of the earth, and having breathed into his face the breath of life, gave him a companion, whom He miraculously took from the side of Adam when he was locked in sleep. [...] And this union of man and woman [...] even from the beginning manifested chiefly two most excellent properties [...] namely, unity and perpetuity. (Pope Leo XIII, Arcanum, 5)

According to Monsignor Barreiro, long-time director of Human Life International in Rome:

The international symposium will demonstrate the timeless wisdom of Pope Leo XIII’s teaching while exposing the serious errors in theology, philosophy and natural science that beset alternative explanations for the origins of the first human beings.

Participants in the symposium include:

• Fr. Chad Ripperger, Ph.D., Philosophy (formerly professor of Dogmatic Theology at Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary)
• D. Q. McInerny, Ph.D., Philosophy (professor of Philosophy at Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary) 
• Fr. Thomas Hickey, M.A., Theology (Faculty, Holy Apostles Seminary)
• Mr. John Wynne, (author, A Catholic Assessment of Evolution Theory)
• Dr. John Sanford, Ph.D., Plant Genetics (author, Genetic Entropy)
• Bai Macfarlane, (Director, Mary’s Advocates)
• Fr. Francesco Giordano, STD (Director, Human Life International, Rome Office).

For further information in Europe, please contact, Fr. Francesco Giordano, STD, Director, Vita Umana Internazionale, Roma (vuiroma@tin.it); in North America and elsewhere outside of Europe, please contact Hugh Owen (howen@shentel.net).

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Please visit the Symposium's website to read Cardinal Raymond Burke's letter of welcome to participants. The event will also be streamed live.