Marriage, Intimacy and Democracy

2 September 2003
Georges Eid
Professor of Sociology, Institut des sciences de la famille, Université Catholique de Lyon

Relationships between men and women are becoming more and more intimate because they are increasingly based on egalitarianism and free will. The lecture traces the emergence of this intimacy, which is founded on the private revealing of one's self to the other. This self-intimacy is enhanced by a physical intimacy within a private sphere that is gradually becoming democratic. There is thus a strong, organic link between democracy and genuine intimacy. Democracy is slowly filtering through to the private sphere, as Western society gradually abandons the notion of complementarity between the sexes (which has often served as a pretext for male domination) and, slowly but surely, adopts the notion of interdependence. Hence, marriage is being defined more and more as a domestic democracy.

L'union conjugale comme point de départ pour une nouvelle évangélisation

23 October 2003
Godfried Card. Danneels
Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels

Dès le début de son pontificat, le pape Jean-Paul II appelle les fidèles à une nouvelle évangélisation. Beaucoup y voient aussi un nouveau rôle pour la famille, bien que la transmission de la foi au sein de celle-ci n'est plus une évidence. Selon le cardinal Danneels c'est le mariage, avant même la famille, qui sert de point de départ pour une nouvelle annonce de l'évangile. Puisque les couples mariés sont un signe de l'amour entre le Christ et l'Église, ne sont-ils pas de ce fait les principaux témoins et messagers de la Bonne Nouvelle de l'amour de Dieu pour chaque homme et femme?

Marriage - A Bedrock of Modern Societies?

18 November 2003
Mark Eyskens
Former Prime Minister of Belgium

The family increasingly emerges as an issue on the agenda of political parties and governments. Can the same be said for marriage? Family policies seem to be based on the recognition of parenthood rather than marriage. Along with alternative forms of cohabitation, marriage appears to be a private life choice which is of no particular importance for society. Can the long-term marital commitment make any demand to be protected or supported by the state? Former Prime Minister and well renowned economist Mark Eyskens sets out to investigate the benefits of marriage and clarifies what values are at stake.

Life in the Laboratory: Marriage and Family - a Bioethical Analysis

16 December 2003
Roberto dell'Oro
Professor of Bioethics, The Bioethics Institute, Loyola Marymount University, USA

In Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World, life begins with fertilization in a "squat gray building" - a laboratory. Life in the laboratory is the gateway to the Brave New World. We stand today fully on the treshold of that gateway. How far and how fast should we travel through this entrance? Should we allow or encourage the initiation and growth of human life in the laboratory? What will be the consequences of such a decision for our understanding of human life, the meaning of our embodiment, our sexuality, and the relation to generations past and future? The lecture will focus, in a special way, on the redefinition of lineage and parenthood, embodiment and gender made possible by some of the most recently developed technologies of assisted reproduction. Furthermore, it will analyze their impact upon our understanding of marriage and the family.