C-Fam is ten years old!

[SILVERNAME]

August 15, 2007
Feast of the Assumption

Dear Colleague,

 Today, August 15, 2007, C-FAM marks an extremely important milestone for it was ten years ago today that we first opened our doors. Today C-FAM is ten years old! 

 In an age when organizations open and then fade and then close, it is a remarkable achievement for anyone ever connected to C-FAM, especially employees and donors, that we have lasted ten years and are growing stronger each and every day.

 Regular citizens had been involved in the UN social policy debate since the Cairo Conference in 1994. After a few years and a few more conferences it became obvious that there needed to be a full time office of laymen at the UN in New York working on these issues. In fact, the Holy See made a specific call that such an office be opened. None of the biggest groups acted, so a brave visionary named Theresa Bell of Human Life International-Canada did. She raised the initial seed money and found a small nucleus of people --- including me --- to open C-FAM's doors. 

 In ten years we have participated in every major social debate at the United Nations. We have published more than 500 editions of our weekly Friday Fax, which has gathered an on-line community around the world totaling upwards of 100,000. We have published eight White Paper reports that take a close and scholarly look at institutions and ideas that are a threat to life, faith, family and nation. And we have played a key role in a coalition of groups that has stopped the social radicals from their main goals at the UN.

 We have done this almost exclusively with the widow's mite. We rarely get any foundation grants though thankfully we get a few. We are not backed by big-bucks donors, though thankfully we have a few. But, 95% of our annual budget comes from those who sit down at the kitchen table and write us checks for $10, $20, or $50. We have a nice number of them, though, which is what keeps us independent and growing. 

 One of the blessings of C-FAM and what has made us attractive to our supporters is that we have never changed our mission. Though we have been tempted by others, we have never lost focus. We have focused like a laser beam on one thing and one thing only: protecting the unborn and families from the social radicals at the UN and other international institutions. And this will never change. 

 I am proud to unveil for you today for the first time a kind of codification of this blessing and focus. We just completed a months-long process of strategic planning which will help guide our work over the next many years and here are some of the results.

C-FAM’S CORE VALUES
(WHAT WILL NEVER CHANGE)

Fidelity to the Magisterium of the Catholic Church
Professionalism
Perseverance
Truth Telling

C-FAM’S MISSION
(WHY WE EXIST)

To advance the cause of life and family
at international institutions
and to publicize the debate.

C-FAM’S VISION
(OUR LONG-TERM GOAL)

To preserve genuine international law
by discrediting socially radical policies the UN.

 Let me close with a recitation of the greatest achievements of the pro-life and pro-family coalition of which C-FAM is a proud and integral part. Our opponents sought to make abortion a universal human right and they lost because we stopped them. The social radicals sought to redefine the family and they lost because we stopped them. They sought to redefine gender and they lost because we stopped them. Though we have won these victories, our opponents never stop and they never sleep and they have millions of dollars so our work continues.

 So, thanks to all those who made these past ten years possible --- employees, donors, board members, coalition partners, and our opponents. Here's to another ten or twenty or thirty years, until the job is done!

Yours sincerely,

Austin Ruse
President
Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM)

Visit us at www.c-fam.org

 

[stbruno]

Happy Anniversary