Character forge

In the academic year 2024/2025, the Polish Association of Defenders of Human Life implemented a program of prenatal education "Pro-Life Leaders' Cusnia" aimed at students and graduates of social, humanities, medical and theological directions. The aim of this technological initiative was to train people who intend to become leaders in the future of the movement for the defence of life in the local environment. 56 participants from all over Poland joined the programme. The year-round conflict was successfully completed by 42 people.

The program consisted of 4 components. The lecture component provided specialist cognition of bioethics, philosophical anthropology, procreative medicine, psychology and prenatal pedagogy, household pastoralism. The participants were presented with the following subjects: human fertility – between endocrinology and epigenetics, contraception in a biomedical perspective, liable parenting and lifestyle medicine, fetal cell lines, postcoital pill, ectopic pregnancy, pregnancy trooblastic disease, introduction to psychology and prenatal pedagogy, competence of the conceived child, prenatal binatal parenthood, prenatal bond, psychosocial aspects of prenatal diagnostics, psychosocial and theological-pastoral aspects of spontaneous abortions, pastoralism for the service of life – guidelines of the Dicastery for Świecki, household and Life, theological basis of the spiritual adoption of the conceived child. Among the lecturers included: Dr n. med. Justyna Stępkowska, dr n. med. Dorota Jarczewska, dr n. med. Iwon Rawick, dr n. hum. Emilia Lichtenberg-Kokoszka, dr n. social. Piotr Guzdek, o dr n. theol. Samuel Karwacki OSPE.

The applicable component included the diagnosis of the selected bioethic problem in the local environment. Participants were required to admit the procedures for funerals of dead children and the form of pastoral companionship to parents after failure or the rules for providing palliative perinatal care by the nearest perinatal hospice; successively, to make a written diagnosis and to accompany proposals for solutions to accelerate social support for families after prenatal failure in the local community.

The conference component required participants to prepare and give a lecture on lectures and practices under the First National Colloquium of Prenatal Education entitled "Family in the Face of Bioethical Problems – A Normative aspect", which took place from 28 to 29 May 2025 at the Catholic University of Lublin John Paul II. The two-day conference brought together young researchers of obstetrics, nursing, social work, psychology and prenatal pedagogy, bioethics and moral theology. The symposium began a professorial session, in which introductory lectures were given by academics representing various subdisciplines of household sciences, headed by prof. Dorothy Kornas-Biela, a pioneer of prenatal pedagogy in Poland. Subsequent sessions were devoted to speeches by students, graduates and PhD students. A full of 28 papers were given. Co-organizer of the conference was the Chair of KUL household Sciences. The media patronage over the event was held by editorials: “Niedziela Guest”, Radio Plus Lublin and TVP3 Lublin. The symposium was accompanied by a pro-life exhibition “We Love all Life” showing the beauty of parenting and prenatal improvement of the child.

The formation component focused the attention of participants of the program on the encyclical "Evangelium vitae" of St John Paul II, whose 30th anniversary of the announcement was 2025. Monthly meetings devoted to the consideration of individual passages of encyclicals were combined with a lecture or evidence of invited guests, including women with prenatal violence, parents after the failure of the kid due to spontaneous miscarriage, coordinator of prenatal care at the perinatal hospice. Lectures were besides presented to grow the heritage of John Paul II's teaching, in peculiar concerning body theology in applicable terms and critical assessment of sex ideology. The participants of Kuźnia besides had the chance to perceive to the pro-life Advent retreat, which was given by Fr Prof. hab. Paweł Bortkiewicz TChr, a specialist in bioethics and Catholic social science, a long-standing Dean of the Faculty of Theology at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. The retreat was recorded at the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Kraków-Lagiewniki and aired on Advent Sundays.

The objectives of the task were strictly educational and formal. Most teaching activities were carried out utilizing distant learning tools. Participants did not bear the costs of participation in the programme.

Dr. Piotr Guzdek