MEXICO CITY — More than 300 pro-family organizations, 80 speakers and more than 2,500 attendees from around the world will gather in Mexico City from March 29-31 for the World Congress of Families.

The third such congress to be held and the first in Latin America, the Mexico City event is the kickoff for the Intercultural Dialogue on the Family, a series of international meetings to mark 2004 as the Year of the Family.

The purpose of the event, according to Austin Ruse, president of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute who has been involved with the congress since its inception in 1997, is to “bring pro-life, pro-family leaders and activists from all over the world together to meet each other, strategize and develop common plans.”

The impetus for such an international meeting derives from the recognition, Ruse said, that “the fight for life, faith and family is both local and global.”

The topic for the three-day event will be “The Natural Family and the Future of Nations: Growth, Development and Freedom.” According to the congress's founding organization, the Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society (www.profam. org), the “natural family is a man *********page 10 missing*******