The Year of Faith and A Charter of Rights of the Family

By Vatican Radio
2/6/2013
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

The need for family is inscribed on the human heart

There is an escalation in the race to individualism that is breaking up the family as well as other forms of society. That is why the breakdown of the family is the first problem of contemporary society. The Church is concerned with the current crisis in marriage and the family, because she is aware that both are a Gospel, a good news for men and women today who are often alone, lacking love, parenting, and support.

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia

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VATICAN CITY (Vatican Radio/VIS) A 'Charter of Rights of the Family' and a pilgrimage of families from all four corners of the globe to the tomb of St Peter to mark the Year of Faith and 'restore the intrinsic value of the family' in a society bent on distorting its "\'genome\': these are just some of the initiatives presented to press Monday by the Pontifical Council for the Family.

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family presented the details of the conference \"From Milan to Philadelphia: Perspectives of the Pontifical Council for the Family\", which analyzed the results of the 7th World Meeting of Families that took place in Milan in May of last year. Also participating in the press conference were married couple Francesca Dossi and Alfonso Colzani, directors of the Archdiocese of Milan\'s Service for Families.

The archbishop noted that that event \"showed the vital force that families represent in the Church and in society itself. . Of course, there are many problems related to marriage and the family, but we must not forget . that the family continues to be the fundamental \'resource\' of our society. . The statistics are unanimous in pointing out that the family is the first place of safety, refuge, and support for life and remains at the top of the vast majority of young person\'s wishes."

"In Italy, for example, around 80% of young people say that they prefer marriage (whether it be civil or religious) and only 20% would choose co-habitation. In France, surveys indicate that 77% want to build their family life, staying with the same person throughout their lives. On the other hand, the need for family is inscribed on the human heart, since God tells us \'It is not good for the man to be alone\'.\"

\"This profound truth, which marks human life so radically, seems to take a beating from counter culture. There is an escalation in the race to individualism that is breaking up the family as well as other forms of society. That is why the breakdown of the family is the first problem of contemporary society.

"It is true that much of contemporary Western History has been conceived as a liberation from every bond: from ties to others and thus the family, from any responsibility toward the other. It is also true that bonds have, sometimes, oppressed individuality. But today, the vertigo of solitude with its cult of \'me\', free from any attachment and the disorientation caused by globalization further accentuate our becoming locked within ourselves and the temptation of self-absorption.\"

\"The Church,\" he continued, \"is concerned with the current crisis in marriage and the family, because she is aware that both are a Gospel, a good news for men and women today who are often alone, lacking love, parenting, and support. The Church, an \'expert in humanity\' knows well the high price of the fragility of the family, which is paid mainly by the children (born and unborn), by the elderly, and by the ill.

\"At times in various historical periods there have been transformations, even profound ones, in the institution of the family. But it has never abandoned its \'genome\', its deep dimension, that is, it's being as an institution formed by a man, a woman, and children. That is why a careful cultural reflection and an even more vigorous defense of the family is urgent, so that it might be placed and quickly at the center of politics, the economy, and culture, in the different countries as well as in the different international organizations, even involving believers of other religious traditions and all persons of good will.\"

\"The Pontifical Council for the Family feels the urgency to help from within as well as from outside the confines of the Church in order to rediscovery the value of the Family. There is great work to be done on the cultural level: working to restore value to a culture of the family so that it might once more become attractive to and relevant for life itself and for society.\"

\"Taking care of a family does not mean restricting oneself to a segment of life or of society. Today it means widening horizons beyond oneself and deciding to participate in the building of a society that is familial, even of embracing the \'family\' of peoples and nations.\"

The prelate concluded by pointing out the initiatives that the pontifical council will launch throughout this year up to the next World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia, including the presentation of the Charter of Rights of the Family which that dicastery has developed over thirty years at the sites of the United Nations in New York and Geneva, and the European Parliament.

In April, a series of seminars entitled \"Dialogues for the Family\" will begin, in which experts in different fields will address issues concerning the main challenges related to marriage and the family. In Rome, at the end of June, an international congress of Catholic lawyers will take place, focusing on the rights of the family. Finally, in October, the plenary assembly of the pontifical council will look at the Charter of the Rights of the Family. On the 26th and 27th of that month, for the Year of Faith, there will be a pilgrimage of families to the tomb of St. Peter.

- - -

Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.

Keywords: Year of faith, family, charter of rights for the family, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, Gospel of the family

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1 - 2 of 2 Comments

Paul-Emile Leray
3 months ago
The people I have the most respect for are Catholic priests. However, for what it is worth (possibly not much in the eyes of some) I am going to weigh in on this and offer a few off the top of my head and inside my heart comments:
1. Aloneness does not presuppose loneliness in all cases. (a nice priest once told me this)Some people are very independent.
2. Anyone who believes most people marry only out of pure motive is naively foolish.
3. Being among people and inside groups (the herd mentality) does not necessarily increase the sense of security a person has or in feeling loved.
4. It is interesting that many of the so-called experts who will be discussing family likely will have PhDs, are not married, and have no families of their own.
5. Some saints were married. Some saints had families. Some terrorists were and are married. Some terrorists had and have children. And most terrorists have university degrees, usually in the so-called sciences according to modern day definitions of "scientia".
6. How many of the Apostles were married?
7. King Henry VIIIth was married several times and beheaded how many of his former wives? Not all marriages are filled with love, many are filled with lust and jealousy, envy, ego and pride.
8. Where does domestic violence take place? By definition, "domestic", inside the home.
9. Before the feminists and sentimental cult-ural gender equality maniacs start assuming anything, domestic violence also means men being hurt; not only women.
10. Is all marital sex pure and loving? Not according to one priest. How many of us are products of love and how many of us are products of lust or rape? How many of us are here because our forefathers might have had an extra glass of wine or two on a cold winter evening? They might have had nothing better to dream up for entertainment, especially if the crops were harvested and the farm work all done but yet since the snow hadn't fallen yet it was too early for winter sports.
11. Over one billion Catholics on this planet, yet a one size fits all approach is what some expect?
12. The part about Catholic lawyers was especially funny. Most Catholic lawyers who are in politics are often passing into laws many of the things the Nazis were doing! Abortion? Euthanasia? The list is long indeed in this cult-ure of death and secularized world of utilitarianism and moral relativism.
13. A dream marriage to some is a nightmare to others. I know some couples who spend a lot of time in solitude, both very focussed on their purposeful work and yet feel secure in knowing they love one another and support each other. Some other couples need to be practically glued to one another to feel secure. Some complain a partner is too distant when in reality he or she might be highly independent. Others complain a partner is too smothering and controlling if they are forever around their spouse. And in most cases, it is very subjective and what one couple would find a perfect reality another couple next door might find that very same reality a nightmare.
14. For some, birds of a feather flock together; for others, opposites attract. Some feel better with similar hobbies and interests; others find it more interesting when both partners offer different perspectives to each other. What is the objective truth towards happy marriages and families? I would certainly think faith, love, charity, hope, reason, rooted in as much objective truth and therefore reality is important.
15. And what about those of us who love the Catholic Church, would like to be priests and be married; but can not do both, precisely because we are Roman Catholic? The reality is that some of us might just end up doing neither, being neither a priest nor married. Therefore? If that happens to too many, it is on one level possibly neither good for the future numbers of priests nor is it good for more Catholic marriages nor is it good for more Catholic families; since some simply end up single. Therefore, while it might contribute to a culture of life for the person struggling with some of these realites mentionned in point #15; it also unwittingly risks contributing to a culture of death when seen not in the theological and philosophical Christian Catholic sense, but rather from a stand-point of having the immediate direct family tree grow one more ring. If the decision ends up being, with high awareness, a desire to both be a priest and be married; since it is an either/or reality; if the decision is too difficult to make then it could risk resulting in simply neither, that is remaining single. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is one potential reality and logical outflow of not being able to make that 'either' I do this or 'either' I do that type of decision since I can't do 'both'.
16. And with all this written above, I still in my heart must honestly write that I believe it is best for a Catholic priest to not be married. Why? He is, over-all, likely more objective with and available for his flock. Besides, a married man with a family has the wisdom and knowledge of his own marriage and family; that being, his experience, one in millions. In other words, married men and women are perhaps objective about their own marriages and families but their reality is not necessarily representative of the reality of another couple and their family. If anything, the single person quite possibly has more objective truth since he or she might be less attached and less subjective about what are often sentimentalities, emotions, opinions.
17. And with all this, what the heck do I know? As a great Jesuit wrote, "what does anyone know?" (about certain matters)
18. "It is not good for man to be alone". And yet, after Eve was formed from one of Adam's ribs they both got into trouble when both disobeyed God. So, on one hand it might be not good to be alone but yet if you fall in love you might very well get into a lot of trouble! That first woman formed from an extracted rib sometimes perhaps left the man wishing he was alone at times.
19. Happy logic chopping in trying to compartmentalize what an ideal marriage and family ought to be like. (and please let us remember humans are much more complex than blueprints logically thought out to work for material objects with no heart, spirit, soul, mind, or body.) Analyzing 'how to' swim from the side of a swimming pool is excellent for writing books on how to swim, but actually swimming helps the writer understand why some might be better suited for certain styles of swimming while others are perhaps suited for different approaches.
20. One final point. In the first half of the 20thC, many people were married, families were larger, and then with all their wisdom our ancestors went and had 2 world wars! And this is progress? The only true progress is spiritual progress, since tech progress without spiritual progress will result in simply progressing from the stick to the slingshot to the gun to the missile to the bomb! (but signed into positive law by politicians, some of them Catholic!) And then, after all this, it will be defined as 'terrorism' if the others attack, but self-defense or pro-active preemptive strikes if whoever is doing the defining attacks. And after that? The winners will write the his-story books since the losers will be dead, jailed, or have lost their voices! And of course, if everything is properly presented and marketed according to subjective personal whims such as nationalistic pride; then much light will be placed on the perceived good while the perceived evil will either be omitted, down-played, or relegated to the furnace room of the home instead of highlighted on the kitchen table for all to see and enjoy. And of course, it all depends what the his-story-ian had for breakfast on the day he did his writing and how he felt as well since after all he too is a subjective sentimental emotional opinionated biped on the planet of the apes (no, humans)! (in suits, with ties, glasses, and college degrees who have learned how to eat their enemies with a fork and knife legally; while not necessarily moral) If individuals did what most governments do the world over, we'd all be in jail! (and quite possibly going to hell as well)
One final comment: look at what Hitler was promoting; then look at many positive laws now present in many industrialized so called advanced nations. And then, consider if what a brilliant Jesuit said: "Hitler did win the war!"; is true or not true? And that is sad, but unfortunately has a lot of truth to it. Let us see reality, instead of focussing on subjective sentimentality and emotivism, opinions, and live and let live; while going with the flow. Going with the flow? If the ship is headed for the edge of Niagara Falls, go against the flow. (that's what Jesus did)
Paul-Emile Leray
abey
3 months ago
Faith is in the works, wanting to do & doing are not the same.

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