WE MUST REDISCOVER THE VALUE OF THE FAMILY AND MARRIAGE

VATICAN CITY, DEC 1, 1999 (VIS) - In today's general audience, held in Paul VI Hall, the Pope spoke about commitment to the promotion of the family.

John Paul II indicated that in order to adequately prepare ourselves for the Jubilee, it is necessary to rediscover "the value of the family and of marriage. This is all the more urgent as today this value is being put in doubt by a large part of culture and of society."

He continued: "The very concept of the family, as a community based on matrimony between a man and a woman, is being attacked in the name of an ethical relativism that is gaining ground in large sectors of public opinion and even of civil legislation. In its turn, the crisis in the family becomes the cause of the crisis in society. No small number of pathological phenomena - from solitude to violence to drugs - may also be explained because nuclear families have lost their identity and function." The lack of family ties has repercussions, especially on children, the disabled, the sick and the elderly.

The Holy Father underlined that "the family draws its strength from the definitive alliance of love that man and woman mutually exchange, thus together becoming collaborators with God in giving the gift of life."

Man and woman are called by God to live a "profound communion" of love. "God entrusts to this 'unity of two' not only the work of procreation and family life, but the creation of history itself."

After recalling that the child is the "maximum expression of the communion between man and woman," John Paul II concluded by affirming that "contemplating God the Father means conceiving the family as a place for welcoming and promoting life. ... Through the experience of Christian families, the Church can learn to cultivate a more familial dimension among all members of the community."

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