VATICAN CITY, JAN 26, 2003 (VIS) - Appearing at his study window at noon today, Pope John Paul addressed the pilgrims assembled in St. Peter's Square, reminding everyone of the just-concluded Fourth Meeting of Families in Manila, the Philippines. He said that the meeting's theme, "The Christian Family: Good News for the Third Millennium," was "very significant," adding that "the faithful union of a man and a woman, blessed by Christ's grace, constitutes an authentic Gospel of life and hope for mankind."
"In the Apostolic Exhortation 'Familiaris consortio', I wrote that the future of society goes through the family," the Pope recalled. "But what family are we talking about? Certainly not the unauthentic one based on individual egoism. Experience shows that such a 'caricature' of the family has no future and cannot give a future to any society."
He explained that "the family is, rather, 'good news' in the measure in which it welcomes and makes its own the perennial vocation that God gave at the start of mankind. This primary life project is also shared, thank God, by many non-Christian couples. The family thus appears today as a privileged path of dialogue among diverse religions and cultures, and therefore as a path of reconciliation and peace."
The Holy Father then prayed the angelus with the faithful, after which he remarked on today's celebration of the World Day of Lepers as well as the day of peace marked by the young boys and girls of Catholic Action in Rome.
On the former, he noted that 2003 "marks the centenary of the birth of Raoul Follereau, whose name is forever linked to the fight against leprosy, poverty and marginalization. How current is his appeal which invites us all to earmark resources not for bellicose arsenals but rather for the fight against misery and illness!"
John Paul II was then joined by two young people from Catholic Action, who released doves from his window "as a message of fraternity and hope." Catholic Action dedicates the last Sunday of January to peace.
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