VATICAN CITY, 18 JAN 2009 (VIS) - The Italian city of Milan will be the site of the next World Meeting of Families, due to take place in spring 2012 on the theme "The Family, Work and Feast". Benedict XVI made the announcement in the course of a live television linkup with pilgrims participating in the closing Mass for the Sixth World Meeting of Families, being held on the square in front of the basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico.
"The family", said the Pope, "is the essential foundation for society and peoples, an irreplaceable benefit for children, who deserve to come into the world as the fruit of love, of the total and generous giving of the parents. ... The family occupies a primary position in the education of the individual. It is a true school of humanity and of perennial values. No-one has ever brought themselves into being".
The Holy Father highlighted how "it was from others that we received the gift of life, which then develops and matures with the truths and values we learn through relation and communion with others. ... The family founded on indissoluble marriage between a man and a woman expresses this inter-relational, filial and community dimension, as well as being the environment in which human beings can be born with dignity, and grow and develop fully".
"Yet such educational efforts are hindered by a misleading concept of freedom, in which individual caprice and subjective impulses are exalted to the point that people are enclosed in the prison of their own ego. Human beings' true freedom comes from having been created in the image and likeness of God and hence must be exercised responsibly, always opting for true goodness. ... Hence, more than theories, what is needed is the closeness and love that are characteristic of the family. It is in the home that people truly learn to live, to value life and health, freedom and peace, justice and truth, work, harmony and respect".
The Pope went on to underline the vital need for "public witness and commitment from all the baptised in order to reaffirm the dignity and the unique and irreplaceable value of the family, founded on the marriage of a man and a woman and open to life. ... Legislative and administrative measures also have to be promoted that support families in their inalienable rights, which are necessary in order for them to continue their extraordinary mission", he said.
After reiterating his closeness to, and giving assurances of his prayers for, "all families who bear faithful witness in particularly difficult situations", Benedict XVI concluded by encouraging large families "who, though sometimes experiencing difficulties and misunderstandings, give an example of generosity and trust in God", expressing the hope that "they may not lack the aid they need". He also mentioned families "suffering poverty, illness, marginalisation and emigration, and especially Christian families persecuted for their faith".
Finally the Pope entrusted all the families of the world to the protection of the Blessed Virgin, "so venerated in the noble land of Mexico with the title of Our Lady of Guadalupe".
AC/FAMILIES/MEXICO VIS 20090119 (530)
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