Vatican
City, 25 October 2013 (VIS) - “The family is a community of life
with its own consistency. It is not the sum of the persons by whom it
is constituted, but rather a 'community of persons'”, said Pope
Francis, quoting Blessed John Paul II's encyclical “Familiaris
consortio”, in an address to participants in the twenty-first
plenary assembly of the Pontifical Council for the Family taking
place in Rome during these days, whom he received in audience this
morning.
The
family, continued the Pontiff, is “the place where we learn to
love, the natural centre of human life”. … Each one of us builds
his or her own personality within the family. … It is there that we
learn the art of dialogue and interpersonal communication”. For
this reason “the community-family … asks to be recognised as
such, even more nowadays, when the protection of individual rights
prevails”.
“The
family is based on marriage. Through an act of free and faithful
love, Christian couples give witness that marriage, as a sacrament,
is the foundation upon which they base their family and strengthens
the conjugal union and mutual self-giving. … Conjugal and familiar
love also clearly demonstrate the vocation of the person to love in a
unique and everlasting way, and show that the trials, sacrifices and
crises in the lives of couples, as in the family as a whole,
represent stages of growth in goodness, truth and beauty. … It is
an experience of faith in God and of reciprocal trust, profound
freedom, and holiness, because holiness presupposes self-giving with
trust and sacrifice every day throughout life!”.
The
Holy Father continued by placing special emphasis on two phases of
family life, childhood and old age, commenting that, “Children and
the elderly represent the two poles of life and are also the most
vulnerable and often the most forgotten group. A society that
abandons its children or marginalises its elderly members not only
carries out an act of injustice but also sanctions the failure of
that society. Taking care of the young and the elderly is the choice
of civilisation”.
Pope
Francis expressed his approval of the new icon of the family, created
by the Pontifical Council, which depicts the scene of the
Presentation of Jesus at the temple with Mary and Joseph who bring
the Child, as required by the law, and the two elderly figures of
Simeon and Anna who, moved by the Spirit, welcome him as the Saviour.
The title of the icon is 'His mercy extends from generation to
generation'”.
“The
'Good News' of the family”, he concluded, “is a very important
part of evangelisation, that Christians can communicate to everyone
through the witness of their lives; and they already do so – this
is evident in secularised societies. … We therefore propose to all,
with respect and courage, the beauty of marriage and the family,
illuminated by the Gospel! And for this reason we draw close, with
attention and affection, to families in difficulty, to those who are
compelled to leave their homeland, who are divided, who do not have
homes or work, or who suffer for many reasons; to couples in crisis
or those who have separated. We wish to be close to all of them”.
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