Vatican
City, 10 October 2013 (VIS) – This morning in the Holy See Press
Office Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical
Council for the Family, presented the twelfth plenary assembly of the
dicastery, which will take place in Rome from 23 to 25 October, and
the pilgrimage of families to the tomb of St. Peter to mark the Year
of Faith, the theme of which is “Family, live the joy of faith”
(26 and 27 October). Today's press conference also included the
presentation of a volume, published in Spanish and Italian, gathering
together thirty-five texts by Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio-Pope
Francis on the theme of the family and life, written between 1999 and
2013. The other participants in the conference were Bishop Jean
Lafitte, Msgr. Simon Vasquez and Fr. Gianfranco Grieco, O.F.M.,
respectively secretary, under-secretary and head of department of the
aforementioned Pontifical Council.
Archbishop
Paglia emphasised that the recent convocation of the third general
assembly of the Synod of Bishops (5-19 October 2014) will project new
light on the upcoming events to be held by the Pontifical Council for
the Family. “We wish to promote a great Family celebration around
Pope Francis. Rome wants to, and must, become the 'Capital' of the
family, both in Italy and worldwide. To be part of a family is good.
To make a family is beautiful: we want to shout this out to the
world, especially to families in difficulty. … If it is not good
for man to be alone, it is likewise not good for families to be
alone. The family must return to the centre of culture, politics, the
economy, finance, and the life of peoples and nations. The Family
must increasingly be the focus of the attention and concerns of the
post-conciliar Church. Pope Francis, with the celebration of the next
Synod, wishes to remind us of this urgency before it is too late. All
the dioceses of the world are invited to put themselves on the same
wavelength in order to reflect and to give new impetus to family
pastoral care”.
Bishop
Lafitte communicated the details of the calendar of the Plenary
Assembly, specifying that two of the days, 23 and 25 October, will be
dedicated to the work of the committee of the presidency, members and
consultors. On 23 October, discussions will focus on the activities
of the dicastery and its action programs, and on 25 October attention
will turn to the question of the rights of the family, taking an
interreligious approach and exploring Jewish and Islamic
perspectives. On 24 October there will be a Congress, open to the
public, on the Charter of the Rights of the Family, which celebrates
its thirtieth anniversary. The themes selected offer an
interdisciplinary approach to the question of family rights: the
theological basis for the Charter, the concept of natural marriage,
the role of the State in recognising the institution of marriage, and
the current relevance of the Charter of the Rights of the Family,
demonstrating its links to contemporary culture and society. This
document will be considered in the light of international
legislation, and there will also be a discussion on women's rights.
The final presentation will be dedicated to the difference between
aggregative and generative couples. The Pope will receive the
participants in audience on 25 October and in the afternoon of the
same day the eighth World Meeting of Families, to be held in
Philadelphia from 22 to 27 September 2015, will be presented.
Msgr.
Vasquez provided some practical information on the events to be held
on 26 and 27 October, in which 150,000 families are expected to
participate. On Saturday afternoon the Pope will meet for the first
time with families from 70 countries of all five continents in St.
Peter's Square, and on Sunday, after the eucharistic celebration, he
will bless all families throughout the world. “On Saturday
afternoon the Pope will be surrounded by hundreds of elderly people
and children, a novelty compared to other family meetings. By this
decision it was intended to give visibility to the generational
structure that characterises and enriches the life of every family
and together bring to the fore two subjects who are particularly
vulnerable and who merit greater attention”.
Finally,
Fr. Grieco presented the collection of thirty-five texts by Cardinal
Jorge Mario Bergoglio-Pope Francis on the family, commenting that the
Pope always emphasises the relationship between family, children and
the elderly. With the help of the Institute for Marriage and Family
of the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina "Santa Maria
de los Buenos Aires", the Pontifical Council has published a
volume “with themes that refer to the daily evangelical and
Franciscan preaching of Pope Francis: the culture of dialogue and
encounter, care for others, the school as a place of welcome, and so
on”. The volume includes texts on family and social solidarity,
dignity and work, and also considers more controversial matters such
as “euthanasia and abortion, divorce and same-sex marriages”.
