The Pontifical Council for the Family presents the initiative “The Great Mystery: the Gospel of the family, school of humanity for our times”

Vatican City, 16 May 2015 (VIS) – This morning a press conference was held in the Holy See Press Office for the presentation of the project “The Great Mystery: the Gospel of the Family, school of humanity for our times”, promoted by the Pontifical Council for the Family and by Maestro Andrea Bocelli. It is a series of events, in particular light and sound shows, to take place in different European cities during the year dedicated to reflection on the family in view of the upcoming Synod assembly in October. The speakers at the conference were Bishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, the tenor Andrea Bocelli, and Cardinal Lluis Martinez Sistach, archbishop of Barcelona, the first city to host the event in the Basilica of the Sagrada Familia.

Cardinal Martinez Sistach recalled the universal dimension of Barcelona's basilica, which is visited by more than three million people every year, and its wealth of biblical, theological and liturgical symbolism. He emphasised that the initiative of the Pontifical Council, which will open during a time dedicated to the holy family, will propose, through beauty, music and thought, to “present the beauty and transcendence of the mystery of the Christian family, which consists of an intimate community of life and love between spouses and between parents, children, brothers and sisters, in the bosom of a much larger family, in society and in the Church. The great virtues and values of today's Christian family are necessary and very urgent. We must not forget that Vatican Council II, speaking of marriage and the family, tells us that the well-being of people, society and the Church are strictly linked to the prosperity of the conjugal and family communities”.

“The basilica of the Sagrada Familia is a manifestation of the great mystery of God and man”, explained the archbishop of Barcelona. “In our time, in which man attempts to build a life without God, as if He had nothing to say to us, this magnificent temple has great meaning. Gaudi, in his masterpiece, shows us that God is the true measure of man. That the secret of his authentic originality resides, as he himself said, in returning to his origins, which are God. The basilica, in the middle of this great city, a space of beauty, faith and hope, leads man to the encounter with He Who is Truth and Beauty itself”.