Vatican City, 7 October 2015 (VIS) –
During the period of the Synod dedicated to “The vocation and the
mission of the family in the Church and the contemporary world”,
the catechesis of the Wednesday general audiences will focus on
various aspects of the relationship between the Church and the
family, the Pope announced this morning to the thousands of faithful
gathered in St. Peter's Square. Francis asked all to pray for a good
outcome of the Synod assembly, and underlined that the family
deserves all the dedication of which the Church is capable, and
therefore the Synod is called upon to interpret the care of the
Church for the family in our times.
“Men and women of today are in need
of a robust injection of family spirit”, he continued. “Indeed,
the style of relations – civil, economic, legal, professional, and
as citizens – would appear very rational, formal and organised, but
also very 'dehydrated', arid and anonymous. At times this becomes
unbearable. While seeking to be inclusive in its forms, in reality it
abandons an ever greater number of people to solitude and exclusion”.
The family, however, “opens for the
whole of society a far more human prospect: it opens children's eyes
onto life … and introduces them to the need for bonds of fidelity,
sincerity, trust, cooperation and respect; it encourages the planning
of an inhabitable world and the belief in relationships of trust,
even in difficult situations. … And we are all aware of the
indispensable nature of the care of the family for its smallest
members, the most vulnerable, the wounded, and even those who have
encountered the most disasters in the conduct of their lives”.
Nevertheless, the Pope remarked, “the
family is not granted due recognition or support in the political
and social organisation of contemporary society. I would add: not
only does the family not receive adequate recognition, but it no
longer generates learning. At times it would seem that, in spite of
all its science and technology, modern society is still not able to
translate this knowledge into better forms of civil coexistence. …
In this situation, the opposite extremes of this brutalisation of
relationships – that is, technocratic obtuseness and amoral
familism – come together and feed into one another. It is a
paradox”.
“The Church perceives today, at this
precise point, the historical meaning of her mission with regard to
the family and genuine family spirit; starting from a careful
revision of life. .. It could be said that the 'family spirit' is a
constitutional charter for the Church. This is how Christianity
should appear and should be. … The Church is and must be the family
of God”.
The Pope recalled that when Jesus
invited Peter to follow Him, He said that He would have made him a
“fisher of men”. “And this called for a new type of net. We
could say that today families are one of the most important nets for
the mission of Peter and the Church. It is not a net that takes
prisoners! On the contrary, it liberates from the treacherous waters
of abandonment and indifference, that drown many human beings in a
sea of loneliness and indifference. Families are well aware of the
dignity of being sons and not slaves or outsiders”.
“From here, from the family, Jesus
begins again his path among human beings to persuade them that God
has not forgotten them. From here Peter takes strength for his
ministry. From here the Church, in obedience to the Word of the
Master, goes out to fish offshore, sure that if it takes place, the
catch will be miraculous. May the enthusiasm of the Synod Fathers,
inspired by the Holy Spirit, kindle the zeal of a Church that
abandons the old nets and goes out to fish again, trusting in the
Word of her Lord. Let us pray intensely for this! Indeed, Christ
promised and reassures us: if even a bad father does not refuse to
give bread to his hungry children, of course God would not refuse to
give the Spirit to those who, imperfect as they are, ask with
impassioned insistence”.