Vatican City, 18 October 2014 (VIS) –
This morning a press conference was held in the Holy See Press Office
to present the Message of the Third Extraordinary Assembly of the
Synod of Bishops, dedicated to the “Pastoral challenges to the
family in the context of evangelisation” (5-19 October). The
speakers were Cardinals Raymundo Damasceno Assis, archbishop of
Aparecida, Brazil, delegate president; Gianfranco Ravasi, president
of the Pontifical Council for Culture and president of the Commission
for the Message and Oswald Gracias, archbishop of Bombay, India. The
full text of the message is published below:
“We, Synod Fathers, gathered in Rome
together with Pope Francis in the Extraordinary General Assembly of
the Synod of Bishops, greet all families of the different continents
and in particular all who follow Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the
Life. We admire and are grateful for the daily witness which you
offer us and the world with your fidelity, faith, hope, and love.
Each of us, pastors of the Church,
grew up in a family, and we come from a great variety of backgrounds
and experiences. As priests and bishops we have lived alongside
families who have spoken to us and shown us the saga of their joys
and their difficulties.
The preparation for this synod
assembly, beginning with the questionnaire sent to the Churches
around the world, has given us the opportunity to listen to the
experience of many families. Our dialogue during the Synod has been
mutually enriching, helping us to look at the complex situations
which face families today.
We offer you the words of Christ:
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice
and opens the door, I will enter his house and dine with him, and he
with me”. On his journeys along the roads of the Holy Land, Jesus
would enter village houses. He continues to pass even today along the
streets of our cities. In your homes there are light and shadow.
Challenges often present themselves and at times even great trials.
The darkness can grow deep to the point of becoming a dense shadow
when evil and sin work into the heart of the family.
We recognise the great challenge to
remain faithful in conjugal love. Enfeebled faith and indifference to
true values, individualism, impoverishment of relationships, and
stress that excludes reflection leave their mark on family life.
There are often crises in marriage, often confronted in haste and
without the courage to have patience and reflect, to make sacrifices
and to forgive one another. Failures give rise to new relationships,
new couples, new civil unions, and new marriages, creating family
situations which are complex and problematic, where the Christian
choice is not obvious.
We think also of the burden imposed by
life in the suffering that can arise with a child with special needs,
with grave illness, in deterioration of old age, or in the death of a
loved one. We admire the fidelity of so many families who endure
these trials with courage, faith, and love. They see them not as a
burden inflicted on them, but as something in which they themselves
give, seeing the suffering Christ in the weakness of the flesh.
We recall the difficulties caused by
economic systems, by the “the idolatry of money and the
dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose”
which weakens the dignity of people. We remember unemployed parents
who are powerless to provide basic needs for their families, and
youth who see before them days of empty expectation, who are prey to
drugs and crime.
We think of so many poor families, of
those who cling to boats in order to reach a shore of survival, of
refugees wandering without hope in the desert, of those persecuted
because of their faith and the human and spiritual values which they
hold. These are stricken by the brutality of war and oppression. We
remember the women who suffer violence and exploitation, victims of
human trafficking, children abused by those who ought to have
protected them and fostered their development, and the members of so
many families who have been degraded and burdened with difficulties.
“The culture of prosperity deadens us…. all those lives stunted
for lack of opportunity seem a mere spectacle; they fail to move us”.
We call on governments and international organizations to promote the
rights of the family for the common good.
Christ wanted his Church to be a house
with doors always open to welcome everyone. We warmly thank our
pastors, lay faithful, and communities who accompany couples and
families and care for their wounds.
***
There is also the evening light behind
the windowpanes in the houses of the cities, in modest residences of
suburbs and villages, and even in mere shacks, which shines out
brightly, warming bodies and souls. This light—the light of a
wedding story—shines from the encounter between spouses: it is a
gift, a grace expressed, as the Book of Genesis says, when the two
are “face to face” as equal and mutual helpers. The love of man
and woman teaches us that each needs the other in order to be truly
self. Each remains different from the other that opens self and is
revealed in the reciprocal gift. It is this that the bride of the
Song of Songs sings in her canticle: “My beloved is mine and I am
his… I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine”.
This authentic encounter begins with
courtship, a time of waiting and preparation. It is realized in the
sacrament where God sets his seal, his presence, and grace. This path
also includes sexual relationship, tenderness, intimacy, and beauty
capable of lasting longer than the vigour and freshness of youth.
Such love, of its nature, strives to be forever to the point of
laying down one’s life for the beloved. In this light conjugal
love, which is unique and indissoluble, endures despite many
difficulties. It is one of the most beautiful of all miracles and the
most common.
This love spreads through fertility
and generativity, which involves not only the procreation of children
but also the gift of divine life in baptism, their catechesis, and
their education. It includes the capacity to offer life, affection,
and values—an experience possible even for those who have not been
able to bear children. Families who live this light-filled adventure
become a sign for all, especially for young people.
This journey is sometimes a
mountainous trek with hardships and falls. God is always there to
accompany us. The family experiences his presence in affection and
dialogue between husband and wife, parents and children, sisters and
brothers. They embrace him in family prayer and listening to the Word
of God—a small, daily oasis of the spirit. They discover him every
day as they educate their children in the faith and in the beauty of
a life lived according to the Gospel, a life of holiness.
Grandparents also share in this task with great affection and
dedication. The family is thus an authentic domestic Church that
expands to become the family of families which is the ecclesial
community. Christian spouses are called to become teachers of faith
and of love for young couples as well.
Another expression of fraternal
communion is charity, giving, nearness to those who are last,
marginalized, poor, lonely, sick, strangers, and families in crisis,
aware of the Lord’s word, “It is more blessed to give than to
receive”. It is a gift of goods, of fellowship, of love and mercy,
and also a witness to the truth, to light, and to the meaning of
life.
The high point which sums up all the
threads of communion with God and neighbor is the Sunday Eucharist
when the family and the whole Church sits at table with the Lord. He
gives himself to all of us, pilgrims through history towards the goal
of the final encounter when “Christ is all and in all”. In the
first stage of our Synod itinerary, therefore, we have reflected on
how to accompany those who have been divorced and remarried and on
their participation in the sacraments.
We Synod Fathers ask you walk with us
towards the next Synod. The presence of the family of Jesus, Mary,
and Joseph in their modest home hovers over you. United to the Family
of Nazareth, we raise to the Father of all our petition for the
families of the world:
Father, grant to all families the
presence of strong and wise spouses who may be the source of a free
and united family.
Father, grant that parents may have a
home in which to live in peace with their families.
Father, grant that children may be a
sign of trust and hope and that young people may have the courage to
forge life-long, faithful commitments.
Father, grant to all that they may be
able to earn bread with their hands, that they may enjoy serenity of
spirit and that they may keep aflame the torch of faith even in
periods of darkness.
Father, grant that we may all see
flourish a Church that is ever more faithful and credible, a just and
humane city, a world that loves truth, justice and mercy”.
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