by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
(May 19, 2008) While praising the many shining examples of good families in the world today, Pope Benedict XVI lamented the increasing number of families in crisis who are in need of support from various sectors of society.
“We are well aware of the many challenges facing families today,” the Pope said during a May 16 address to the Forum of Family Associations and the European Federation of Catholic Family Associations in Rome. “And we know how difficult it is, in current social conditions, to achieve the ideal of fidelity and solidarity in conjugal love, to bring up children, and to preserve the harmony of the family unit.
“While on the one hand — thanks be to God — there are shining examples of good families, open to the culture of life and love, on the other hand, sadly, an increasing number of marriages and families are in crisis.”
He continued: “From so many families, in a worryingly precarious state, we hear a cry for help, often an unconscious one, which clamors for a response from civil authorities, from ecclesial communities and from the various educational agencies.
“Accordingly, there is an increasingly urgent need for a common commitment to support families by every means available, from the social and economic point of view, as well as the juridical and spiritual.”
Pope Benedict XVI reminded his audience of his predecessor’s belief that “the future of humanity passes by way of the family” and drew attention to two important Church documents that will celebrate anniversaries this year: Pope Paul VI’s Encyclical on contraception, Humanae Vitae will celebrate its 40th anniversary this year and the Holy See’s 1983 “Charter of the Rights of the Family” will celebrate its 25th anniversary.
Pope Benedict said both documents work together, “because if the first underlines with authority, going against the current of the dominant culture, the quality of the love of spouses, not manipulated by egotism and open to life, the second demonstrates the inalienable rights that are enjoyed by the family, based in the marriage between a man and a woman, the natural cradle of human life.”
The Charter of the Rights of the Family is principally addressed to political leaders, he said, and it offers “those invested with responsibility for the common good a model and a point of reference upon which to base appropriate political legislation for the family. At the same time, it is addressed to all families, encouraging them to come together in the defense and promotion of their rights.”
Among the many proposals emerging from the conference, the Holy Father praised that of “the laudable commitment to mobilize citizens in support of the initiative for ‘family-friendly fiscal policy,’” which aims to urge “governments to promote family-related policies that give parents a real possibility of having children and bringing them up in the family.”
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