The Challenge of Educating for Freedom

This is the title of the reflection of the Undersecretary of the Dicastery, Gabriella Gambino, on one of the hot topics to be addressed at the upcoming World Meeting in Dublin: educating children in accordance with God’s project. The intervention draws on the essay “La testimonianza della famiglia cristiana in una società secolarizzata e pluralista” (The Testimony of the Christian Family in a Secularized and Pluralist Society), published in S. Kampowski (ed.), Islam europeo e famiglia occidentale: quale impatto e quali sinergie? (Cantagalli, 2018), pp. 91-110. Two key points regarding the Christian family are highlighted: the filial identity of every person is formed in the family and the bond between faith and moral life within the family. These are the factors that give the family founded on the sacrament of marriage “the ability to become an authentic witness in the secularized world.” The words pronounced in 2015 by Pope Francis, in a Catechesis on the family, are a warning: “If we do not find a surge of respect for this covenant, capable of protecting new generations from distrust and indifference, children will come into the world ever more uprooted from the mother’s womb. The social devaluation for the stable and generative alliance between man and woman is certainly a loss for everyone. We must return marriage and the family to the place of honor!”