Families: “Bricks of Every Society”

“The most beautiful thing God created—as the Bible tells us—is the family; He created a man and a woman, and He gave them everything, entrusting the world them: grow, multiply, cultivate the land, make it let it be fruitful, let it grow.” This was said by the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, a few days ago at the World Congress on the Family held in Chisinau, Moldova.

The cardinal focused on the experience of the last World Meeting of Families recently celebrated in Dublin: “The many points of view and the testimonies that have been presented are particularly useful, because they have indicated, in a very tangible way, the unique beauty of conjugal love and of the family in God’s plan of salvation “.

Card. Parolin noted the role that families must play in “deeply fragile” times for human relationships: “Families, whose nature is given by God and whose vocation is love, are today—perhaps more than ever—called to be a beacon of hope, a ray of light in our world. The truth of marriage and the family is lasting. It is also vital that it continues being proclaimed in its entirety.”

According to the Vatican Secretary of State, the family is the first school where we learn the meaning of our common humanity. The Cardinal recognized that many families uphold Christian values ​​and are a source of “wisdom and strength” for society as a whole; he, then, assured that “the need to encourage and support families is a reality particularly close to the heart of Pope Francis.” “In his Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia—he recalled—, the Holy Father meditates on the joy of love lived by families and the beauty of marriage. Reflecting on the wide range of challenges and inviting everyone to offer them support, guidance, and support.”

The cardinal explained that the serious challenges facing today’s families derive from an individualistic, consumerist, and utilitarian culture: on the other hand, the individualistic culture, the cardinal recalled, “enjoys enormous prestige in the media world, finance, and politics but, in the end, reduces intermediate institutions like the family to nothing more than a non-essential option.”

Yet, the family is the “brick of every society”, underlined Card. Parolin, because it is a community of love and life in which fundamental human differences, between the sexes and between generations, promote mutual growth and development. “This is why—continued the Cardinal—we must clearly state that the family contributes, and will always contribute, to the harmony and development of every society: the structure of a society depends on the structure of the family and the relationships that they are cultivated there.”