“The laity is ever more needed in the accompaniment of families”

With a video message sent to the Dicastery, Pope Francis opened the work of the Forum "Where are we with Amoris Laetitia? Strategies for the pastoral application of the Apostolic Exhortation".

The Pope urged the participants, who are responsible for family pastoral care from more than 60 Bishops' Conferences around the world and 30 international associations and movements of the Church, to increase the participation and formation of the lay faithful and families in the accompaniment families.

"Just the warp and the weft of the masculine and feminine, in their complementarity, combine to make up the tapestry of the family, so too the sacraments of Holy Orders and marriage are both indispensable to building up the Church as a “family of families”. In this way we will be able to have a pastoral care of families in which one breathes fully the spirit of ecclesial communion."

The Pope also stressed the need to revisit the Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia in order to identify, "among the pastoral priorities indicated therein, those that best correspond to the concrete needs of each local Church" and to always develop them with creativity and missionary zeal.

In the video message, the Holy Father highlighted the value of the two Synods dedicated to the family, which have helped to bring to light so many concrete challenges that families experience in today's society, and to address them decisively in some particular areas: preparation for marriage, accompaniment of young married couples, education, attention to the elderly, closeness to wounded families or those who, in new unions, wish to live the Gospel ideal to the full.

In this year dedicated not only to the family but also to St Joseph, the Pope concluded his message with his blessing, invoking the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Joseph, "so that the grace of God may make your commitment fruitful for the good of the families of today and tomorrow".