Working together on the quality of family relationships for a culture of ties

The Congress “Relational health in family relationships” – organized in Mexico City by the International Network of Academic Institutes for the Family (REDIUF) and the Network of Latin-American Academic Institutes for the Family (REDIFAM), under the auspices of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life and hosted by the Anáhuac University – ended on Wednesday, 26 June.

Gambino: a network to strengthen a Christian thought on family that reaches the next generations

REDIUF is the international network set up during the World Meeting of Families in Dublin in 2018, at the initiative of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, which now gathers more than 30 institutes and university centres for the family from all over the world. REDIFAM, which encompasses all Latin American Institutes at the regional level, takes part in REDIUF. It is not just a group of academic experts, but an ecclesial reality created to respond to the need to provide better formation to the people working in pastoral care of the family. Therefore, the Network is an ecclesial service designed to offer a practical response to this need for formation, which was identified through interactions between the Dicastery and the Conferences of Bishops. There is a need to “share experiences, knowledge, methodologies and research” to address together the “challenges that threaten the survival of the Christian family and the values linked to the transmission of human life”. This allows for the “creation of a stream of Christian thought that is tangible, can be shared, and above all passed on by universities to those who train the laity in pastoral care of the family” in order to reach the next generations. With these words, in her opening speech on 25 June, Prof. Gabriella Gambino, Undersecretary of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, greeted the 60 REDIUF professors and researchers present at the Congress in Mexico City and the 260 people connected online.

Starting from the Family Global Compact to develop a culture of care for relationships

The topic chosen for the Congress aligns with the first point of action of the Family Global Compact, namely “working on the quality of family relationships.” Prof. Gambino emphasized that this shared programme of actions to promote the family, launched by Pope Francis last year, has drawn the attention of the global Catholic academic community and the Conferences of Bishops on the need to “foster a culture of recognition and care for relationships,” provide assistance and support in times of crisis, ensure and strengthen marriage formation and preparation, educate on affection and sexuality based on Christian anthropology, and defend the values of marriage.

A proposal for effective network cooperation

The Undersecretary invited participants to undertake “three different types of commitments, to be developed in an integrated way:” reviewing the academic formation programmes, courses, and research proposals; opening up to exchanges and sharing of academic experiences; and systematically engaging with those responsible for pastoral care of the family in dioceses and Conferences of Bishops. The main focus is to share information, contacts and projects, in order to help bishops “implement means to train and accompany families to become ‘domestic Churches,’ consciously engaged in the social and ecclesial space.” Universities and pastoral and formation environments can work together to “get rid of obsolete structures, ineffective evangelization methods, and outdated formation programmes that no longer provide answers” and that “no longer facilitate the transmission of faith.”

The Congress spanned over two days (25 and 26 June), following an intensive programme of 14 thematic panels on the challenges that families face today in maintaining healthy relationships within the political and ecclesial communities in the areas of motherhood and fatherhood, marriage, education, fraternity, and intergenerational dialogue. Dr. Leonardo Nepi, an Official from the Dicastery for Laity, Family, and Life, also took the floor and discussed the Holy See’s commitment to promoting intergenerational solidarity.

REDIUF and REDIFAM Assemblies: Montserrat Gas-Aixendri and Lorena C. Bolzon were elected Presidents

After the end of the Congress, on Thursday, 27 June, the REDIUF Assembly took place, during which Montserrat Gas-Aixendri, professor of Canon Law and director of the Institute for Advanced Family Studies at the Faculty of Law of the International University of Catalonia (Spain), was elected President for the next two years. On the same day, the REDIFAM Assembly took place, and Lorena C. Bolzon, professor of Family Law and dean of the Institute of Family Sciences at Austral University (Argentina), was elected President.

All conference material is available at https://familia.anahuac.mx/congreso-2024/