Peace begins at home: families are the cradle of the future of humanity

On 21 November, the French Catholic Family Associations (AFC) marked their 120th anniversary with a conference in Paris titled “Families are the cradle of the future of humanity (Pope Leo XIV)”.

Closing the event, Gabriella Gambino, Undersecretary of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, offered a reflection on Family and peace: a solid marital bond as the foundation. Gambino said: “The family is not an isolated microcosm. It is a social actor; it acts in and has an impact on public life. […] Through the values it cultivates – trust, gift, forgiveness, respect, love – and through the bonds it creates among people in the social environment, the family can spread these goods outward and become a builder of peace.”

Gambino highlighted how significant it was that Pope Leo XIV, faced with the world’s call to overcome the forces that disrupt relationships and society, repeatedly invoked the need for strong marriage unity.

Ending violence beginning within the family

A family that can convey experiences of peace, she stressed, is a stable family – one that, despite each person’s weaknesses and mistakes, keeps getting back up, forgiving, and reconciling. A family that always gives itself another chance. That’s why we must work together to help families develop a pedagogy of peace: from door to door, from one generation to the next, from family to family.

Speaking to family networks, the Undersecretary urged them to promote strategies and models of disarmament to end all forms of violence, beginning within the family. “We must be real.”, she said. “Peace begins at home, in everyday life, in the respect between man and woman, in learning to let go of the urge to possess the other. It begins with rejecting a priori the possibility of choosing to suppress human life – an option offered today by laws on abortion, euthanasia, and assisted suicide, which undermine the most fundamental relationships within families.”

French Catholic Family Associations: a national lay network dedicated to promoting the Social Doctrine of the Church

The AFC acts as a national lay network dedicated to promoting and representing the family in public life, in line with the principles of the Social Doctrine of the Church. More than 250 participants from French Catholic Associations active in politics, economics, culture, and pastoral ministry, attended the roundtables. Distinguished speakers included Monsignor Benoît Bertrand, Vice President of the French Bishops’ Conference.