Vatican Information Service (VIS) reports that Pope Francis
sent a message to participants in the 47th Social Week for Italian Catholics,
which will be held from 12 - 15 September in Turin, to commend their choice of
the theme “The Family: Hope and Future for Italian Society” and for linking the
family with these two concepts. The Pope also commented that for the Christian
community, the family is “a path for generations through which faith, love and
fundamental moral values are transmitted, as well as concrete solidarity, hard
work, patience, and also plans, hope, and future. All of this - which the
Christian community lives in the light of faith, hope and charity - it has
never kept to herself, but every day it becomes leaven in the dough of society,
for the greater common good.”
The tradition of the Social Weeks began in 1907 and one of
its promoters was the blessed Giuseppe Toniolo. This will in fact be the first
Week convened since his beatification on 28 April 2012. The Weeks are proposed
as high profile cultural and ecclesiastical initiatives which aim to face and,
if possible, anticipate the at times radical challenges posed by the evolution
of society.
“Hope and future”, writes the Pope, “presuppose memory. The
memory of the elderly gives us the support we need to continue on our path. The
future of society ... is rooted in the elderly and the young: the latter
because they have the strength and youth to carry history forward, and the
former because they are the source of living memory. A population that does not
take care of the elderly and of children and the young has no future, because
it abuses both its memory and its promise”.
“As the Church, we offer a concept of the family rooted in
the Book of Genesis, of the unity in the difference between man and woman, and
the fruitfulness of this complementarity, and we recognise it as an asset for
all, as the first natural society. … The family understood in this way remains
the first and principle building block of society and of an economy on a human
scale. … The consequences, positive or negative, of decisions of a principally
cultural or political nature in relation to the family touch upon the various
areas of the life of a society and a country”.
In his message, Pope Francis reiterated that we cannot
ignore the suffering of many families caused by a lack of employment, housing
problems, the fractures that may develop within a family or a marriage, and
“the violence that unfortunately lurks and does damage inside our homes”.
However at the same time, he concluded, we must remember the “simple, but
beautiful and courageous witness given by many families, who experience
matrimony and parenthood with joy, illuminated and supported by the grace of
the Lord, without fear of facing the moments of the cross that, lived in union
with the Lord, do not obstruct the path of love, but rather make it stronger
and more complete”.
