Pope urges regional administrations to support family
(January 14, 2011) Pope Benedict XVI on Friday met the administration of Rome city,
Rome Province and Lazio Region of Italy and urged them to protect and support the
traditional family. “The original cell of society is the family, based on the marriage
between a man and a woman,” the Pope told Rome mayor Giovanni Alemanno, Rome Province
president, Nicola Zingaretti and Lazio Region president Renata Polverini, who along
with their officials met the Pontiff in the Vatican to exchange New Year’s greetings.
Arguing that “it is in the family that children learn human and Christian values that
lead to a constructive and peaceful coexistence,” the Pope said, “the family, therefore
must be supported by administrative policies which are not limited to providing solutions
for emergencies, but must have as their goal the consolidation and development of
the family, and must be accompanied by adequate educative work.” He regretted that
sometimes serious cases of violence occur and some aspects of the family crisis triggered
by rapid social and cultural changes are amplified. “Even approving certain forms
of union that pervert the essence and purpose of the family, lead to penalizing those
who try to live stable affective bonds, that are guaranteed by law and publicly recognized,”
the Pontiff said denouncing alternatives to traditional family. The Pope who is also
bishop of Rome, expressed the Church’s appreciation for all the initiatives aimed
at educating the young to live their life in an act of self-giving, with a high and
sacred vision of sexuality.