A New Vatican Foundation for Family launched

Vatican City, 16 April 2013: A new Vatican Foundation for Family named ‘International Center Family of Nazareth’ was presented to the media on Tuesday in the Vatican. Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, President of the Pontifical Council for the family while speaking at a Press conference in the John Paul II Hall of the Holy See Press Office, about the genesis of the foundation said: If we are here today it is just because of Pope John Paul II’s infinite attention to families around the world and to give substance to his first dream for ‘he wanted to be remembered as the Pope of the family’. Dr. Salvatore Martinez, president of the National Renewal in the Holy Spirit, and chairman of the foundation also spoke on the occasion.

It was during the Second World Meeting of Families in Rio de Janeiro, October 5, 1997, which announced the intuition of an International Centre for the Family in Nazareth. On the way to the Jubilee of 2000, Pope Wojtyla placed in the construction of this center as a sign of encouragement for families around the world, the Archbishop recalled. On 15 October 2012, Pope Benedict XVI gave proper legal form to the Project and ordered the erection of the Vatican Foundation "International Center Family of Nazareth".
This Foundation was officially established on January 18 and is based at the premises of the Pontifical Council for the Family.

About the mission of the International Center for the Family, the Archbishop said that it will be a Center for Spirituality, family training and family life, parenting, pastoral care for operators in preparation for the new evangelization, church-based activities of the family.

The Foundation will be a Permanent Observer on the study of family ministry in the world and especially in the Holy Land and the Middle East in collaboration with the bishops' conferences around the world, with Catholic universities, with international institutions of Christian inspiration at the service of the family.

The foundation will also provide material support to families in need, especially the Holy Land, through international projects for fund raising.

The Center will become one of the key hubs that bring to life some of the issues that the Pontifical Council for the Family has put at the center of their activity in recent months, viz. the pivotal role of the family institution in the construction of human society; the fruitfulness of the Christian family as the subject of the evangelizing mission of the Church; the fundamental centrality of the Word of God at the center of the path of every family.
Source: VR Sedoc