Pope’s message to Brazil’s Family Week

August 12, 2013 - Pope Francis is encouraging Brazilian parents to be God’s first collaborators by giving the fundamental orientation to the life of their children, guaranteeing them a bright future. For this it is very “important that within their families parents encourage shared expressions of faith which can help children gradually mature in their own faith,” the Pope said in a message for Brazil’s national family week, August 11-17, which has as its theme, “Transmission and education of Christian faith in the family.” The Pope urged parents to pass on to their children, in words as much as by example, the fundamental truths of life, which acquire a new light from God’s revelation. Particularly in today’s culture of waste, that relativizes the value of human life, parents are called to make their children realize that life has to be defended always, even in the mother’s womb, recognizing it as God’s gift and the guarantee of mankind’s future. The Holy Father also urged for caring for the elderly, especially grandparents, who are a vivid reminder of a people and who hand down the wisdom of life.