Pope’s message to Italy’s Social Week

September 13, 2013 - Pope Francis has encouraged Italian Catholics to underscore the fact that the common good is linked to the promotion of the family based on marriage. The Pope’s exhortation came in a message to participants in the 47^th Social Week of Italy’s Catholic Church, Sept. 12-15 in Turin, on the theme, “The Family: Hope and Future for Italian Society.” The Holy Father reminded the participants that for the Christian community, the family “is life, the daily fabric, a path for generations through which is faith transmitted, along with love and with fundamental moral values; [the family] is concrete solidarity, hard work, patience, and also a project, a hope, a 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.” He noted that the future of society is rooted in the elderly and young people. Citing the Book of Genesis he said the family is based on the complementariness between man and woman, and the fertility of this union. “We want to reaffirm that the family understood in this way is still the first and foremost subject for the building of society and the measure of an economy on a human scale, and as such deserves to be actively supported,” the Pope said, pointing out the demographic problems facing Europe. Acknowledging that the family is beset with serious problems such as lack of jobs and housing, internal conflicts, marital and family failings and violence, the Pope urged for solidarity and brotherhood. On the other hand he also drew attention to those who through a “simple, but beautiful and courageous, witness” live the experience of marriage and parenthood with joy, “enlightened and sustained by the grace of the Lord” in the travails of life.