Pontifical Council discusses future of marriage, family

Rome, 21 September 2013: This week the Pontifical Council for the Family is holding a conference to discuss how to recover the true meaning of the family in the context of a growing process of deconstructionism and confusion.
“The family is still regarded almost universally as a good,” said Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio, president of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, Sept. 19, while adding that in secular society “there are still all the pieces of marriage, but not the whole building anymore.”

“Marriage has not been destroyed by a bomb, but it has been deconstructed, so that we recognize the pieces but we cannot recognize the building anymore.“

The contemporary challenge, he said, “is to speak about the truth of marriage to non-believers by presenting to them the anthropological truth and value of family in a language that makes it possible for there to be a consensus to save the family.”

The conference, held at the Pontifical Urban University in Rome, ran Sept. 19-21 and is themed “The rights of the family and the challenges of the contemporary world.” It included exhibitions as well as keynote addresses and contributions from renowned journalists in roundtable discussions.

The conference commemorates the 30th anniversary of Blessed John Paul II's Letter on the Rights of the Family. It is also hosted by the Association of Catholic Jurists, and is being financed by Priests for Life.

Among the topics that were discussed in group sessions include the role of women in and for the family; work, family and economic challenges; procreation and the challenges of biotechnology; and the family in the experience of immigration.
Source: CNA/EWTN News