Pope concludes 7^th World Meeting of Families

(June 04, 2012) Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday brought curtains down on the 7^th World Meeting of Families in Milan, northern Italy, celebrating an open-air Mass at Bresso Park for about 1 million faithful from 153 countries. The May 30 – June 3 international Church event had as its theme, “The Family: Work and Celebration". The Pope’s concluding three days there was meant to boost the Catholic Church’s support for the basic cell of society. In his homily at the Mass, the Pope pointed how the three dimensions of our lives, namely, family, work and celebration, must be brought into a harmonious balance " of " work schedules with family demands, professional life with motherhood, work with celebration", because it "is important for building up a society with a human face", which "always gives priority to the logic of being over that of having: the first builds up, the second ends up destroying."

The Holy Father said the focus on making money undermines families by creating an unjust society. Such thinking, he said, “creates ferocious competition, strong inequalities, degradation of the environment'' and reduces family relationships ``to fragile convergences of individual interests.'' The supreme model of a family, the Pope explained is the Holy Trinity, saying it is not only the Church that is called to be the image of One God in Three Persons, but also the family, based on marriage between man and woman. This identity of the family has fruitful consequences for families themselves and for society. Pope Benedict did not forget the pain of divorced and separated couples and pledged his and the Church’s support in their struggle. “I encourage you to remain united to your communities, and I earnestly hope that your dioceses are developing suitable initiatives to welcome and accompany you," he told them.

Meeting some families at a rally late Saturday night, the pope recalled his own childhood, which he likened to his vision of “heaven” - a house filled with music, big Sunday lunches and shared liturgical readings to strengthen the family faith. Responding to a young Vietnamese girl about what heaven could possibly be like, he spoke about the time of his childhood. The pope also remembered those in Italy’s northern region of Emilia-Romagna, where 24 died in two quakes just over a week apart last month. On Sunday the Pope also pledged €500,000 to families in severe need in the quake zone.