Vatican representative stresses family as ‘resource for society”

February 18, 2013 - A Vatican official has described the family a “resource for society” which must be supported by family assistance programmes and government assistance. Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, the president of the Pontifical Council for the Family made the point in an address during an event organized on Friday by the Holy See’s Permanent Observer mission to the United Nations in New York. He said that the family as the fundamental unit of human society, where generations meet, love, educate, support each other and pass on life from age to age is the understanding that has been embraced by all cultures throughout history, including the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. He pointed to alcohol and drug abuse, and psychological and emotional disorders as some of the adverse effects of cohabitation, divorce or other forms of unnatural unions on children and relationships. On the other hand, he said, marriage, between a man and a woman, generates benefits that other forms of “living together” do not. Those other forms are just not the same as marriage, he said, adding “the natural family (marriage, father, mother, children) is and remains a vital resource for society. He said that in all our research the family - mother, father and children - notwithstanding the many attacks to which it is subject, comes first in the hearts of the world’s peoples; and studies show that the great majority of young people look forward happily to marriage as a lifelong faithful union with their husband or wife. He thus called for family assistance programmes and government assistance for the traditional family.