I would think a conference like this would be essential for the Church to hold for the good of its life. There is no greater time than the present for something like this for Anglicans. But, sadly, an impossibility when so many question how to even define "The Family". What is refreshing is the focus on the reality of the Incarnational life of the Church that is a calling for families to become the building block of a blessed society. The sacramental imagery is so attractive and wooing as a model of Christ's love for his bride. If only we could focus on such things!
Vatican City, 19 Jan. (AKI) - Pope Benedict XVI has announced plans for an international conference on the family to be hosted by the Vatican in the northern Italian city of Milan in 2012.
The World Meeting of Families will focus on the theme, 'The Family, Work and Feast'.
The pope announced the conference during a live television link with pilgrims participating in the closing Mass of the Sixth World Meeting of Families, at the basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico on Sunday.
"The family is the essential foundation for society and peoples, an irreplaceable benefit for children, who deserve to come into the world as the fruit of love, of the total and generous giving of the parents," Benedict said.
"The family occupies a primary position in the education of the individual. It is a true school of humanity and of perennial values."
The pontiff also reinforced the church's hardline position that marriage should be founded on heterosexual relationships.
"The family founded on indissoluble marriage between a man and a woman expresses this interrelational, filial and community dimension, as well as being the environment in which human beings can be born with dignity, and grow and develop fully," he said.
The Milan conference will take place within the context of the ecclesiastical and civil preparations for the 1,700th anniversary of the Edict of Milan, which proclaimed religious tolerance in the Roman Empire and was granted by the Roman Emperor Constantine who ruled the west of the empire and Licinius who ruled the east.
Pope John Paul II initiated the first World Meeting of Families in Rome in 1994 for the occasion of the International Year of the Family promoted by the United Nations. Others have been held in Rio de Janeiro, Rome, Manila, and Valencia.
Milan is also due to host the World Expo 2015.
I would think a conference like this would be essential for the Church to hold for the good of its life. There is no greater time than the present for something like this for Anglicans. But, sadly, an impossibility when so many question how to even define "The Family". What is refreshing is the focus on the reality of the Incarnational life of the Church that is a calling for families to become the building block of a blessed society. The sacramental imagery is so attractive and wooing as a model of Christ's love for his bride. If only we could focus on such things!
7 comments:
Homosexual 'families' are absolutely no threat to normal families. Homosexuality occurs in practically all human societies at about 5% - and the same is true among many species of animal. The notion that homosexual 'immorality' threatens heterosexuality is deeply unpleasant and deeply dishonest.
As for the Pope's championing of 'the family' in Italy, it doesn't seem to be doing much good: the birth rate is pathetic. Contrast liberal, multicultural Britian, where it's holding up well, and where, of course, also there is no crisis - within ANGLICANISM - in the numbers seeking ordination. Again, a sad contrast with the RC church everywhere in Europe.
Time for a little realism and just a little honesty.
Fr. Steel,
Exactly why do you tolerate John's nonsense and bile on your blog? Comedic value?
Conchúr
Well, charity I suppose hoping that one day he may come to see the light of grace in God's truth and my love for him as a human created in God's image and not returning vile for vile might soften his heart. But, there may come a time when I will not put up with it for much longer which is soon approaching.
That's bile for bile. I was typing too fast.
Well Mr. Steel I can certainly appreciate that, you def show your Christian quality.
For an argument that challenging the normativity of the male/female marriage bond will further undermine heterosexual marriage (and so increase the vulnerability of both women and children to all kinds of socially disadvantageous outcomes) see the work of Maggie Gallagher and David Blankenhorn.
BTW even if it is true that redefining marriage (not as a union of a man and a woman) could be shown to be socially disadvantageous then I'm not sure that it would effect the folks who argue from an individual rights perspective.
A comparison - there is little doubt now that, on average, making divorce easier has been socially disadvantageous for women and children. But the individual rights based argument has won the day in western cultures regardless of the undesirable social outcomes.
One might say that we have grown to accept that the state (even the church - when was the last time you heard a CofE bishop speak about divorce?) has no right to encourage people to remain or even get married. It's not a huge leap to think that the state has no right to say who can get married.
But it is disingenuous to say that no disadvantageous outcomes have come from this ongoing redefintition. It's, on average, women and kids who have been disadvantaged.
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