Verghese V Joseph –
On the occasion of the media launch of the Family Global Compact, the Holy Father Francis lent his support to the Family Global Compact, an initiative promoted by the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life, together with the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, with the collaboration of the International Center for Family Studies.
Speakers who dwelled the project were Rev. Sr. Helen Alford, OP, President of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences; Prof. Gabriella Gambino, Under-Secretary of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life; and Prof. Pierpaolo Donati, sociologist and member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. The speech by His Eminence Cardinal Kevin Farrell, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life, who was not present in the room, was read by Prof. Gambino.
Also available to journalists were Prof. Stefano Zamagni, former President of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences and Dr. Francesco Belletti, Director of the International Center for Family Studies (CISF).
His Eminence Cardinal Kevin Farrell explained the rationale that underlies this project. “The Family Global Compact is “a shared program of actions aimed at bringing family pastoral care into dialogue with the study and research centers on the family present in Catholic universities around the world to promote the family in the light of the Social Doctrine of the Church” (Francis , Message for the launch of the Family Global Compact , 13 May 2023).”
This project initiative came arose from a serious consideration of the challenges facing the family today in every country of the world. Pope Francis spoke about it in the second chapter of Amoris Laetitia, in which he invited the laity to pay attention to the concrete reality of the family, so that as a Church it may be guided to a deeper understanding of it and develop more effective ways of transmitting its beauty and irreplaceable role in society.
In recent decades, by carefully observing the research work carried out by Catholic universities that have study centers and institutes for the family, a certain difficulty in working on these issues emerges, as does the need for greater collaboration between universities, as well as between the university and the church. The greatest challenge for the Catholic-inspired academic world is to carry forward the educational task on the family and the promotion of human life, in harmony with the Social Doctrine of the Church.
For this reason, the Family Global Compact intends to encourage collaboration between family pastoral care and family study centres, as hoped by the Holy Father in his Message: “the goal is synergy, it is to ensure that pastoral work with families in the particular Churches make more effective use of the results of research and of the didactic and training commitment that take place in the Universities (…) Together, Catholic and pastoral universities can better promote a culture of the family and of life which, starting from reality, helps the new generations to appreciate marriage, family life with its resources and challenges, the beauty of generating and safeguarding human life”. For this, the Family Global Compactentrusts Catholic universities with the task of developing more in-depth theological, philosophical, juridical, sociological and economic analyzes of marriage and the family in order to support it and place it at the heart of contemporary systems of thought and action.
Following up on this solicitation, the Family Global Compact offers a contribution to the formation of a global and integral thought on marriage and the family, which develops starting from today’s reality, bearing in mind that in the teaching of the Church the family is much more than a ‘idea. Indeed, according to Christian anthropology, the family is born of the “intimate communion of life and conjugal love between a man and a woman” (GS 48) and is the first place where the development of the person and of relationships takes place relationships, responsibility and solidarity. It is therefore a gift of self, mutual aid, education of children, encounter between generations. The Family Global Compact tries to approach this richness without proposing an idealistic reading of family life, rather highlighting the interweaving between the anthropological dimensions of the family and the economic and social conditions in which it finds itself today.
The world today faced with demanding cultural and social challenges: the fragility of family ties and the difficulty of perceiving the inviolable value of every human life.
“We cannot therefore resign ourselves to the decline of the family reality,” explained the Holy Father adding, “in the name of uncertainty, individualism and consumerism. We cannot be indifferent to the future of the family, nor give up proposing the Christian message on the family clearly. However, we must know how to do it more effectively, with methods of communication suited to our times and to the new generations. Promoting the family in the private space, but also in the public one, can only have positive effects on the common good: when family relationships are good, they represent an asset for spouses, children and for the entire civil and ecclesial community.”
The involvement of Catholic universities aims to respond to the need to train and involve lay Christians in the evangelizing mission of the Church: through scientific research and academic teaching, Catholic universities can in fact address a wide audience, even far from the ecclesial, proposing the value of the family in the world in secular language.