AMERICA/CHILE - October 5-12 is Family Week, as the family is “school of faith, the training-ground for human and civil values, the hearth in which human life is born and is generously and responsibly welcomed.”

Santiago de Chile (Agenzia Fides) – The Church in Chile will celebrate Family Week on October 5-12. The event is being organized by the National Commission for Family Pastoral Care of the Chilean Bishops’ Conference. Aware of the importance of this week for the Church in Chile, the Commission has prepared material that will contribute to family growth and offer recourses in order to celebrate the week. The material pack includes a “Family Altar,” a Prayer, a copy of the magazine “Family Week” with suggestions on how to live the Week in the home, and a magazine entitled “Christ who sends,” for group workshops. In the magazine “Family Week,” there are various ideas for things to do as a family, as well as the celebration of a family meal with Christ. For each encounter, there is a scheme, an initial motivation, a life story that is meant to lead to a family discussion, with conversation points. It also contains passages from the Gospel and the Final Document from Aparecida, and ends with a closing prayer. The magazine “Christ who sends” offers an explanation written by Fr. Joaquin Alliende, on the Triptic that the Holy Father Benedict XVI presented as a gift to those present at the 5th General Conference of Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean. Following the explanation of each one of the 10 parts that the Triptic contains, there is also a suggested group activity for each one.
Bishop Bernardo Bastres Florence of Punta Arenas, President of the National Commission for Family Pastoral Care, in his opening letter to the families, expresses his hope that in offering this material to them, “each home can dedicate a special time to come together as a family and discuss these subjects, and that these moments may be an opportunity to come in contact with Christ, “so that we may have life in Him.”
The Bishop also recalls the words of the Holy Father Benedict XVI in his opening address at the 5th General Conference of Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean in Aparecida, in which he said that “the family, ‘patrimony of humanity,’ constitutes one of the most important treasures of Latin American countries. The family was and is the school of faith, the training-ground for human and civil values, the hearth in which human life is born and is generously and responsibly welcomed.” Thus, Bishop Bernardo explains, “we, the Bishops of Chile have made these words of the Holy Father our own, incorporating them in with the Pastoral Orientations, in order to make the family “one of the key points in all of the Church’s evangelizing activities.” “May the Holy Family accompany you in a special manner this week and may your homes be filled with the fullness of life that comes from Christ,” said the President of the National Commission for Family Pastoral Care.
Within the activities taking place during the celebration of the Family Week in Santiago, is the 11th Congress of Catechists who give pre-Marriage preparation, to be held on October 4. On October 8, there will be a Congress entitled “That the family may have life in Him,” in order to focus on improving internal family relations. On October 11, there will be a “March for Life and the Family” at 3pm, with a Mass presided by the Archbishop of Santiago, Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz, at the National Shrine of Maipu at 5:30pm. The Diocese of Osorno will also hold a “March for Life and the Family” on the 11th, from the parishes and schools to the Cathedral of Saint Matthew, where there will be a Mass for the Diocese in honor of Family Week, at 7pm. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 3/10/2008)