Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Mexico City (Agenzia Fides) – In the presence of over 6,000 people, among them Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, present as Papal Legate; the President of the Pontifical Council for the Family, Cardinal Ennio Antonelli; the President of the Mexican Bishops' Conference, Bishop Carlos Aguilar Retes; the Archbishop of Mexico City, Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera; and the President of the Republic, Felipe Calderon Hinojosa, the 6th World Meeting of Families began yesterday, January 14 in Mexico City. The event will conclude on Sunday, January 18, with a Closing Mass. The Meeting will have three main phases: the Theological-Pastoral Congress, the Festival of Testimonies, and the Holy Mass.
Cardinal Ennio Antonelli, President of the Pontifical Council for the Family, gave the welcoming address and thanked all those who had collaborated in making the Meeting possible. He reminded those present that “the family is the most efficient school of humanity of Christian life, transmitting human and Christian values in its own peculiar manner,” as it is “based on example and testimony, on experience and daily life.” Over the course of the event, the Cardinal said, “one thing is certain: the family represents a great value for the person and for society.” However, this mission of the family is not free from serious difficulties, he said, such as “the educational emergency and the rupture between generations,” in accord with what the Holy Father mentioned in his letter to the Diocese of Rome dated January 21, 2008. “This observation that the Holy Father makes of the modern cultural situation confirms just how important the theme of this World Meeting of Families is, and urges us to commit ourselves with confidence, intelligence, love, and perseverance, trusting in God's grace and in the profound needs of the human heart,” Cardinal Antonelli concluded.
“Mexico opens its doors wide open to you all and, at the same time, opens its heart – that generous heart that this country has forged from its indigenous culture, that addressed its parents with the endearing titles of Tatzin and Natzin, through the wealth of its mestizo people, right up to its modern realities, at times filled with pain of immigration and other times filled with joy at the thought of a better life for the generations to come.” These were the words spoken by Cardinal Norberto Rivera, Archbishop of Mexico City, in his opening address. In his message, he invited all the participants to “contemplate the family as a gift for human society, a society that needs to walk illumined by spiritual values and sustained by human values,” and to see the family not only as an ecclesial reality, but as a divine and human institution. Thus, “recognizing and supporting this institution is one of the greatest services that one can make today to the common food and to the true progress of mankind and society at large.”
Bishop Carlos Aguiar Retes, President of the Mexican Bishops' Conference, placed emphasis on the fact that the family has been and is the training ground for civil values. However, right now, it is “suffering adversities provoked by secularism and an ethic of relativism, by the various internal and external migration patterns, by poverty, by social instability, and by civil legislations contrary to marriage that, in supporting abortion and contraception, threaten the future of our peoples.” Thus, he expressed his hope that these days would held create “greater awareness among all the participants and a greater commitment to work in favor of the family, in benefit to the Church and society at large.”
Finally, the President of Mexico, Felipe Calderon Hinojosa, addressed the importance of the family as the basis on which the identity of every human being is built. He invited those present to create links of solidarity and to feel “not only responsible for our own destiny, but also that of others.” Therefore, he said, there is a need to formulate and reformulate policies that meet the needs of families so that in a near future, they may enjoy “a new panorama that starting today we will be building as Mexicans.”
In his talk, he also mentioned the link that exists in Mexico between broken families and organized crime, especially in the case of drug-trafficking. “Today, Mexican families are facing a panorama and an environment of insecurity. Crime and increased violence threaten the serenity of those we love most. Thus, we have used and will continue to use every means in the State's power to fight against those who threaten peace and try to use drugs to enslave our children,” he added.
In the concluding part of his speech, the President expressed his hope that in this Meeting, “new ideas, new initiatives, new proposals for meeting the challenges faced by families in our society” may arise, and he also recalled that “the strengthening of the family deserves and needs a united effort of everyone's capacities and intelligence. It is in joining our hands and hearts and coordinating our activities that we will be successful in this task of strengthening the family as the key to the welfare and progress of our people.” (RG) (Agenzia Fides 15/1/2009)
