Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe at the 4th World Meeting of Families
Manila (Fides Service) - On January 24, Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, addressed the International Theological Pastoral Congress organised for the 4th World Meeting of Families (24-26 January). In his address the Cardinal said among other things: "The missionary nature of the Church, therefore, finds in the family "the domestic Church" a concrete realisation, a place of privileged, though partial fulfilment of the mission of the greater Church. The daily commitment of developing and deepening the communion of love between husband and wife, and between parents and children, is the irreplaceable form of the authentic missionary activity of the Christian family. Each external witness and proclamation will only be credible and efficacious if it is the fruitful expression of conjugal and family love. When a Christian family is a credible sign which recalls the love of God acting in history, it fulfils its vocation and essential mission, through its own life proclaiming the Gospel of love and contributing to the development of a civilisation of love. Two baptized people, consecrating their love, accepting that God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, makes their love the sign and "joyful proclamation" of how the Father loves men, of how Christ loves the Church; they offer God their love, because they place themselves at Christ's disposition for the salvation of the world." See address of Cardinal at www.fides.org (Fides Service 27/1/2003)