Vatican City (Monday, 11/17/2014, Gaudium Press) On Monday 17, Pope Francis addressed a Colloquium being held on the theme “The Complementarity of Man and Woman in Marriage” at the Paul VI auditorium.
The Colloquium was opened by the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, who called this meeting.
At the beginning of his address the Pontiff stressed that “this complementarity is at the root of marriage and family, which is the first school where we learn to appreciate our own and others’ gifts, and where we begin to acquire the arts of living together.”
To reflect upon “complementarity” is nothing less than to ponder the dynamic harmonies at the heart of all Creation. This is the key word, harmony. All complementarities were made by our Creator, because the Holy Spirit, who is the Author of harmony, achieves this harmony.” he said.
According to Pope, “the family provides the principal place where we can begin to “breathe” values and ideals, as well to realize our full capacity for virtue and charity.”
The Holy Father also pointed out that now a day “more and more people are simply giving up on marriage as a public commitment. This revolution in manners and morals has often flown the flag of freedom, but in fact it has brought spiritual and material devastation to countless human beings”
The decline of the culture of marriage, he continued, is associated with the increase of poverty, as well as a host of social problems that disproportionately affect women, children and elderly.
The Holy Father warned that “It is necessary first to promote the fundamental pillars that govern a nation: its non-material goods. The family is the foundation of co-existence and a guarantee against social fragmentation. Children have a right to grow up in a family with a father and a mother capable of creating a suitable environment for the child’s development and emotional maturity.”
“We can’t speak today of a conservative notion of family or a progressive notion of family: Family is family! It can’t be qualified by ideological notions. Family has a strength of its own [per se]” he continued.
In conclusion, he said: “May this colloquium be an inspiration to all who seek to support and strengthen the union of man and woman in marriage as a unique, natural, fundamental and beautiful good for persons, families, communities, and whole societies.”
On the same occasion the Pope announced that he will visit Philadelphia, in the United States, in September 2015, and he will attend the eighth World Meeting of Families. (LMI)