Leo XIV clarifies the prominence of the family in social and political life

Pope Leo XIVindicated the prominence of the family in social, political and cultural life during an audience with the participants of the “Jubilee and Synodal Meeting for hopeful discernment about the future of life and family”, organized by CELAM and the Pontifical Academy for Life. .

In his speech, the Pontiff said that “living synodality in the family requires ‘walking together’, sharing sentences and joys, dialoguing respectful and sincerely among all its members, learning to hear and get to make important family decisions among all.”

Reflecting on the words Jubileo, Esperanza and Familia, Leo XIV recalled that in the Old Testament the retirement time evoked the return to the own land and the recovery of freedom. “Today, we must read it as a call to return to the center of our life, to God Himself, to the God of Jesus Christ.”

This retirement look at the past, also invites, as he continued in his speech, to think about family roots, in particular, “to the persevering prayer of our grandmothers, by renovating the accounts of the rosary, to his simple, humble and honest life that, as a ferment, sustained so many families and communities.”

The Pope also urged not to fall “in the danger of founding our lives in human assurances and worldly expectations,” which in the social sphere could be translated as the temptation to “go throwing,” he argued by citing words of San Pier Giorgio Frassati.

On the other hand, he recalled that “today there are authentic threats to the dignity of the family, such as problems related to poverty, lack of work and access to health systems, abuses to the most vulnerable, migrations, wars.”

In addition, Leo XIV stressed that public authorities and the Church “have the responsibility of seeking how to promote dialogue and strengthen the elements of society that favor family life and education of its members.”

In this context, said the pontiff, the family must be understood as “gift and task”, so that “it is crucial to promote the co -responsibility and prominence of families in social, political and cultural life, promoting their valuable contribution in the community.”

“In every child, in every wife or husband, God entrusts us with his son, his mother, as he did with San José, to be, together with them, base, ferment and testimony of God’s love in the midst of men,” he added.

Leo XIV recalled that San Pablo VI, in the Speech pronounced in Nazareth on January 5, 1964invited to “follow the example of the Holy Family, accompanying, holding the other in silence, work and prayer, so that God performs in him the project of love that has reserved him.”

Finally, the Pontiff encouraged to make this reflection as “a call to commitment and that overflowing joy that invaded the disciples by finding Jesus risen and led them to proclaim their name throughout the earth.”