Philosopher of the JPII Theological Pontifical Institute calls to overcome the private family concept

Within the framework of the jubilee of families, children, grandparents and the elderly, which will be held from tomorrow until Sunday, the philosopher Vincenzo Rosito (1979), a teacher at the John Paul II Theological Pontifical Institute, calls to overcome the vision of the family as a “private concept” and asks to promote greater participation in public life.

“Family relationships are a way of composing the common good. We must promote a family vision that does not know exclusively to the private sphere and recognize that the family is socially transformative,” he says in conversation with ACI Press in light of publication in Italy of the book Family and social learning. New research horizons (Family and social learning. New research horizons).

Rosito links these conclusions with the horizon of the new pontificate of Pope Leo XIV. “He has clearly told us in the speeches in which he refers to the Pontificate of Leo XIII and the social doctrine of the Church,” he explains.

Indeed, in its first Speech to diplomatic corps Accredited in the Holy See, Leo XIV insisted on the need to invest in the family, founded on the stable union between men and women, “very small, it is true, but true society and older than anyone else.” With these words, Pope Leo XIV quoted the Pontiff who took the name he claimed in the encyclical Of the revolutionary the “absolute need” for the family to “have their own rights and duties.”

In the volume, the author identifies three main vectors of change that have influenced family dynamics in contemporary life: the reorganization of kinship forms, human mobility and the mutations that come from the economic system.

For example, he points out that the “increased longevity is transforming kinship forms from the point of view of prolonged coexistence in the time of several generations.” This situation makes grandchildren live longer with their grandparents, and even with their great -grandparents and, therefore, “the time in which more generations” are together.

The philosopher takes into account demographic data such as birth, but also other less obvious elements such as “family practices”, that is, everything that has to do with the domestic organization to configure a home the new house: “family practices are interesting for the study of family transformations because they are learning dynamics, not just projection.”

It also analyzes family rites such as the departure of the children of the family home. “When the children reach a certain age, some independence and leave the house of origin, that is a fundamental moment for the kinship bond,” says Rosito.

Human mobility as a family transformation lever

Rosito also analyzes in the book Human mobility as a cause of transformation of family dynamics, a concept that not only circumscribes to migratory phenomena:

“Human mobility puts in the same situation not only the people or families who are forced to emigrate, but also to those who frequently move for work. Let’s think of many couples who must live their relationship in different countries. They are the so -called ‘weekend couples’.”

According to the philosopher, this destabilizes the traditional forms of love and parenting. “We can clearly speak of a phenomenon of maternity or transnational paternity; that is, families where, especially for work, the father or mother must emigrate to another country, even to another continent.”

This causes a reconfiguration of affective ties because those parents who live far from their children “must find other new ways to show them that they love their children who are far away.”

Care work: the invisible face of the economy

A crucial chapter of the book is dedicated to work linked to care, understood as a social practice and not only as an economic activity. Rosito studies, specifically, the phenomenon of global care chainsor global chains linked to care tasks.

“They are all those situations in which, very often, especially women – loud and mothers – they must emigrate to take care of other children or elders or perform domestic tasks in foreign homes, while their own children are in the care of other women in their country of origin, generally their grandmothers, sisters or sister -in -law.”

This new family configuration caused by mobility baptizes it as disclosing family (revealing family)which opens the door to new dimensions of analysis and understanding by the Church about contemporary complexity.

Therefore, he points out that the ecclesial look towards the family must also integrate these phenomena: “The transformation of kinship forms, the implications of human mobility in people’s intimate life, the importance of care and social reproduction work in the reconfiguration of affections and economic systems tell us two things: the family is not only a fundamental cell of society, but also – as the Joy and hope– A human enrichment school, ”says the expert.

In article 52 of that Pastoral Constitution of Vatican II, both definitions are found. “If we lean only towards the first – which the family is the basis of social coexistence – we run the risk of not seeing all the elements of transformation of the contemporary family. The family changes with society and is also an element of social transformation,” he says.

Thus, it shows that the two encyclicals of Pope Francis –All brothers y Laudato yes– They offer a valuable framework of studying to leave: “These are documents that tell us that we are at the service of universal fraternity not only as individuals, but also as families.”