Pope Francis warned of “the cold war” in families, and encouraged them to live peace and forgiveness; in a meeting held this Thursday, June 6, in a condominium in the western area of Rome, within the framework of the “School of Prayer” initiative.
“Let us defend the family, which is oxygen to help children grow, although there are also storms in it,” said the Holy Father when meeting with about 30 families from the parish of Saint Brigid of Sweden, the Roman neighborhood of Palmarola.
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“If parents fight it is normal, but we have the possibility of making peace before the end of the day, because the cold war of the day after is terrible,” Pope Francis warned.
At the meeting, which he attended accompanied by Mons. Rino Fisichella, Pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, the Pontiff spoke and answered questions from parents, the elderly, children and young people.
Pope Francis then encouraged the young people present to bear witness to the faith and reminded them that they have “the responsibility to move forward with history. One of the beautiful things about young people is that they get back up. We all fall in life, but the important thing is not to stay fallen.”
After later pointing out that the Church “begins to take shape in the community,” the Holy Father indicated that “a parish where children are not listened to and the elderly are canceled is not a true Christian community. “Do not forget that the elderly are the memory and the children are the promise.”
When asked about how to maintain faith in children, asked by two parents, Pope Francis highlighted the importance of parents loving each other, because children must be able to “feel that mom and dad love each other very much. If you fight, don’t do it in front of the children.”
The Holy Father also highlighted the importance of talking to your children: “Never stop talking to them. Education is done through dialogue, never leave them alone. Make them understand that they can talk about anything.”
Before leaving, Pope Francis gave away some rosaries and an image of the Virgin Mary with the Child Jesus.
What is the School of Prayer?
This was the Pontiff’s third appointment with the so-called “School of Prayer”, an initiative promoted by the Vatican within the framework of this Year of Prayer and in preparation for the Jubilee 2025.
Through this project, Pope Francis will hold different meetings “with some categories of people to pray together including some forms of prayer.”
As Mons. Fisichella explained to ACI Prensa in January of this year, these prayer meetings “will depend on the commitments of Pope Francis and will possibly include people and families from the Diocese of Rome.”
Walter Sánchez Silva
I have been a husband since 2008. My wife and I have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before he was born. Since I joined ACI Prensa in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Cologne, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and of Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the Family synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Synodality, in 2023. I closely follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers persecution from the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as current ecclesiastical events in the region.