VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE   
   YEAR XXII - # 181   
   DATE 18-10-2014   
      
   Summary:   
   - Message of the Synod Assembly on the pastoral challenges to the family in   
   the context of evangelisation   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Message of the Synod Assembly on the pastoral challenges to the family in the   
   context of evangelisation   
    Vatican City, 18 October 2014 (VIS) - This morning a press conference was   
   held in the Holy See Press Office to present the Message of the Third   
   Extraordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, dedicated to the "Pastoral   
   challenges to the family in the context of evangelisation" (5-19 October). The   
   speakers were Cardinals Raymundo Damasceno Assis, archbishop of Aparecida,   
   Brazil, delegate president; Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical   
   Council for Culture and president of the Commission for the Message and Oswald   
   Gracias, archbishop of Bombay, India. The full text of the message is   
   published below:   
    "We, Synod Fathers, gathered in Rome together with Pope Francis in the   
   Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, greet all families of   
   the different continents and in particular all who follow Christ, the Way, the   
   Truth, and the Life. We admire and are grateful for the daily witness which   
   you offer us and the world with your fidelity, faith, hope, and love.   
    Each of us, pastors of the Church, grew up in a family, and we come from a   
   great variety of backgrounds and experiences. As priests and bishops we have   
   lived alongside families who have spoken to us and shown us the saga of their   
   joys and their difficulties.   
    The preparation for this synod assembly, beginning with the questionnaire   
   sent to the Churches around the world, has given us the opportunity to listen   
   to the experience of many families. Our dialogue during the Synod has been   
   mutually enriching, helping us to look at the complex situations which face   
   families today.   
    We offer you the words of Christ: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If   
   anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will enter his house and dine with   
   him, and he with me". On his journeys along the roads of the Holy Land, Jesus   
   would enter village houses. He continues to pass even today along the streets   
   of our cities. In your homes there are light and shadow. Challenges often   
   present themselves and at times even great trials. The darkness can grow deep   
   to the point of becoming a dense shadow when evil and sin work into the heart   
   of the family.   
    We recognise the great challenge to remain faithful in conjugal love.   
   Enfeebled faith and indifference to true values, individualism, impoverishment   
   of relationships, and stress that excludes reflection leave their mark on   
   family life. There are often crises in marriage, often confronted in haste and   
   without the courage to have patience and reflect, to make sacrifices and to   
   forgive one another. Failures give rise to new relationships, new couples, new   
   civil unions, and new marriages, creating family situations which are complex   
   and problematic, where the Christian choice is not obvious.   
    We think also of the burden imposed by life in the suffering that can arise   
   with a child with special needs, with grave illness, in deterioration of old   
   age, or in the death of a loved one. We admire the fidelity of so many   
   families who endure these trials with courage, faith, and love. They see them   
   not as a burden inflicted on them, but as something in which they themselves   
   give, seeing the suffering Christ in the weakness of the flesh.   
    We recall the difficulties caused by economic systems, by the "the idolatry   
   of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human   
   purpose" which weakens the dignity of people. We remember unemployed parents   
   who are powerless to provide basic needs for their families, and youth who see   
   before them days of empty expectation, who are prey to drugs and crime.   
    We think of so many poor families, of those who cling to boats in order to   
   reach a shore of survival, of refugees wandering without hope in the desert,   
   of those persecuted because of their faith and the human and spiritual values   
   which they hold. These are stricken by the brutality of war and oppression. We   
   remember the women who suffer violence and exploitation, victims of human   
   trafficking, children abused by those who ought to have protected them and   
   fostered their development, and the members of so many families who have been   
   degraded and burdened with difficulties. "The culture of prosperity deadens   
   us.... all those lives stunted for lack of opportunity seem a mere spectacle;   
   they fail to move us". We call on governments and international organizations   
   to promote the rights of the family for the common good.   
    Christ wanted his Church to be a house with doors always open to welcome   
   everyone. We warmly thank our pastors, lay faithful, and communities who   
   accompany couples and families and care for their wounds.   
    ***   
    There is also the evening light behind the windowpanes in the houses of the   
   cities, in modest residences of suburbs and villages, and even in mere shacks,   
   which shines out brightly, warming bodies and souls. This light—the light of a   
   wedding story—shines from the encounter between spouses: it is a gift, a grace   
   expressed, as the Book of Genesis says, when the two are "face to face" as   
   equal and mutual helpers. The love of man and woman teaches us that each needs   
   the other in order to be truly self. Each remains different from the other   
   that opens self and is revealed in the reciprocal gift. It is this that the   
   bride of the Song of Songs sings in her canticle: "My beloved is mine and I am   
   his... I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine".   
    This authentic encounter begins with courtship, a time of waiting and   
   preparation. It is realized in the sacrament where God sets his seal, his   
   presence, and grace. This path also includes sexual relationship, tenderness,   
   intimacy, and beauty capable of lasting longer than the vigour and freshness   
   of youth. Such love, of its nature, strives to be forever to the point of   
   laying down one's life for the beloved. In this light conjugal love, which is   
   unique and indissoluble, endures despite many difficulties. It is one of the   
   most beautiful of all miracles and the most common.   
    This love spreads through fertility and generativity, which involves not only   
   the procreation of children but also the gift of divine life in baptism, their   
   catechesis, and their education. It includes the capacity to offer life,   
   affection, and values—an experience possible even for those who have not been   
   able to bear children. Families who live this light-filled adventure become a   
   sign for all, especially for young people.   
    This journey is sometimes a mountainous trek with hardships and falls. God is   
   always there to accompany us. The family experiences his presence in affection   
   and dialogue between husband and wife, parents and children, sisters and   
   brothers. They embrace him in family prayer and listening to the Word of God—a   
   small, daily oasis of the spirit. They discover him every day as they educate   
   their children in the faith and in the beauty of a life lived according to the   
   Gospel, a life of holiness. Grandparents also share in this task with great   
   affection and dedication. The family is thus an authentic domestic Church that   
   expands to become the family of families which is the ecclesial community.   
   Christian spouses are called to become teachers of faith and of love for young   
   couples as well.   
    Another expression of fraternal communion is charity, giving, nearness to   
   those who are last, marginalized, poor, lonely, sick, strangers, and families   
   in crisis, aware of the Lord's word, "It is more blessed to give than to   
   receive". It is a gift of goods, of fellowship, of love and mercy, and also a   
   witness to the truth, to light, and to the meaning of life.   
    The high point which sums up all the threads of communion with God and   
   neighbor is the Sunday Eucharist when the family and the whole Church sits at   
   table with the Lord. He gives himself to all of us, pilgrims through history   
   towards the goal of the final encounter when "Christ is all and in all". In   
   the first stage of our Synod itinerary, therefore, we have reflected on how to   
   accompany those who have been divorced and remarried and on their   
   participation in the sacraments.   
    We Synod Fathers ask you walk with us towards the next Synod. The presence of   
   the family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph in their modest home hovers over you.   
   United to the Family of Nazareth, we raise to the Father of all our petition   
   for the families of the world:   
    Father, grant to all families the presence of strong and wise spouses who may   
   be the source of a free and united family.   
    Father, grant that parents may have a home in which to live in peace with   
   their families.   
    Father, grant that children may be a sign of trust and hope and that young   
   people may have the courage to forge life-long, faithful commitments.   
    Father, grant to all that they may be able to earn bread with their hands,   
   that they may enjoy serenity of spirit and that they may keep aflame the torch   
   of faith even in periods of darkness.   
    Father, grant that we may all see flourish a Church that is ever more   
   faithful and credible, a just and humane city, a world that loves truth,   
   justice and mercy".   
      
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