Subject: VISnews 110329   
   Organization: VIS - Ufficio Stampa della Santa Sede   
   From: Vatican Information Service - Eng - txt    
      
   VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE   
      
   TWENTY FIRST YEAR - N. 60   
   ENGLISH   
   TUESDAY, 29 MARCH 2011   
      
   SUMMARY:   
      
   - Culture of Life and Respect for Rights of Families   
   - Two Nuns Produce the Text and Images for the Via Crucis   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
   CULTURE OF LIFE AND RESPECT FOR RIGHTS OF FAMILIES   
      
   VATICAN CITY, 29 MAR 2011 (VIS) - Made public today was a Message written by   
   the Holy Father for a meeting of bishops who head episcopal commissions for   
   the family and life in Latin America and the Caribbean. Their meeting is   
   taking place in Bogota, Colombia, from 28 March to 1 April under the   
   presidency of Cardinal Ennio Antonelli, president of the Pontifical Council   
   for the Family.   
      
     "As I reiterated during the Fifth General Conference of the Episcopate of   
   Latin America and the Caribbean", the Pope writes, "the family is the value   
   the people of those noble lands prize most highly. For this reason, the   
   pastoral care of families has an important place in the evangelising   
   activity of each one of the particular Churches, promoting a culture of life   
   and working to ensure the rights of families are recognised and respected".   
      
     "Nonetheless, we sorrowfully note that families are increasingly suffering   
   from adverse situations brought about by rapid cultural changes and social   
   instability, by migratory flows, by poverty, by education programmes which   
   trivialise sexuality and by false ideologies. We cannot remain indifferent   
   before such challenges".   
      
     Benedict XVI assures the prelates that "no effort is in vain if it helps   
   to ensure that each family, founded on the indissoluble bond between a man   
   and a woman, carries out its mission as a living cell of society, seedbed of   
   virtues, school of constructive and peaceful coexistence, instrument of   
   harmony and a privileged area in which, with joy and responsibility, human   
   life is welcomed and protected, from beginning to natural end".   
      
     "It is also worthwhile to encourage parents in their right - and their   
   fundamental duty - to educate the new generations in faith and in the values   
   that dignify human existence", he writes.   
      
     After then highlighting how the continental mission promoted during the   
   fifth general conference in Aparecida, Brazil, "will serve to launch   
   pastoral care of marriage and the family in the beloved countries of Latin   
   America and the Caribbean", the Pope affirms that "the Church puts her trust   
   in Christian families, calling them to play a role in evangelisation and the   
   apostolate, and inviting them to an awareness of their valuable mission in   
   the world".   
      
     He also encourages participants in the Bogota meeting to develop "the   
   broad pastoral guidelines laid down by the bishops gathered in Aparecida,   
   thus helping families to experience a profound meeting with Christ by   
   listening to His Word, by prayer, sacramental life and the exercise of   
   charity. In this way you will help the family to practice a solid   
   spirituality which fosters in all its members a firm aspiration to sanctity,   
   unafraid to express the beauty of exalted ideals and the ethical and moral   
   requirements of life in Christ".   
      
     "To this end", the Holy Father goes on, "it is necessary to intensify the   
   formation of everyone who, in one way or another, dedicates themselves to   
   the evangelisation of families. Likewise, it is important to find ways to   
   collaborate with all men and women of good will in order to continue to   
   protect human life, marriage and the family throughout the region".   
      
     The Holy Father concludes by expressing his "affection and solidarity to   
   all the families of Latin America and the Caribbean, especially those   
   experiencing difficult situations".   
   MESS/                                                   VIS 20110329 (550)   
      
   TWO NUNS PRODUCE THE TEXT AND IMAGES FOR THE VIA CRUCIS   
      
   VATICAN CITY, 29 MAR 2011 (VIS) - The texts of the meditations for this   
   year's Via Crucis or Way of the Cross at the Colosseum have, by order of the   
   Holy Father, been written by Mother Maria Rita Piccione, president of the   
   Federation of Augustinian Nuns, who resides in the Roman monastery of Santi   
   Quattro Coronati.   
      
     The images illustrating the fourteen traditional Stations of the Cross, in   
   the booklet and the television transmission which will accompany the Via   
   Crucis, are the work of sister Elena Manganelli, an Augustinian nun resident   
   in the monastery of Lecceto near Siena, Italy.   
   OP/                                                             VIS 20110329   
   (110)   
   _____________________________________________   
      
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