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   LETTER OF THE POPE FOR THE WORLD MEETING OF FAMILIES 2012   
      
   VATICAN CITY, 24 SEP 2010 (VIS) - At midday today in the Holy See Press Office   
   Cardinal Ennio Antonelli, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family,   
   presented Benedict XVI's Letter for the Seventh World Meeting of Families,   
   which is due to be held in the Italian city of Milan from 30 May to 2 June   
   2012, on the theme: "The Family: Work and Rest".   
      
   Also participating in today's press conference were Bishop Jean Lafitte, Msgr.   
   Carlos Simon Vazquez and Fr. Gianfranco Grieco O.F.M. Conv., respectively   
   secretary, under secretary and bureau chief of the pontifical council; Bishop   
   Erminio De Scalzi, auxiliary of the archdiocese of Milan and the archbishop's   
   delegate for the organisation of the meeting, and Fr. Davide Milani, head of   
   social communications for the archdiocese of Milan.   
      
   "Work and rest", writes the Pope in his Letter, "are intimately associated with   
   the life of families. They influence the choices the family makes, the   
   relationship between the spouses and among parents and children, and they   
   affect the dealings the family has with society and with the Church".   
      
   The Holy Father further highlights how "In our own time, unfortunately, the   
   organisation of work, which is planned and implemented as a function of market   
   competition and maximising profit, and the concept of rest as a time for   
   evasion and consumption, contribute to the break-up of families and   
   communities, and to the spread of an individualistic lifestyle. It is therefore   
   necessary to reflect and commit ourselves to reconciling the demands and   
   requirements of work with those of the family, and to recover the true   
   significance of rest, especially on Sundays, the weekly Easter, the day of the   
   Lord and the day of man, the day of the family, of the community and of   
   solidarity.   
      
   "The forthcoming World Meeting of Families", he adds, "is a propitious occasion   
   to re-examine work and rest in the perspective of families that are united and   
   open to life, well inserted into society and the Church, attentive to the   
   quality of their relationships as well as to the economy of the family nucleus   
   itself".   
      
   The Pope goes on to express the hope that "during the course of 2011 -   
   thirtieth anniversary of the Apostolic Exhortation 'Familiaris consortio', the   
   'Magna Charta' of family pastoral care - valid initiatives may begin at the   
   parish, diocesan and national level with the aim of identifying experiences of   
   work and rest in their most authentic and positive aspects, with particular   
   reference to their influence on the real lives of families".   
      
   At the end of his Letter the Holy Father explains how the Seventh World Meeting   
   of Families, "like earlier such meetings, will last five days culminating on   
   Saturday evening with a 'Feast of Witness' and on Sunday morning with solemn   
   Mass. During these two celebrations, at which I shall preside, we will come   
   together as 'a family of families'".   
      
   Commenting on the theme of the letter, Cardinal Antonelli mentioned the   
   problems affecting the family which, he said, "is becoming privatised and   
   reduced to a place of individual affections and gratification. It does not   
   receive adequate cultural, juridical, economic or political support and suffers   
   the negative conditioning of complex centrifugal dynamics, among which by no   
   means the least important are the organisation of work and the degeneration of   
   rest into 'free time'". In this context, the cardinal highlighted how the theme   
   of the Milan meeting "could become an important contribution to the defence and   
   promotion of authentic human values in today's world, beginning with a new   
   style of family life".   
      
   "Within the family, it is important to encourage the redistribution of domestic   
   tasks, and a lifestyle inspired by sobriety, concern for personal   
   relationships, openness towards the ecclesial community and the needs of   
   others. Finally", Cardinal Antonelli concluded, "feast days must be celebrated   
   in such a way as to illuminate the significance of life and of work itself,   
   strengthening the cohesion of the family and its insertion into the wider   
   community, reviving the relationship with Christ, Lord and Saviour Who   
   accompanies us on our daily journey".   
      
   For his part, Bishop Erminio De Scalzi observed that "it would be significant   
   if we were able to welcome poor families from the South of the world to Milan.   
   I am thinking," he said, "of people who live in counties where it is difficult   
   to make their voice heard. It is important that the representatives of these   
   families should have the chance to bring their testimony of life, and tell us   
   how they understand work and rest as regards the family nucleus".   
   OP/VIS 20100924 (770)   
      
   SUMMARY   
      
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