"For we walk by faith, not by sight." - 2 Corinthians 5:7

A special year to bear witness to family love

  • 2021-04-18 06:40:35
  • Admin
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A special year to bear witness to family love

On 19 March 2021, the fifth anniversary of the Apostolic Exhortation Amoris laetitia, on the joy and beauty of familial love, Pope Francis will inaugurate the Year “Amoris Laetitia Family,” which will conclude on 26 June 2022 on the occasion of the X World Meeting of Families in Rome. The Holy Father will be present for the Meeting.

Family, the domestic Church

“The pandemic experience has highlighted the central role of the family as the domestic Church, and has shown the importance of community ties between families,” the Dicastery said in a statement announcing the Year. “Through the spiritual, pastoral, and cultural initiatives planned in the Year ‘Amoris Laetitia Family,’ Pope Francis intends to address all ecclesial communities throughout the world, exhorting each person to be a witness of family love.”

Reciprocity between family and the Church

A particular aspect that emerges in the context of the Year “Amoris Laetitia Family” is the desire for greater involvement of married couples in diocesan and parish structures to set up family pastoral care and a deepening of the formation of pastoral workers, seminarians and priests so that, working with families, they are up to the challenges of today's world. "To this end," underlines the text of the Dicastery, “it will be important to make the reciprocity between the 'family-domestic Church' and the Church (AL, 200), so that each may mutually discover and value each other as an irreplaceable gift.”

A further suggestion is to “promote a missionary vocation in families (cf. Al, 201, 230, and 324) by creating times for formation in evangelization and missionary initiatives (e.g., on the occasion of children’s reception of the sacraments, during marriage preparation, anniversaries or important liturgical moments.”