Archbishop's web site Denver Catholic Register Parishes Catholic Pastoral Center
October 18, 2000
Without faith, families face `cultural winter'
VATICAN CITY (ZENIT.org)- Newly married couples are facing a "cultural winter" in an era hostile to bringing new life into the world, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, president of the pontifical Council for the Family, said during the opening day of a three-day congress being held in preparation for the Jubilee of Families, Oct. 14-15.
Couples must be prepared to live Christian marriages in a culture that seeks to avoid moral responsibility by embracing contraception and abortifacient pills, Cardinal Lopez Trujillo said.
On a positive note, couples who seek to follow the Church's teaching about the permanent, life giving nature of marriage will find fulfillment beyond their hopes and dreams, added another official.
More than 4,000 participants, representing bishops' conferences, ecclesial movements, and groups promoting the family and life, attended the gathering. The theme of the congress is "Children: Springtime of the Family and Society."
Sounding a positive note was the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, who told the audience, "The difficulties must not impede our thrust. It is necessary to help families to recover the primacy of moral values so that they can transmit them to their children."
During the congress' opening session, Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, president of the Vatican Committee for the Great Jubilee, said: "By regarding children as the springtime of families and society, this congress intends to be an act of faith and hope in witnessing that the child is life, and the fullness of couples' and peoples' aspirations."
Cardinal Lopez Trujillo said the mentality that separates family and life has led to two typical phenomena of contemporary society: the advent of "new family models" and artificial birth control, which at times is also promoted by supranational organizations and economic powers. According to this mentality, children become "a weight and an obstacle to self-fulfillment," he said.
"The Church forcefully proclaims the sacred dignity of each child and the rights and duties of the family," he said.
He added that the "winter" can give way to a new spring, when peoples, governors and legislators decide to believe in the truth of man, and iniquitous and murderous laws are substituted by laws in the service of the family and children, so that the most precious good, the child himself, is loved, defended and respected as a treasure."
