“On the path to the Synod, with the whole Church committed to reflecting on the challenges faced by families, it is appropriate to study the contribution that Blessed Pope John Paul II made to the subject of marriage and the family, particularly as his canonization draws near.” With these words Bishop Jean Lafitte, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Family, outlined the purpose of the conference, John Paul II: The Pope of Families, that will be held in Rome on March 20th and 21st. The Conference is being organized by the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, “not a school of moral theology like others, but rather an institute with campuses on five continents, founded by the Blessed Polish Pope to study the anthropological, sacramental and ethical dimensions of marriage and the family.”

 

According to Bishop Laffitte, the importance of this soon-to-be-canonized Pope’s contribution to the subjects of marriage and the family is both unique and outstanding: “his teaching represents the greatest contribution that we can find on this subject in the entire history of the Church. It consists of two major divisions: first, his magisterial documents (particularly the Exhortation Familiaris Consortio, the part of the Catechism of the Catholic Church dealing with morality, the Letter to Families and the Encyclical Evangelium Vitae); second, that extraordinary collection of 134 catecheses dealing with human love delivered between 1979 and 1984 and known as the Theology of the Body, which is studied today in more than 100 university-level institutes and centers of spirituality around the world. Those catecheses are valuable, Bishop Lafitte stressed, because they approach the subject of marriage and the family not only as dogma but also from a perspective that is sacramental, ethical, anthropological, biblical and spiritual.”

 

Bishop Laffitte pointed out that the two days of the Conference will feature the personal testimonies of many of the presenters-bishops, alumni and teachers who were witnesses, students and promoters of John Paul’s teaching and who will speak about the world-wide pastoral fruitfulness of the Pope’s intuitions. Likewise, the importance of John Paul’s teaching for the upcoming Synod will be highlighted as the various speakers, notably Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, Secretary General of the Synod, create a dialogue between the Synodal framework and the thinking of the Polish Pontiff.

 

Bishop Laffitte will also be one of the presenters. He has been asked to give the concluding talk and to address especially the pastoral resources available to assist families in meeting the challenges they face today. “I will present the conclusions of the Conference, he said, by showing the “eucharistic” dimension of the sacrament of Holy Matrimony in relation to the idea of the marital love that unites Christ to his Church.”