Commentary on the Instrumentum Laboris: Francesco Belletti on Chapter II of Part I
Francesco Belletti, President of the Forum of Family Associations, Director of the CISF and consultor of the Pontifical Council for the Family, offers us his comments on Chapter II of Part I of the Instrumentum Laboris, entitled "The Family and the Socio-Economic Context."
"Reading this text should be recommended to all those who wants to get an idea of the true topic of the Synod and question the ideological reductions made by too many media and opinion leaders," writes the author, in reference to the entire document, which contains and develops the conclusive Lineamenta of the Synod of 2014, and provides the basis for the reflections of next October‘s Synod. He appreciates the text’s ‘‘careful and precise work in approaching reality", which has given it a concrete and realistic dimension that brings us closer to the real life of people and to the challenges they face daily in society. Belletti focuses in particular on the beginning of the chapter, which is dedicated to "The Family: An Irreplaceable Resource of Society" and highlights the family‘s fundamental value and unique role within society, as source of life and beauty, as an asset, capable of bring man out of isolation, loneliness and poverty. The major challenges that our contemporary world and socio-economic context place before us―he says―can therefore be confronted by this "Good News" of the family, a value that illuminates, warms and remains solid even when attacked from without. Yet, precisely because of this potential that it contains, today the family is called to go out and attest its beauty, dialogue with the institutions, and mix with society, by generating in it the common good, the good life, and hospitality .