The Secretary of the Dicastery, Msgr. Jean Laffitte, is in Strasbourg (France), on Tuesday, December 10th, to take part in the pan-European Working Group of the European Parliament (EPP - PE), with a lecture on the theme: “The Family, A Vital Issue for Society”.

On Wednesday, December 11th, the Secretary will be in Versailles, at the invitation of the Bishop, Msgr. Éric Aumonier, for a conference on personal and community responsibility of the Baptized in the face of the challenges of legislative reforms against life and the family. This will Msgr. Laffitte’s last public lecture in 2013.
 
On Saturday, December 7th, the Secretary was the guest of the Diocese of Autun-Chalon-Macon, under the guidance of Msgr. Benoît Riviere, to talk about the vision of the sacrament of marriage in John Paul II and Benedict XVI. «The family is the privileged place where forgiveness is exercised on a daily basis and disposes each person—parents, children, grandparents and relatives—to live fully, in a loving perspective, the different relationships that form the fabric of the family», Msgr. Laffitte said.«Every reconciled family lives in the communion that it draws from the indissoluble bond that unites the spouses, a bond that is both sacramental and deeply natural. The unity of the spouses is simultaneously a gift from God and a personal commitment to the common good, to the conjugal communion. The relationship between the man and the woman united in Christian marriage becomes a reality belonging to the sacramental order, because it is then wholly inscribed in the salvific economy of the Paschal Mystery».