This book, intended to present the current situation of the poverty that gnaws families around the world, is the product of the International Seminar "The family: a resource for overcoming the crisis," sponsored conjointly by the Pontifical Council for the Family and Caritas Internationalis on September 18th, 2014. The book Famiglia e povertà–666 pages full of information, analyses and testimonies–is edited by the PCF and published by the Libreria Editrice Vaticana (35 euros).
This volume, released in the bookstores in recent days, is essentially characterized by a series of reports from specialists around the world, and primarily those of the President of Caritas Internationalis, Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, ("The impact of the financial, economic and social crisis on families: a world perspective") and of the President of the PCF, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia ("Families and Poverty: a pastoral challenge").
There is also a large section dedicated to the next Synod, which intends to contribute to the reflection of the fathers who are called to animate it: consequently, the opening joint message of the two presidents ("We care! A pastoral proposal for the Synod Fathers") is followed by Caritas' very precise reports concerning the families on the five continents. Directly after these reports, there are testimonies from several secular institutes and religious congregations, from different movements and associations as well as from a number of academic professors.
"The 'power of the poor'–Archbishop Paglia recalls in the pages of this book–, namely of those who don't idolize profit and consumption but believe in love, is incredible. And this is demonstrated by so many families who strive to realize love with a strength that changes hearts and makes the lives of the most vulnerable more human. In the words and deeds of many families that have become witnesses of love, the strength of change, including that of society itself, is manifested."
