The provocative proposal of a Nobel Prize to the family closed Msgr. Paglia’s intervention at “Family@work,” a three-day event organized in Cernobbio by the dioceses of Lombardy in partnership with 38 local associations. The President, invited to officially present the proceedings of the VII World Meeting held in Milan, began his reflection by focusing on the communal quality of the human experience: «It is not good that the man should be alone»(cf. Gen 2).

 

The family, Msgr. Paglia continued, is the first place where we learn and experience this mystery of communion, within a framework defined by Professor Eugenia Scabini, speaker at the conference, of “reliable relationships.”

Quoting an intervention of  at that time Cardinal Bergoglio, Archbishop Paglia spoke about the family as a school of humanity and common life shared by different people. This experience produces the possibility for the society itself to build networks of communion and peace: «If family life is broken up, the shared life of nations is also broken up.”

It is therefore necessary to put the family back at the centre of the Church’s pastoral action, of the political discussion and of cultural reflection.
 

«The great wealth – concluded the President of the Dicastery – of the content and of the experiences shared during that week in Milan, now available in a thick volume, constitutes a precious opportunity to revive the centrality of the family, first in its ability to offer a positive experience, even economically, of humanity. This beauty is the content that every Christian family is called to manifest in the world, each day and in a special way during the Pilgrimage of Families to the tomb of Peter, which to be celebrated in Rome next October, as a true continuation of the exciting days in Milan».