Led by the Patriarch of Venice, H.E. Archbishop Francesco Moraglia, the fifteen Bishops of the Triveneto Episcopal Conference (Trentino, Friuli and Veneto) were received at the Pontifical Council for the Family on Tuesday afternoon, April 16th, by the President, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia and other superiors of the Dicastery.

Msgr. Paglia welcomed them with great cordiality for a short and friendly meeting, rich in content and invited them first of all to tell about the experiences, initiatives and issues related to the subject of family ministry in their region, with these words: «Listening to you is like smelling − to paraphrase the words of Pope Francis − the scent of your local churches».

 

On behalf of the other prelates, Msgr. Giuseppe Zenti, Bishop of Verona and head of the Regional Commission for the pastoral care of the couple and of the family, gave a report on the Commission’s activities: frequency and issues of the quarterly meetings, with particular attention to the new Marriage Rite, as well as Conferences and meetings at the regional and national.

 

The reflections and interventions of several Bishops touched on a variety of themes both within and beyond the world of the family: from the reference of Sunday and the Word of God for the family, to the education of children; from the formation of adults and family ministry agents to the attention for wounded and divided families; from the socio-political sector (the search for solutions in terms of private law applied to different forms of cohabitation) to the cultural field with the spread of ideologies (ethical relativism, gender, rampant individualism); from the accompaniment of young couples to the preparation of priests and laypeople on the decisive chapters of anthropology and fundamental human rights in order to achieve and maintain the right balance between, on the one hand, the certainty of truth and doctrine and, on the other, the fraternal and merciful response to the difficult situations in which many families find themselves. All are facing formidable challenges that do not allow for temporary and inadequate solutions, like the one indicated in the Gospel, which consists in «putting new patches on old clothes».