The National Week of the Family, promoted by the Brazilian Bishops’ Conference on the theme: “The Transmission and Education of the Christian Faith within the Family” has just been concluded, on Saturday, August 17th.

On this occasion, Pope Francis sent a message. In defense of life and the dignity of the human person, at every stage of development, from conception to natural death, the Pope repeated what he already expressed in the encyclical Lumen Fidei: parents are «God’s primary collaborators in the fundamental orientation of the existence and the guarantee of a good future” and, therefore, in putting up opposition to a “throwaway culture that relativizes the value of human life».

«Parents are called to pass on, through words and especially by their example, the fundamental truths of life, which acquire a new light from God’s revelation», we read in the message. In particular, they are «called upon to teach their children that human life must always be defended, from the womb, as a gift from God and the assurance for humanity’s future, but also that the elderly should be cared for, especially grandparents who are the living memory of a people and transmit the wisdom of life». Thus families can be, «the most convincing heralds of the beauty of love sustained and nourished by faith».
 

«The family is one of the most important treasures of Latin America, and it is the patrimony of all humanity», Brazil’s Bishops write in a Note that accompanies the Week.