“The Family in the 21st Century” is the theme of the meeting with the editorialist of “The Irish Times”, Breda O’Brien, hosted in Brussels on Tuesday, January 7th, 2014, by the Commission of the Bishops’ Conference for the European Community (COMECE), as a part of the initiatives in preparation for the elections to the European Parliament in the coming month of May. The Secretary, Father Patrick O’Daly explained in a note that the Conference is intended to highlight «the family’s constituent elements and its relationship with society as a whole». In fact—so the note continues—«there is a broad consensus in Europe that the nuclear family is the fundamental structure of a healthy and prosperous society, but a wide range of social changes has challenged this view».