Already back in the 1950s, the future Pope Paul VI, then Archbishop of Milan, identified the crucial issues of the new problems that were assailing the family. For example, there was the Milan Synod on “Marriage and Family” in 1959, then the famous pastoral letter “To the Christian family” in 1960, and finally the creation by this Pope of the “Committee of the Family” in 1973—ten years before John Paul II created the Pontifical Council for the Family. An interesting article by Eliana Versace in the daily newspaper Avvenire (02/27/2014) retraces the stages and content. Here, we offer some significant passages.
Mom and Dad's love, the light of the family, for Paul VI.
In September of 1959, in Milan, a minor diocesan synod was celebrated that, in accordance with the desire of Archbishop Giovanni Battista Montini, centered its study and discussion on the topic of “Marriage and Family.” Cardinal Montini considered such issues fundamental for human and Christian life, and, in those years, they were with increasing frequency the subject of the “bitter remarks of many errors, which today are spread by the most modern and insidious means, sapping at the root the health and the sanctity of these two institutions.”
“A priest of Milan—Montini said, on September 22nd, 1959, at the conclusion of the Synod—pushed by certain circumstances to examine his parish, told me: ‘In fact, I’ve discovered, and I did not know this: there are three hundred illegitimate families in my parish, while they could once on be counted on my fingers: one, two, three… five; and I didn’t know this, and didn’t see it.’”
Reflecting on these issues convinced Montini of the great need to reaffirm those founding principles: marriage and family, by comparing them with the changes imposed by modern life and, at the beginning of 1960, the cardinal expressed his thoughts on marriage and the Christian family in a Letter for Lent, entitled “For the Christian family.” There, the Archbishop spoke with clarity, rigor and foresight about the arising issues that threatened the family’s normality and unity, focusing on separation and divorce, and devoting ample space to abortion and birth control. On these questions, the Milanese text presents unique parallels with Humanae Vitae, the encyclical that was promulgated by Pope Paul VI eight years later and then led to the creation, in 1973, of a Committee for the Family, with the aim of studying these problems as well as encouraging and supporting the concrete initiatives of the pastors and of Catholic associations.
Montini advised the families to face difficulties and problems with “family prayer.” One of the most dangerous threats to the stability of the marital relationship was in fact caused by the “solitude” of many spouses, due to the weakening of the ancient and once solid family ties.
Paul VI told his friend Jean Guitton about the intense and deep love that united his parents, George Montini and Judith Alghisi, who both passed away in 1943. The letters his mother wrote to her husband show the strong love of the Montini couple, built on unshakable confidence in God and the support of Divine Providence. This helps us to understand how Paul VI, in his encyclical Humanae Vitae, found the most beautiful words to speak of the love between a man and a woman. In this sense, the Pope encouraged the Vicariate of Rome, which had dedicated its reflection in 1970 to the Sacrament of marriage, because “today the pastoral care of the family is the timeliest, the most challenging and also the most fruitful ministry, with lasting beneficial results.”
