The Pope’s address to the Spanish Bishops, on the occasion of their ad limina visit, contained, among other things, a significant passage on the relationship between the family and faith.
Faith is not a mere cultural inheritance, but rather a gift born of the personal encounter with Jesus and the free and joyful acceptance of the new life He offers us. It must be unceasingly announced and constantly enlivened, so that the believer may be consistent with the condition of child of God, which he received in Baptism.
Awaken and arouse sincere faith, promote preparation for marriage and the accompanying of families, whose vocation is to be the native place for coexistence in love, the original cell of society where life is transmitted, and the domestic church where faith is forged and lived out, especially because it radiates the wonders that God has worked in it. Moreover, being by its very nature a sphere of generosity, it will promote the birth of vocations that will follow the Lord in the priesthood or in consecrated life.
