One gets the impression that Peter's boat is too small and fragile to welcome everyone and all the questions that come from the crowd, but it is founded on the rock of the presence of his Lord, who is the Savior of all.

"The purpose of our encounter is to extract from the treasury of the faith and of experience in the Church whatever serves the common good, to soothe and heal the wounds of the families." It is with this wish and invitation that Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, President of the Pontifical Council for the Family, opened the International Congress, this morning, at the Church Palace in Rome, where family and life movements, groups and associations will meet, from today until Saturday, on the way to the XIV General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops.

 

Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri spoke about the need to "Deepen the family's vocation and mission, while taking into account the situations of the faithful who, although living irregular marital situations, wish to participate more fully in the life of the Church and are willing to commit themselves seriously on a progressive path." "It is necessary—the General Secretary of the Synod of Bishops explained in his introduction—that no one avoid the task of finding and suggesting possible solutions to the sensitive issues addressed by the Synod Fathers. In today's family ministry, the Church asks us to witness to the beauty and attractive appeal of Christian marriage, and to explore the results of the Extraordinary Synod that the Fathers have presented, thus making our contribution in the search for courageous pastoral choices, in particular—he concluded—in caring for wounded families."

 

In his presentation of Part One of the Synod's Lineamenta, Francesco Belletti, the president of the Forum of Family Associations, focused on how the external society influences the development and the freedom of families, on the evolution of peoples' affective sphere, and on how the Church's concrete action can intercept these new scenarios within and around the family, not only among the faithful, but indeed for all people. "Today, many families—said Belletti—seem to still have a strong capacity and need for aggregation, but they are building this with non-traditional, not formalized forms, thus creating 'interfamily networks' that prefer to stay closer to the codes of family relations rather than being 'organized structures of society'. The relational quality, therefore, seems to count more than the social role and even more than the possibility of receiving support, recognition and interaction within the public system." Belletti also stressed that "the interaction and collaboration between the various associations build a social generativity far more fundamental than the simple 'sum of individuals.' In other words, setting up networks of associations not only means calculating, but also multiplying their potential."