In their traditional Pastoral Letter to mark the feast of the Assumption, the Bishops of Malta and Gozo this year stress children's right to both parents' time, commitment and guidance within a healthy, strong family unit. This is the full text of the letter, which is being read out in all churches today.
Beloved sons and daughters in the Lord, the celebration of the feast of the Assumption of Our Lady into Heaven takes place at a time when many of our families succeed in reserving for themselves a particular period of time during which they leave behind the routine of work to rest, be happy, and grow up together.
This is a wonderful thing.
The good and the happiness that such experiences instil, especially where small children are concerned, is one of the most beautiful happenings in the life of a human being. This is an experience which, in itself, reminds us how important and essential love and unity are in the family.
The family would really be as willed by the Lord when all those who form part of it enjoy love and unity. The love and unity of the father and mother, while being addressed towards each other, also contain a marvellous likeness to the love and unity that is found in God: a likeness which makes the family a community of human life and a community of persons united in love.
Realities of our time
Ours is a time when the family is finding it all the more difficult to truly live as a family. We have families capable of remaining steadfast in the face of negative phenomena. With the grace of God, the Maltese family still has its own beautiful characteristics. However situations that cause heartache exist as well.
The problems are many. We are increasingly experiencing the realities of children born out of wedlock; separation cases where the children are raised from a very young age by just one parent; older children who do not find a parent at home when they return from school.
We have to admit, with great regret, that certain 'winds of change' blowing on the Maltese family are leaving a lot of damage. Some trends of thought that have found a lot of support, especially in some sections of the media, are weakening the family's moral strength.
These 'winds of change' are very often finding their force in man's fragility - the desire to do whatever pleases him at a particular moment, without taking into consideration God's will. God very often asks for sacrifices from man, for man's own good.
Some questions
Everybody agrees that children should come first. Everybody says that parents, in general, are always prepared to do everything in their power for their children.
Yet, why are so many children being denied an upbringing by the mother and father together, especially when the children are still very young?
Why is it that so many children are deprived of the proper care and attention that they have a right to, from the mother as a mother and the father as a father, according to the complementary roles demanded by responsible motherhood and fatherhood?
Why is it that so many young children spend so much time with their grandparents or in a child-care centre, instead of with their parents?
Why is it that so many children get their formation primarily from TV, the Internet, or DVDs, instead of from their parents?
The Church is always happy to see people, women as well as men, progressing and improving academically and career-wise. The Church is happy to see women attaining their proper and deserved place in society. There is nothing wrong in this; indeed it is good.
At the same time, however, we have to keep our priorities in order. Our priorities cannot be like a reed bending in the wind: they have to always be clear and sound, according to our status and responsibilities, especially where young children are involved.
Cherishing children
Children are the greatest treasure, the greatest good, the most precious and dear possession parents can have.
Parents who really put their children first know that this requires commitment and courage to ensure that the foundations of love and unity in the family are never shaken and destroyed.
Parents who really put their children first know that the value of children is much greater than that of money, careers, egoistic tendencies, the size of the house and its amenities, and all other material goods that parents, individually or together, may possess.
Parents who really put their children first know that children have the right to both their parents' dedication and commitment in their upbringing, education and formation, especially when they are still very young.
Both parents have specific duties to fulfil where their children are concerned. The presence of the mother and father in the children's upbringing is bound to have enormous influence on children's emotional development, character formation, God's presence in their lives, discipline, love towards their neighbour, recognition of right and wrong, childhood, and so many other things.
Nobody and nothing can substitute the parents in these sacrosanct duties. This is because when they become parents, a man and a woman receive God's gift of a new responsibility and the help to be able to live it. To their children, parents' love must represent a visible sign of God's love.
Priceless values
As human beings, children are priceless. They need help to grow as individuals able to decide for themselves responsibly.
Children need help to recognise and realise God's will for them throughout their lives, according to the talents the Lord grants them. No-one should expect children to follow unfailingly one's own choices instead of what they themselves feel they are called to do with the passage of time. Children's formation has to take place not only through words and warnings, but, above all, through adults' good example and Christian witness.
In their role as educators, Christian parents cannot delegate everything to other people, like teachers and catechists. Most of children's education and formation has to be carried out by parents co-operating with each other.
We also have to keep in mind that children are persons created by God and saved by Christ, who are called to eternal life and happiness. Children have a right to an integral education that also provides for their spiritual and religious formation, which means receiving the Sacraments and attending catechism.
A society that looks well ahead
A society that looks well ahead strives to help parents understand and live their responsibilities towards each other and their children properly.
A society that looks well ahead knows that no lifestyle, no material good, no economic progress can surpass the good that comes out of families truly and deeply rooted in love and unity, in which children receive a sound, solid upbringing and formation, first and foremost by their parents, according to their natural and complementary vocation.
A society that looks well ahead strives hard to see that the country's laws and the institutions fully sustain and defend the family's rights and duties.
At the same time, such a society is always careful to avoid instilling mentalities, attitudes or circumstances that create difficulties for parents, instead of helping them recognise their priorities and responsibilities towards their children, especially very young ones.
The good of the family is a value which society cannot do without and cannot deny. History teaches us that wherever the family lost its strength, the nation collapsed.
Accordingly, every civil authority has to do its utmost to ensure that the family has all the economic, social, educational, political and cultural assistance that families need, according to place and time, so that they are able to shoulder their responsibilities properly and befittingly.
We Bishops invite all members of the Church on the islands to pray to God, through the intercession of our Mother Mary, that the Maltese family succeeds in living its responsibilities towards children properly, and so that the State does its utmost to help parents uphold their children as their utmost priority.
The utmost good of each and every family and of society is - and remains - children.
We would like to recommend that Catholic parents commit themselves to instilling and developing in their children a genuine devotion towards the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of all of us in Heaven, who never stops inviting us to do the will of her Divine Son.
We impart on you our pastoral blessing as a pledge of every heavenly good.