Cana Movement founder to address European Parliament

Cana Movement founder Mgr Charles Vella is to address the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Tuesday on the occasion of World Family Day.

Mgr Vella, who set up the Cana Movement in 1954 and is an ethics consultant at the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan, will be making an intervention on the subject "The Family in Today's Europe".

Mgr Charles has made a name for himself in Italy, particularly through his active participation in several bio-ethical committees. For 15 years he worked alongside well-known personalities, like the former Italian Minister Umberto Veronese, in the ethical committee of the Istituto Europea di Oncologia.

The round table will bring together several experts on the subject, both within the European Parliament and beyond, to reflect on the role of the family in today's European society.

The event is being co-organised by Lorenzo Cesa, vice-president of the EPP-ED at the European Parliament, Mario Mauro, MEP, vice-president of the European Parliament, and Anna Zaborska, chairperson of the Committee for Women's Rights and Gender Equality in the EPP-ED Group, the Fondazione Sublacense Vita e Famiglia.

Dr Simon Busuttil, head of the Maltese Delegation in the EPP-ED Group, is also supporting the event.

Meanwhile, the Cana Movement has named Fr Joe Mizzi as its new director. He replaces Fr Louis Camilleri, who has been the movement's director for 29 years. Fr Mizzi served as assistant director for several years.

Addressing the movement's annual general conference yesterday, Fr Camilleri said that a family that is the product of a Christian wedding is a rock for the Church's work and way of life.

Fr Camilleri said Christian families had a mission to become a subject of evangelisation and proliferate Christian values in society.

"The quality of love within the Church and the community depends on the quality of love in families," he said, quoting the Diocesan Synod document on marriage and the family.

Fr Camilleri hoped that the Cana Movement did not grow old and weary.

"We want it to remain vital, a living force of the Church within the society to continue strengthening Maltese families," he said.

For this to take place, he added, the movement needs to continue to change according to the needs and continue taking inspiration from the teachings of the Church.