During a December 28 meeting with the Italian Association of Large Families in the Vatican’s Paul VI hall, Pope Francis offered praise for large families:
“Motherhood and fatherhood are a gift from God, but to receive the gift, to wonder at its beauty and to make it shine in society, that is your task. Each one of your children is a unique creature that will never be repeated again in the history of humanity.
“In a world often marked by selfishness, the large family is a school of solidarity and sharing; and this attitude then becomes a benefit for the whole society. The presence of large families is a hope for society.
“Each family is a cell of society, but large families are a richer cell, more vibrant, and the State has an interest in investing in it,” he said.
15m more Catholics
The world’s Catholic population increased by 15 million last year, with some growth registered on every continent, according to new statistics released by the Fides news service.
According to the figures, at the end of 2012 the number of Catholics amounted to 1.2 billionm or 17.49 per cent of the world’s population. The highest increases were registered in Africa and the Americas, with Asia following and Europe and Oceania lagging behind.
The number of Catholic priests was up slightly, to 414,313, while the number of female religious was down more than 10,000 worldwide, settling at 702,529.
Pope John Paul II Day
Canada has designated April 2, the anniversary of St John Paul II’s death, as ‘Pope John Paul II Day’. The decision was taken by a Senate vote of 44 in favour and 26 against. Serge Joyal, a Liberal senator from Quebec, made an impassioned speech against the Bill but he did not succeed to persuade the majority.
Marx defends life
“One cannot buy life.” “Life is not our product.” These were two of the strong statements forming part of a New Year’s Eve homily delivered by Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich, president of the German bishops’ conference. During the homily, Marx warned against threats to human life and spoke against surrogacy.
Marx referred to life as a “precious gift”. He warned against suicide for the terminally ill and disabled and spoke in favour of palliative care. He also called for solidarity for “the poor, the weak, the refugees and the unemployed”.
Florida bishops react to same-sex marriage
In a statement issued in reaction to a federal judge’s decision to impose same-sex marriage, Florida’s bishops said: “The conjugal nature of a marriage between a man and a woman has provided for millennia the basis for norms of marital exclusivity and permanence that made possible stable families necessary for human flourishing.”
“How society understands marriage has great public significance. Because of this, redefining civil ‘marriage’ to include two persons of the same sex will have far-reaching consequences in society. Such a change advances the notion that marriage is only about the affective gratification of consenting adults.
“Such a redefinition of marriage does nothing to safeguard a child’s right to a mother and father and to be raised in a stable family where his or her development and well-being is served to the greatest extent.”
(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)