The word ‘family’ today features at the top of the pastoral, political and social agenda. Often, the family is menaced from without and within, for laws are enacted that go against the values of the family.
At international organisations, like the United Nations and the European Parliament, it is not unusual for activities to be schizophrenic, if not hypocritical.
On the one hand, they make high-sounding resolutions, but on the other, they attack the very core of the family.
There are many instances one may recall in different countries. I do not go along with Donald Trump but he had the courage as a first step to block the millions of dollars given to Planned Parenthood, used mainly for abortion and contraception.
Other countries are trying to uproot the traditional and fundamental values on the pretext of individual rights, going as far as considering abortion, same-sex marriage, adoption by same-sex couples and euthanasia.
The conscience of the person has been silenced or muzzled. There is hardly even a free vote to follow one’s conscience.
The recent formation of the Catholic Labour group and the stand adopted by MP Jacob Rees Mogg in the British Parliament are examples of why Catholic MPs want to uphold the social teaching of the Church while not excluding ecumenism.
No political or social association is empowered to legislate against the fundamental values of the family. This is also clear from various teachings of the Church and of Pope Francis, who is always defending the family.
Addressing the European Parliament on November 25, 2014, the Pope said the way of being family is not subject to any contingent ideology but grounded in the inviolable dignity of the person.
On the basis of that dignity, Europe would be able to be truly a family of peoples if different social, economic and political actors were to join in shaping policies supportive of families.
The conscience of the person has been silenced or muzzled. There is hardly even a free vote to follow one’s conscience
I am sure that the Family Minister shares these ideals and jointly works with NGOs, such as the Cana Movement, whose annual funds have been blocked, ignoring Pope Francis when he said union makes strength.
I share with you what Pope Francis told me two years ago during an audience at Casa Santa Marta when he heard that we started marriage preparation in Malta as far back as 1951 and the Cana Movement in 1956.
He was surprised as he leafed through my book in Italian on marriage preparation, and smiling, he said: “You in Malta were, therefore, the first, because in those times hardly anyone spoke on the family.”
Only recently, the Cana Movement and other family groups launched the new pastoral year for the diocese.
In my message to the movement, I wrote of the situation in Poland, a largely Catholic country, whose governments undermined the family with legislation on abortion.
Likewise, the coming referendum in Ireland, like Malta once Catholic.
Archbishop Charles Scicluna noted, we, as a Church and civil society, need to strive for the common good.
Pope Francis often says we need to get out of church and go to the very outskirts. Is this happening in our islands?
It means outgoing evangelisation, like the young people in Youth Fellowship and others.
In the 1960s, a Jesuit started the Catholic Social Guild and we began inviting Fr Paul Crane SJ, of the Oxford Catholic Workers’ College, to lecture on the social teachings of the Church.
Some young men were sent to study in Oxford and others joined the guild, including Eddie Fenech Adami, Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici and others.
When I stared writing this piece, I had in mind the message I sent to Arthur Galea Salomone, president of the Cana Movement, on Poland and abortion policies.
Laity organisations have appealed for millions to be able to tread across the border. Their one and only weapon is the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary that is celebrated today – October 7.
The Polish border is 3,200 kilometres long and the holy rosary will be recited all along it. We can join them by reciting the rosary at home, in churches and in groups. I am sure the Archbishop will take the lead.
Mgr Charles Vella is founder ofthe Cana Movement.