The family, "founded on marriage as a conjugal alliance in which man and woman mutually give and receive", was the central theme of the Holy Father's meeting last September 26 with prelates from the National Conference of Bishops of the north-eastern areas of Brazil, who had just completed their ad limina visit.
In his remarks, the Pope noted how, in their reports to him, the bishops had highlighted the fact that "families are beleaguered and under siege". Yet, he pointed out, "despite all negative influences", the people of northeastern Brazil remain open to the Gospel of life.
This is also the experience of many countries that all have the welfare of the true family at heart. In fact, the Holy Father reiterated his convinctions in his concluding homily while presiding over the solemn liturgy to celebrate the end of the Special Synod on Africa in the beginning of November.
"The Church", Benedict XVI went on, "tirelessly teaches that the family has its foundation in marriage and in God's plan". Yet, "the secularised world is dominated by profound uncertainty on this matter, especially since Western societies legalised divorce. The only recognised foundation seems to be individual subjectivity, expressed in a desire to live together".
"In this situation the number of marriages is falling because no one wants to commit themselves on such fragile and unpredictable grounds, the number of de facto unions is increasing and divorces are on the rise.
"It is in this fragile scenario that the drama of so many children is played out - deprived of the support of their parents, victims of apprehension and abandonment - and social disorder grows."
Children raised by cohabitating, separated, divorced or remarried parents are deprived of fixed points of reference and can suffer from inner conflict and confusion.
"The Church cannot remain indifferent before the separation and divorce of couples," Pope Benedict cried, "before the break-up of homes and the repercussions on children, who need extremely precise points of reference for their instruction and education: in other words determined and confident parents who participate in their upbringing."
The Church cannot remain silent before the sabotaging of the family by our post-modern culture. She firmly believes that the true family is God's precious gift to humanity and so she defends, upholds and promotes its sanctity and well-being.
Pope Benedict XVI thus continued in his address, "This is the principle that is being undermined and compromised by the practice of divorce, through the so-called extended and mobile family, which increases the number of 'fathers' and 'mothers' and leads to a situation today in which the majority of those who feel orphaned are not children without parents but children with a surplus of parents. This situation, with its inevitable... criss-cross relationships cannot but generate internal conflict and confusion that contribute to giving children a distorted idea of the family.
"The firm conviction of the Church is that the true solution to the problems which married couples currently face and which weaken their union is a return to the solidity of the Christian family, a place of mutual trust, of reciprocal giving, of respect for freedom and of education to social life.
"With all the understanding the Church feels towards certain situations, couples in their second marriage are not like those in their first; theirs is an irregular and dangerous situation which must be resolved, in faithfulness to Christ, finding, with the help of the priest, a way possible to rehabilitate everyone involved," the Holy Father said.
Couples should be helped not only by priests, who have the sacred duty to nurture in them the family apostolate, but also by local Catholic family movements and agencies and other Catholic professionals.
The Holy Father, in fact, invited the prelates to encourage priests and pastoral care centres "to accompany families so as to ensure they are not seduced by the relativist lifestyles promoted by cinema, television and other communications media".
The Holy Father also warned the Brazilian bishops of the "irregular and dangerous situation" of divorced and remarried Catholics. Only the first marriage exists, he said, "there is no husband and wife in a second marriage... rather they are a man and a woman living in adultery".
The Holy Father concluded: "I trust in the witness of families who draw the strength to overcome trials from the sacrament of marriage... It is on the foundation of families such as these that the social fabric must be recreated."
Mary, mother and wife, queen of our families, pray for us.