Pope Francis: Families an
eloquent sign of God’s dream
At his General Audience on Wednesday, Pope Francis looks
back on his visit to Ireland for the World Meeting of Families.
By Christopher Wells
Pope Francis dedicated his Wednesday General Audience to a
reflection on his Apostolic Visit to Ireland for the World Meeting of Families.
“My presence” in Ireland, he said, “was intended above all to confirm Christian
families in their vocation and mission.”
God's dream for the family
He said the thousands of families that took part “were an
eloquent sign of the beauty of God’s dream for the whole human family.” That
dream, he continued, “is unity, harmony, and peace in families and in the
world”; and he said that God is calling on families “to participate in this
dream, and to make the world a home where no one is alone, no one is unwanted,
no one is excluded.”
After expressing his gratitude to all those who made the
event possible, Pope Francis spoke of the highlights of the Meeting, including
the testimonies of married love by couples of all ages. “Their stories,” he
said, reminded us that married love is a special gift of God, to be cultivated
every day in the ‘domestic church’ which is the family.”
The Pope also spoke out against the current “culture of the
provisional.” Emphasizing the value of communication between family members of
different generations, he lamented that in the “cast-away” culture,
grandparents are often “cast-aside.” “Grandparents are the wisdom, the memory
of the people, the memory of families,” he said. And he encouraged grandparents
to pass on their faith and experience to their grandchildren; and grandchildren
in their turn to speak with their grandparents “in order to carry on their
story.”
Responding to the abuse crisis
But despite the great joy of the journey, Pope Francis
acknowledged the “sorrow and bitterness for the suffering caused [in Ireland]
because of various kinds of abuse, even on the part of members of the Church,”
and by the fact “that the ecclesiastical authorities in the past didn’t always
know how to confront these crimes in an adequate manner.” He said he encouraged
the nation’s Bishops “in their efforts to remedy the failings of the past with
honesty and courage, trusting in the promises of the Lord and counting on the
profound faith of the Irish people, in order to inaugurate a season of renewal
in the Church in Ireland.”
A prophetic, comforting experience
Summing up the experience of his Journey, Pope Francis said
“the World Meeting of Families in Dublin was a prophetic, comforting experience
of so many families committed in the evangelical path of marriage and of family
life; families of disciples and missionaries, leaven of goodness, of sanctity,
of justice, and of peace.”
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