Family, Pope: “We feel more than ever that it must be defended”

The family “more than ever” must be “defended”. The Pope admonished him in his homily on the occasion of the celebration of Mass, presided over by Cardinal Kevin Farrell, for the 10th World Meeting of Families. “Brothers and sisters, while we reiterate this with great conviction, we know well that in fact this is not always the case, for many reasons and many different situations. And then, just as we affirm the beauty of the family, we feel more than ever that we must defend it. Let us not allow – Bergoglio urges – to be polluted by the poisons of selfishness, individualism, the culture of indifference and waste, and thus lose its ‘DNA’ which is hospitality and the spirit of service “.” Not there are ‘planets’ or ‘satellites’ that each travel on their own orbit. The family is the place of meeting, of sharing, of going out of oneself to welcome the other and be close to him. It is the first place where one learn to love “underlines the Pope in his homily. Bergoglio also addresses the relationship between parents and children:” In today’s world it is not easy and it is often a cause for concern. Parents fear that their children will not be able to orient themselves in the complexity and in the confusion of our societies, where everything seems chaotic and precarious, and which eventually lose their way. This fear makes some parents anxious, others overprotective, and at times it even ends up blocking the desire to give birth to new lives “.” God – Francis emphasizes – loves young people, but this does not mean that he protects them from every risk, challenge and from all suffering. He is not anxious and overprotective, think about it; on the contrary, he trusts them and calls each one to the highest standard of life and mission. Dear parents, if you help your children to discover and accept their vocation, you will see that they will be ‘grasped’ by this mission and will have the strength to face and overcome the difficulties of life “. The Pope recalls that” the moments arrive when one must take upon oneself the resistances, the closures, the misunderstandings that come from the human heart and, with the grace of Christ, transform them into welcoming the other, into gratuitous love “. The Pope encourages young spouses.” In crises – he says off the cuff in the homily – no to the easy way of ‘going back to my mother’. No, go ahead. “Francesco lashes couples:” The bet on family love is courageous. It takes courage to get married. Many young people do not have the courage to get married. “The Pope then says that when he receives complaints from some mothers about it, he remembers: ‘Madam, you begin not to iron his shirts anymore, let him come out of the nest. family is not possessive, it is freedom “. For the Pope in an uncovered car in St. Peter’s Square there was a huge crowd. Bergoglio went around the square, before mass, where families from all over the world gathered on the occasion of the 10th gathering.