As part of the MARRIAGEWEEK activities organised this week (7th-13th February 2011), a conference on ‘The Family in Europe Today’, was organised on Monday 7th February, by ProgettImpenn at the Phoenicia Ballroom, Floriana. The main speaker at this event was Prof. Francesco Belletti, Director of the International Centre for Family Studies in Milan.
Prof. Francesco Belletti spoke about the challenges and different perspectives which today’s family faces. He referred to a renewed interest in the European family during recent years and plenty of studies which have, and are still taking place nowadays thanks to the statistics acquired by two prominent entities.
Professor Belletti referred to three main areas involving the family:
– the main trends and structures of the family in Europe
With regards to the main trends of the family, the last fifty years have indicated changes with respect to family demographics, family compositions and family transitions. Society is aging and low birth rates are prominent. There is a great decrease in the number of marriages and an increase in the number of divorces. There has also been an increase in the number of re-marriages and lone parent families.
– the opportunity of having family policies both at local and national levels
A family policy entails, not merely having a welfare policy, or a policy against poverty, but it must be explicit, direct, distinctive, coherent and promotional.
The definition of the family is quite different in many European countries and some countries are not satisfied with the final definition. Professor Belletti spoke about the importance of having a shared definition of the family. The definition must not only be at a juridical level but on an anthropological-cultural level.
We need to focus on resources and not problems when dealing with the family. We must consider costs as an investment and not as a social cost. The professor spoke of the family as being an ‘empowerment model’; the family as a first resource.
– the problem of divorce.
The ‘couple’ relationship is the first place of freedom but also the first place of loneliness. The responsibility is up to every person and of all society because the family is a very important resource for society.
In conclusion, Professor Belletti highlighted that if we better the situation of families, we will be bettering the future for our youngsters. If we desire to have hope for the future, we need to invest in the future generation through the building of stronger families. He stressed that now is the time to make the family the subject of public and political discourse. If the family doesn’t defend itself, then there is no one else to defend it.
Archbishop Paul Cremona O.P., concluded the conference by highlighting four choices we have to make with respect to the family.
1) Shall we choose marriage and family as the ideal?
In this context, we should aim for an explicit definition of family.
2) Shall we choose marriage and family as a value?
Our ideals need to be concretized as values.
3) If we are going to choose the two above, we have to make our dream come true.
In order to do this, we must :
a) Young children need to be educated in family values.
b) We cannot expect our youth to build stable marriages without passing on the right value and message to young couples.
4) We must choose to build a culture of ideas based on family and marriage and a support system.
Do we have a base for this support system?
Mgr. Cremona referred to the statistics on the family here in Malta. Traditionally, Catholic families’ statistics, at times, compare worse to those of other countries. He posed the questions as to whether this is happening because the ‘Catholic’ culture is no longer predominant.
The Church needs to promote Catholic values even in the secular society. The underlying culture must be Christian.
This year is very important for Malta because we have many serious choices to make. The future of marriage is in our hands. We need to make right choices for the future of our family and society.
Finally, Archbishop Cremona highlighted that we should see this as a moment of grace and we cannot take it for granted.
CLICK HERE to download the full speech of Professor Francesco Belletti.
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