The next World Meeting of Families is not till 2012, but Benedict XVI is asking families and parishes to begin preparations a year in advance, availing of Pope John Paul II’s apostolic exhortation “Familiaris Consortio. The German Pontiff made this request in an Aug. 23 letter to the president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, Cardinal Ennio Antonelli. The Vatican released the letter this week. The theme for the upcoming 7th World Meeting of Families is: “Family: Work and Celebration.” The Holy Father’s letter reflected on these themes, and the appropriate balance of work and rest.
“Work and celebration are intimately connected in the life of families: they condition choices, influence relations between married couples and between parents and children, affect the relation of families with society and with the Church,” the Pontiff noted. “Holy Scripture tells us that the family, work and the feast day are gifts and blessings of God to help us to live a fully human existence. Daily experience attests that the authentic development of the person includes the individual, familial, and communal dimension, activities and functional relationships, as well as openness to hope and to the Good without limits.”
In this light, Benedict XVI lamented the modern organization of work, “in function of market competition and maximizing profit,” and the concept of rest or celebration as an “occasion for escape and consumption.” He said both these factors “contribute to the break-up of the family and the community and to the spreading of an individualistic lifestyle.”
VATICAN CITY, SEPT. 26, 2010 (Zenit.org)