Andrea Tornielli, a Catholic journalist and writer and editorial director of the Vatican media, leads us in volume 30 of the Quaderni del Concilio, commissioned by Pope Francis in preparation for the 2025 Jubilee, on a fascinating and realistic journey into the family as seen by the Church of yesterday, that is, the Church of the Council, and of today.
The family “envisioned” by the Church: yesterday and today
He recognizes that “the Council itself marked the beginning of a journey that in recent years has culminated in the two Synods convened by Pope Francis on this subject, and therefore in the exhortation Amoris Laetitia, which celebrates the joy of conjugal love and presents the face of a Church close to the concrete lives of families as they are, with their wounds and problems.
At the origin of the Second Vatican Council was the desire that the “good news” of the Christian faith should reach everyone, including those who were distant and indifferent. It is against this backdrop that the paragraphs of Gaudium et Spes dedicated to the family should be read.
The fundamental importance of the family
The first thing to be recognized is the fundamental importance of the family, yesterday as today: the family remains the first cell of society and, therefore, the well-being of society as a whole derives from its well-being. From this perspective, the Author emphasizes that “we need only look at our most recent experiences to realize it: what would the pandemic with its lockdowns have been without families? The family is the first school, the first form of social care, and also the first hospital. […] The family is also the ‘domestic Church,’ the place where faith is learned, more through examples of life than through words.”
Shadows and problems…
Precisely because the family is a fundamental reality, it must be helped and supported, without hiding its shadows, problems, or negative signs. Gaudium et Spes, written almost sixty years ago, speaks of “polygamy,” “the scourge of divorce,” and other critical issues. Today’s situation is not very different: people marry much less often, fewer children are born, and human life is manipulated from its embryonic stage onward… There are also social and employment changes that make it difficult for many young people to build a family.
… But let us respond with hope
Gaudium et Spes nevertheless invites us to look at everything with eyes of hope, from the perspective of faith, which enables us to believe even when something seems impossible: loving each other forever, with God’s grace, is possible, as Pope Francis also reiterates; of course, this does not mean refusing to see the reality of failure that exists and that we constantly experience. It is Pope Francis himself who states in Amoris Laetitia that in some cases separation is inevitable and justified, for the protection of individuals and children.
However, the message that must get through is that the Church is still close to her children: couples in difficulty, separated people, and divorced people. “Failures, difficulties, and living in a time when relationships seem more fragile and at the mercy of every storm—a time when everything moves at an astonishing speed and even love is trivialized or commodified—make Christian testimony to the beauty of the family even more important. Christians bear witness to and propose the value and beauty of a ‘forever’ marital love, with so many positive examples before their eyes, despite everything.” In this time of preparation for the 2025 Jubilee, let us rediscover the beauty of the family, work to heal the wounds in our families, and strive to look with hope!
