TO GET TO KNO W OUR CONTRIBUTING WRITERS BETTER, WE ASKED THEM:
FATHER BONI FACE HI CK S : Family is part of my identity. It is not just another temporary or useful relationship, it helps to define who I am. It is a lifelong commitment that becomes part of me, as I become part of it. God created the world through a family and he redeems the world through a family (the Holy Family) and through families (yours and mine). Family is a gift, a challenge, a miracle, a grace. PATT Y B REEN: These people are my anchors, my safe place throughout life. They see me at my worst, at my best and everything in between. They see me fully and love me for who I am. My family members are my biggest cheerleaders and supporters. I would not be where I am or the woman I am today without them. D R. ROB ERT FA S TI G G I : We are all offspring of families, and we should give thanks to God for our parents, brothers, sisters, children and extended family members. Even when there is failure and sin, there are still bonds of familial love that should lead to reconciliation and forgiveness. Catholics are called to be family people. As followers of Christ, we are privileged to members of the family of faith. DA NI EL GA LLI O: Seven years ago, a bachelor. Today, I am “GrandDan” to nine grandchildren — ages 11 through three months — thanks to my wife, Sharon, and her three children. Family life is ... livelier. LOVE IN THE FAMILY SUMMER 2021 A MAGAZINE OF THE ARCHDIOCESE OF DETROIT
BY DIEGO DIAZ
THE COVER This issue, Love in the Family, addresses the topics of ministering to families, evangelization within the family and witnessing Christ’s love to others as a family. The blue homes on the cover depict homes that do not know the warmth of Christ’s love and peace, but are witnessing the homes above on fire with the joy of Christ and his Church. The warmth of these families overflows, bringing Christ’s light into the darkness.
D EB RA HERB ECK : Family means everything to us! It is the concrete way we fulfill our vocation as a married couple, as parents and now as grandparents. Family is the means through which we pass on the faith and the legacy of love, not only to our children, but to our grandchildren and the generations beyond them. As the domestic church, we experience family under significant attack and we have an important role to play in this battle. D EACON MI CHA EL HOU G HTON: My domestic family of my wife and three children mean the world to me. They are my joy and my strength. They are the source of immense love and support to me, and the beneficiaries of my love and support for them. They fill my days with hope, and my nights with peace. While my ministry as a deacon defines much of who I am in the Lord, it is my family which breathes life into my ministry. D R. DA NI EL K EATI NG : My own family experience was very rich. I grew up with my parents and grandparents in the home, along with three sisters and two brothers (and one dog). When seeking to embrace my brothers and sisters in our faith as my new family members, I try to apply the quality of love and commitment to them that I experienced within my own family. KATE LOCHNER: Family means loyalty, love without condition, acceptance, understanding, friendship, silliness, freedom to be yourself, the domestic church. It’s a foundation upon which you have the safety and freedom and comfort to grow, learn and love. A unit where you are seen and heard and can always come back to. It’s an opportunity for acts of sacrificial love that hopefully serve as stepping stones to heaven. And for me it’s always important to recognize and understand that for many, family can mean pain and suffering, and familial-like bonds can extend outward to friends and mentors. D R. TI MOTHY O’MA LLEY : Family, for me, is the concrete space where my salvation is unfolding through the Church. I mean this in the least romantic way possible. In that mundane world of flesh and blood sacrifice, where we care for one another in the midst of our limitations, the Word becomes flesh and dwells among us. This is family. It is my vocation as dad, as brother, as son, as husband, as a paternal figure in the lives of my students.
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