Family Life
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“The Church was born of a family, the Holy Family of Nazareth, and is made up mostly of families.”
Look to the future, not to the BY JUNNO AROCHO ESTEVES
Pope Francis kisses a baby before attending Mass in St. Peter’s Square during the World Meeting of Families at the Vatican June 25, 2022. CNS photo/Vatican Media
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY • Christian families are called to embark on a journey of love and service that will lead them to joy and hope for the future, Pope Francis said. In marriage and family life, those who follow Jesus’ call will see that “he always precedes us in love and service. And those who follow him will not be disappointed,” the Pope said June 25 in his homily at Mass with thousands of pilgrims participating in the World Meeting of Families. “Dear families, you, too, have been asked not to have other priorities, not to ‘look back,’ to miss your former life, your former freedom, with its deceptive illusions. Life becomes ‘fossilized’ when it is not open to the newness of God’s call and pines for the past,” he said. The Pope participated in the outdoor Mass in St. Peter’s Square but was unable to preside over the liturgy due to problems with his knee. Instead, U.S. Cardinal Kevin J. Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life, presided. Before concluding the Mass, Cardinal Farrell announced that a “Jubilee of Families” will be celebrated in Rome during the Holy Year 2025. The cardinal said the next World Meeting of Fami44 THE MONITOR MAGAZINE
Danny and Leila Abdallah pose for a photo with 3-month-old Selina at the Domus Australia in Rome June 24, 2022. The Abdallahs were scheduled to speak June 25 at the World Meeting of Families at the Vatican about the tragic deaths of three of their children in 2020 and how they forgave the drunk driver who killed them. CNS photo/Robert Duncan
lies will take place in 2028. “From this moment on, let us pray that these will be great events of grace that touch the hearts of thousands of families,” Cardinal Farrell said. With temperatures soaring in Rome throughout the week, the Vatican had moved the Mass to a time later in the evening to “accommodate the participation of the faithful.” Pope Francis arrived in St. Peter’s Square and, with several children aboard his Popemobile, drove around to greet the families and pilgrims. He also stopped several times along the way to
July 2022
kiss babies that were brought to him. In his homily, the Pope reflected on the day’s second reading from St. Paul’s Letter to the Galatians, in which the apostle urged Christians not to use their freedom “as an opportunity for the flesh; rather, serve one another through love.” While freedom remains “one of the most cherished ideals and goals of the people of our time,” the Pope said, many “lack the greatest freedom of all, which is interior freedom. All of us are born with many forms of interior and exterior conditioning, and especially with a tendency to selfishness, to making ourselves the center of everything,” he said. Within the context of the family, he said, Christians are not called to be “’planets’ or ‘satellites,’ each traveling in its own orbit” but instead are called to be
