Buenos Aires, Argentina, May 24, 2004 / 22:00 pm
The Bishops Conference of Argentina meeting in plenary assembly this week published a document entitled, “The Family: Image of God’s Love,” in which the bishops reflect on the challenges facing the family and reaffirm the value of the family institution as the foundation of society.
The message, dated May 15, explains that the intention of the bishops is to express their closeness and solidarity with families “that are living in difficult situations, in the midst of suffering, injustice, deficiency and painful experiences, which have left them with a feeling of failure or brokenness that is not fully compatible with the message of the Gospel.”
The bishops warned that the institution of the family seems to be harassed “by legislation that encourages its dissolution; by ideological models that relativize the concepts of person, marriage and family; by the socio-economic situation; by the lack of communication, by superficiality and intolerance, and even by aggression and violence in the treatment of one another.”
The “culture of death” scorns and marginalizes “the infirm and the elderly in abortion, euthanasia, murder, scorn for life-long commitments,” said the bishops, recalling that “physical life must be respected from conception to natural death, and it should be cared for and served, so that everyone can have food, clothing, housing, education, work, free time, health assistance and security.”