Today, in his presentation of the first part of the Synod's Lineamenta at the International Symposium of family and life movements, groups and associations at the Church Palace in Rome, Francesco Belletti, President of the Forum of Family Associations, focused firstly on how the external society influences the development and the freedom of families; then, on the evolution of peoples' affective sphere, presupposing strong interaction between social models and the individual choices in family life; and, finally, on how the Church's concrete action can intercept these new scenarios within and around the family, not only among the faithful, but indeed for all people.
He explained that "Part I of the Relatio Synodi, dedicated to listening to the context, is divided into three sections: the socio-cultural context (nos. 5-8), the relevance of emotional life (nos. 9-10), and the challenge for the pastoral ministry (no. 11, the latter premise is, in a sense, that of the entire third part of the Relatio). "The post-synodal description of the family hardly illustrates—he observed—the family's action, its being 'good news' for all people of good will, even beyond the horizon of faith, and its capacity to be an active and generative subject, beyond the Church, in human society." A second element "perhaps absent from this Relatio's description of the reality of the family, is another positive value—he continued—, and precisely the associative dimension between families, that is the ability of becoming a family of families."
In other words, "today, many families seem to still have a strong capacity and need for aggregation, but they are building this with non-traditional, not formalized forms, thus creating 'interfamily networks' that prefer to stay closer to the codes of family relations rather than being 'organized structures of society'. The relational quality, therefore, seems to count more than the social role and even more than the possibility of receiving support, recognition and interaction within the public system." Belletti also stressed that "the interaction and collaboration between the various associations build a social generativity far more fundamental than the simple 'sum of individuals.' In other words, setting up networks of associations not only means calculating, but also multiplying their potential." From the socio-economic perspective, "the most dramatic words that resonate in Relatio Synodi are still 'helplessness' and 'abandonment,' which represent the perception of too many families in face of the economy, politics and actions of governments and public institutions."
Overall, according to Belletti, "the Relatio's representation of the challenges that families are facing seems to contain more shadows of toil and criticism, and less shining lights of hope – at present. It is therefore significant that the Relatio placed inside the part on 'listening to the contemporary context' a point (no. 11) dedicated to the challenges for the pastoral care (to which the entire third part is consecrated), precisely in order to represent a Church in action, that acts and is involved in reality not on the basis of a pastoral plan written on a desk, but through proximity and sharing with everyone, both within the Christian community and with those who are the furthest away. So, this is announced already in the firsts pages of this document, which will lead us to the next Synod."
Read the entire lecture
