“As bishops, as evangelizers, our task is to support the Synod’s work and to share ‘the joys and hopes, the grief and anxieties’ of the families whose pastors we are.” With these words Msgr. Vincenzo Paglia, President of the Pontifical Council for the Family, wished to exhort the United States Catholic Episcopal Conference – meeting in New Orleans from the 11th to the 13th of June for its annual spring general assembly – to follow the path set out by Pope Francis in Evangelii Gaudium to confront the challenges facing families today.
The President of the PCF, before the crowd of American Bishops, later presented along with the Archbishop of Philadelphia, Msgr. Charles J. Chaput, on the upcoming World Meeting of Families to be held in the great city of Philadelphia in September 2015: “I want Philadelphia Two Thousand Fifteen to be a wondrous celebration for all Catholic families, but for Hispanic families in particular. We see in their love for each other, their solidarity -- their mercy -- toward those in need, their respect for the elderly and their joyful welcome of new life a model for the whole Church.”
Msgr. Paglia bid farewell to the American Bishops, reminding them thus: “The Gospel of Jesus, and of the Family, must overcome the loneliness that excludes real love and that is suffocating humanity today Please believe, and preach to your flocks, that it is most surely in the family that we see that our destiny is not loneliness but rather love, mutually sustaining and fruitful; growth, hopeful and wise, and joy, earthly and eternal.”
New Orleans USCCB ENG.pdf
