Nearly seven months after the Meeting in Milan, a moment of intense reflection and testimony concerning marriage and the family, His Excellency reiterated the importance of the family as a “resource” in the Church and in society itself.
 

What really counts he stressed is that, even though the culture tends more and more to be become the culture of the ego, of the rights of the individual rather than those of society, the desire to have a family remains deeply rooted in the hearts of people, and especially in the young. Around 80% of young Italians still say that they prefer marriage to co-habitation, and 77% of young French people want to build their family life, staying with the same person throughout their lives.
 

The Church is concerned however about the death of the man’s subjectivity in answer to the “metabolization” of cultural trends and choices dictated by society. In fact each individual feels free and released from the ties and bonds with the Other and also with God, and runs the risk of no longer recognizing in marriage the true root of the family and in the latter the foundation of society.
 

The Church is engaged in the debate called for by Pope Benedict XVI in his monition on the family as the primary place of humanization for the person and society, and the cradle of life and love. The Church’s main concern is to address this crisis of marriage and the family with the knowledge that the service offered to the family, is a service offered to society. Then, responding to accusations of conservatism, H.E. Archbishop Paglia pointed out during the conference that the Church defines herself rather as “conservative of the future.”
 

A careful reflection on cultural and the defense of the family is urgently needed, so that it may reassume a central role in politics, economics, culture, both internationally and in open collaboration with other religious traditions.
 

In this panorama of cultural renewal, the Pontifical Council for the Family wants to help in the rediscovery of the value of the family along two main perspectives: within the Church itself, by calling for a renewal of the pastoral action and by trying to emphasize the importance of the Christian family as witnesses of the joy and hope; and, on the cultural level, by working to restore value to a culture of the family so that it might once again become attractive for people, so that it may be feasible and considered in its true essence as the future and the strength of our society.
 

All the initiatives promoted by the Pontifical Council for the Family for 2013, and beyond, will focus primarily on helping the church community to reflect on the cultural emergence of families, including on the anniversary of the Charter of Rights of the Family, promoted by the Pontifical Council for the Family exactly thirty years ago.