The first National Days of training for marriage and family counselors will be held in Zagreb, Croatia, on Friday and Saturday, April 19th and 20th, with more than 200 participants, to discuss the theology of the body and the Gospel of life. The 46th Plenary Assembly of the Croatian Bishops’ Conference (CBC), which dealt with the protection of the family based on marriage between a man and a woman, has just concluded.
In the eleven Croatian dioceses, the Bishops say, there are currently 18 Counseling centers for marriage and the family, which have met, in the course of twenty years, 47 thousand people, 12,500 couples and 16,500 families.
Looking towards the elections to the European Parliament, which will take place Sunday, April 21st, along with the local elections, the Croatian Bishops exhort Christians to vote with a sense of responsibility, in order to contribute to the common good with the wealth of the principles of the Gospel. In the CBC’s message, we read this: «We find ourselves in a time of great global challenges and on the eve of Croatia’s entry into the European Union», in July; this calls even more strongly «the authorities to govern in a competent and ethical way, for the good of the whole community». It is therefore important to elect people who can courageously defend the values of Christian ethics and of the human person from conception to natural death, the dignity of marriage and of the family, the right of parents to decide how to educate their children, social justice, the right to work, and the promotion of the spiritual heritage of the Croatian nation within the European institutions.
