These two days of the official visit of Archbishop Paglia and the Delegation of the Pontifical Council for the Family to Argentina have been intense.

 

The President was invited to give a lecture on the 30th anniversary of the Charter of the Rights of the Family at the Catholic University of Buenos Aires. In front of a packed auditorium, among other things, Msgr. Paglia said that «the family, as social dynamic, appears increasingly confused and—to put it this way—tarnished. It’s not the idea of the family that is in crisis, but the idea of its social necessity. Today, the family is not rejected or denied. The contemporary situation that has been crystallized in recent decades, especially in the Western world, forces us to perceive a new and different phenomenon: the family is neither denied nor rejected, but alongside it other developing lifestyles and relational experiences are accepted that seem to support it but are actually unhinging it».

 

The second day of the trip was consecrated to visiting the Archdiocese of La Plata, where the delegation of the Pontifical Council met with the Archbishop Msgr. Hector Aguer, the auxiliaries, the seminarians and the family ministry agents. The most significant event, however, was the meeting with the families affected by the terrible floods that struck last April, causing more than sixty deaths and serious damage, especially in the city’s poorest suburb. Archbishop Paglia has made a financial contribution to support the project: “Volver a comer en familia,” aimed at helping the family to go back to having a meal together, at least once a day, thanks to the purchase of new furniture for the homes of the families and to widespread food distribution, organized by the local Caritas office. «A behooving gesture—said Msgr. Paglia—with which we wanted to show one of the most significant ways to put the family at the center of social and religious life».

 

These two days also provided the opportunity to meet Msgr. Aurelio Poli, the new Archbishop of Buenos Aires and successor of Francis Pope; the Bishops responsible for the family sector of the Bishops’ Conference of Argentina and of the CELAM; academic authorities and many UCA students; as well as journalists of the country’s major newspapers.

 

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