Complexity manifests itself in every occasion and situation, in the city’s urbanism as well as in public events. This is especially important for a reflection that faces the complexity without any ideological simplifications. This is perhaps why there are over fifty universities active in Santiago.

 

The first day of the two-day visit of the delegation of the Pontifical Council was consecrated to the academic world. Msgr. Paglia, accompanied by the Apostolic Nuncio Msgr. Ivo Scapolo, met first with the directors and then with the representatives of the many Latin American study centers on the family, gathered in Chile for the third meeting of RedIfam, the organism that brings them together and coordinates them. In these entities, the President of the Pontifical Council called for a dual action − pastoral and cultural −, so that the family may go back to being the ideal of the younger generations. Msgr. Paglia stated subsequently that «it’s urgent that the university institutions increasingly show that only the family founded on marriage between a man and a woman, based on the reciprocity and complementarity of both sexes, for the procreation and education of children, is a real social resource».

 

In the context of this two-day immersion in Chile’s academic world, Msgr. Paglia also gave a lecture addressed to teachers and men of culture on the topic of the relationship between the question of the family and today’s cultural reflection. Finally, Saturday morning was entirely dedicated to the young students: Archbishop Paglia celebrated Holy Mass and spoke with them about the issues concerning the family and life on the basis of the numerous volunteer and professional experiences they meet with during their studies at the university. This is a healthy puff of good news in a town that wakes up every morning under the heavy cloak of stifling pollution.