Celebrate the family

 

Michelangelo Caravaggio

We love to celebrate things, especially in this season. We often have celebrations with family, of varying sorts.

Today the Church celebrates the Feast of the Holy Family. And Pope Benedict XVI dedicated his Angelus address to a huge celebration going on in Madrid in honor of family values. Here’s a good reminder:

“Parents have the right and the fundamental duty to educate their children in their faith and the values that give dignity to human existence. It is worthwhile to work for the family and marriage because it is worthwhile to work for human beings, the most precious being created by God.”

Benedict reminded the crowd at St. Peters – and the one watching in the plaza in Madrid – what the Second Vatican Council teaches about the parents’ vocation to their family. And He recalled his predecessor’s strong commitment to that message.

In remembering John Paul II for whom “what is good for people and society is strictly connected to the ‘good health’ of the family,” Benedict XVI reiterated that “the Church is committed to defend and promote the ‘the holiness and to foster the natural dignity” (GS, 47)of marriage and the family.”