Dicastery for Laity Family and Life

July 28, 2021 By Vanessa Franke

Pope Francis and his teachings on sports

Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games

Pope Francis has repeatedly underlined the educational potential of sports for young people, the importance of "putting oneself on the line" and the merit of "fair play".

Vatican City
July 28, 2021

pope francis, papa francisco, papst franziskus

The inauguration of the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games took place at the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo. In his teachings on sports, Francis emphasizes values such as teamwork, unity, and fair play.

The Olympic Games to be held in Tokyo 2020 were delayed by one year due to the coronavirus pandemic. In fact, at the arrival of the athletes to the Olympic Village, positive cases of coronavirus were already detected. This triggered the Japanese organization’s anti-covid protocol.

Some of the measures taken to avoid Covid19 infections are as follows:

– There will be no spectators in the stands at the stadiums.

– Hugging between athletes is not allowed.

– Olympic winners will have to put their medals around their own necks to avoid any possible contact.

Pope Francis’ teachings on sports

Pope Francis has repeatedly underlined the educational potential of sports for young people, the importance of “putting oneself on the line” and the merit of “fair play”. He also emphasized the value of a defeat because the greatness of a person is more evident when he or she falls rather than in moments of triumph, both in sports and in life.

The Pope reminded the Special Olympics athletes that sports can be “a universal language that can overcome cultural, social, religious and physical differences, and it can unite people, rendering them participants in the same game and co-protagonists of victories and defeats”.

In an address to the Italian swimmers in 2018 the Pope reflected on the value of sports, saying, “regardless of the technical results, they offer a testimony of discipline, healthy competition and team play. They show what goals can be reached through training, which involves great effort as well as sacrifices.” Pope Francis insisted on the ‘team building’ aspect. It is true that swimming is mainly an individual sport, but by practicing it in a sports society, and at a national level, it becomes a team experience in which collaboration and mutual help are very important”.

The sacred fire of passion: the Olympic torch

In his Open Letter to the Vatican Athletic Team, Francis composed a very motivational speech for the athletes preparing for the Olympic Games. He made a comparison between the flame of the Olympic Games and the burning bush in the book of Exodus. “When I think of sports, I really like the image of fire: it is bright, clean, dazzling. When it becomes a flame, it no longer produces smoke: it is mysterious, brilliant. It is the sacred fire of passion, which heats without consuming.”

Throughout his open letter, the Supreme Pontiff encouraged young athletes to pursue their dreams of victory in spite of any suffering. Along this same line, earlier this year, in an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport, the Pope noted: “Victory gives you a thrill that is difficult to describe, but there is also something marvelous about defeat. Wonderful victories can be born from certain defeats because you unleash the desire for redemption after identifying the mistake. I would even add that winners don’t know what they are missing out on.“

In these Olympic Games, may the athletes discover the glory of trust in the team, the value of a hug not given or of a muffled applause. May we all appreciate the fraternity of those rings united and intertwined. And may the torch of hope be lit, like a sacred fire that will not be extinguished, in our hearts.

Angelus Prayer Pope Francis - 07.25.2021

in other articles: Pope Francis prayed with Grandparents, Girl’s Youth in Brazil fulfill their mission in the midst of the pandemic

Source: vaticannews.va
Photos: www.laityfamilylife.va, Pixabay (Günther Simmermacher and Anncapictures)

June 11, 2021 By Vanessa Franke

Amoris Laetitia: accompanying by leading the way together

Summary of the second day of the Amoris Laetitia Forum

Vatican City
June 11, 2021

The second day of the Forum “Where are we with Amoris Laetitia? Strategies for the pastoral application of Pope Francis’ Exhortation” was entirely devoted to the formation of carers and the education of children.

After an initial moment of prayer and an introduction by the moderator, Dr Linda Ghisoni, Undersecretary of the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family and Life, the work began with the report “The formation of carers” by Davide and Nicoletta Oreglia Musso (Italy).

“Accompanying the formators who look after couples and families today is a challenge that has lights and shadows. We experience in part the ineffectiveness of some of the tools used in the past, but we appreciate the value of the wisdom of the relationships that our Mother Church has woven over the years”, pointed out Mr and Mrs Oreglia Musso, presidents of the “Spouses in Christ” Association. The open question that the speakers left for the participants’ reflection was: “How can this wealth [of the Church] be made available in a way that is fruitful for today’s companions, and what indications can be given in light of Amoris Laetitia?”, that is, how can we enter into a permanent mode of caring for relationships in the exercise of accompaniment?

The session devoted to the formation of accompanying persons continued with two good practices. The first testimony was that of Ryan and Marie Rose Verret (USA), who presented the experience of Witness to Love, a family movement working with 80 dioceses around the world. Witness to Love “seeks to provide adequate tools for couples to grow in the most genuine friendship” with mentor couples. A renewal of society and communities is possible, according to the Verrets, through the friendship witnessed by mentor couples to younger couples. Married couples are a gift for marriage formation, and a catechumenate that is well-articulated and rooted in the life of the couple preparing for marriage is an opportunity to welcome new families into the life of the Church.

The second testimony was presented by Christian and Beate Gloeggler, of the Schoenstatt Movement, from the Akademie für Ehe und Familie (Germany). The Akademie offers a two-year course of formation and accompaniment for couples preparing for marriage in 10 European countries and in Brazil. The specificity of the course is, as in other similar experiences, that the couples are accompanied by other married couples who can “give the faith a happy face – or rather, two faces!”.

After a debate stimulated by the sharing of two good practices, the second session devoted to the theme “Education of children” welcomed the report of Mr Luis and Mrs Pilar Jensen (Chile), consultants of the Dicastery.

Strengthening the education of children is the theme of chapter seven of Amoris Laetitia and, according to the Jensen’s, “can be addressed by answering three questions together: 1. Do our children feel loved? 2. Do our children know how to love? 3. Do our children feel loved by God?”. Starting from these three important questions, it is possible to generate paths of accompaniment for parents, so that they have the tools to educate their children in the best possible way, starting from their personal and family experiences.

Fam. Göggler -- Photo: akademie-ehe-familie.de

The first experience presented during this second session was that of the Escuela de Familias of the Archdiocese of Toledo, through the testimony of Miguel Angel Lara Villanueva and María José Aroco Allán (Spain).

The Escuelas arise – in parishes, schools and in collaboration with Caritas – from the “need to help and guide parents in the education of their children”. “The project is conceived as a way of approaching families who are ‘distant’ from the Church or in difficulty, to help them to rediscover that the Church is Mother and helps a lot in one of the greatest challenges of their lives: the education of their children”.

The second and last testimony of the session was that of Antonio Crespo and Verónica Fernández (Mexico), from the Goodlove Foundation. Created in 2017 in response to the apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, the Foundation aims to network and make available to parents and formators the best projects on accompanying parents in the affective-sexual formation of their children. The urgency of giving children a positive, gradual and prudent affective-sexual education is a need that is strongly felt by the Church. The Goodlove Foundation proposes itself as a place of exchange of good practices at an international level for all those who are engaged, at different levels, in the promotion of an education to love according to Christian anthropology.

At the end of both sessions of the day, two debates with questions and interventions animated the discussion. What emerged, as was also the case yesterday, was the very profound need to share good practices and an overwhelming need to give substance to the theme of accompaniment as a testimony of life and friendship between couples. Finally, a desire emerged for greater collaboration between priests and lay people in the area of the family: a collaboration that is as effective, involving and fruitful as possible, also for the clergy themselves.

Source: Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life

March 24, 2021 By Magdalena Rosario Lira

Inauguration of the “Amoris Laetitia Family Year”

Inauguration of the
"Amoris Laetitia Family Year"

Author: Heinrich Brehm

In Rome, on the fifth anniversary of the publication of The Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia, the inauguration of the “Amoris Laetitia Family year” took place with a message to participants in a webinar on the topic “Our Daily Love” organized by the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, the Roman Diocese, and the John Paul II Theological Institute.

Taking loving care of frailties and wounds

In his message to the webinar participants, Pope Francis reiterated the invitation to reread and reflect on his Amoris Laetitia apostolic exhortation published five years ago, and to draw conclusions. “The main intention of the document”’, said the Pope, “is to communicate, in a profoundly changed time and culture, the need for a new look at the family by today’s Church: it is not enough to affirm the value and the importance of doctrine if we do not become custodians of the beauty of the family and take care of its frailties and wounds with compassion”.

He explained that “On the one hand, we proclaim to couples, spouses and families a word that helps them grasp the authentic meaning of their union and love, the sign and image of Trinitarian love and of the covenant between Christ and the Church. It is through the ever-new Word of the Gospel that every teaching, including the teaching of families, can take form”.

“It is a demanding word”, he said, “since it seeks to free human relationships from everything that may disfigure its image and make them unstable: the dictatorship of feelings, the exaltation of the temporary which discourages lifetime commitments, the preponderance of individualism, the fear of what is to come”.

“By distinguishing the value of marriage as God’s plan and as a vocation”, he said, “the aim is to show that even a path marked by failure, downfalls and change, can lead to human fulfillment and become a leaven of fraternity and love in society”.

Logo des "Jahres der Familie Amoris Laetitia" (Grafik: laityfamilylife.va)

The Church must immerse itself in real life

“This message cannot and must not be given from above or from outside”, continued Pope Francis. “The Church is incarnated in historic reality, as was her Master. So, when it proclaims the Gospel of the family, it does so by immersing itself in real life, knowing firsthand the daily struggles of couples and parents, their problems, their suffering, all those small and large situations that weigh down and sometimes hinder their journey”.

“The Church is called to accompany the journey of families,” said the Pope. “Not only to chart the direction, but to make the journey with them. This is especially important in times of the pandemic, with its psychological, economic, and health difficulties. We have seen that the family ties have been and will be put to the test, but at the same time it has been clear that they are the strongest point of reference, the greatest support, the irreplaceable guardian of the stability of the entire human and social community”.

Father Alexandre Awi Melo, Schoenstatt father and Secretary of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life together with Dr. Gabriella Gambino, undersecretary, presented a brief video in which they encouraged the faithful all over the world to join in the celebration of the Amoris Laetitia Family Year, deepening family ties and participating in the pastoral initiatives organized by their communities, parishes, and dioceses to enhance the values and the profound richness of the family.