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In
the year 2012 the diocese of Milan will see agreed to host the VII World
Meeting of Families (IMF). It is an event of great importance from many
points of view. In Milan between May 30th and June 3rd 2012,
families from all over the world will flow, many will certainly come
from Europe, but many others will also come from the extra-ocean
continents. It will be a great opportunity for meeting, reflection and
celebration, as already was in previous editions. In fact, the IMF,
which every three years, was promoted for the first time in 1994 by Pope
John Paul II in Rome and then gathered the families of the world in 1997
in Rio de Janeiro, in 2000 also in Rome, in 2003 in Manila, in 2006 in
Valencia and in 2009 in Mexico City. This time the diocese of Milan, the
most populous in the world, is chosen by Pope Benedict XVI, in his
letter to the Archbishop on August 23th, 2010, writes: "At the end of
the VI World Meeting of Families, held in Mexico City in January 2009, I
announced that the next meeting of Catholic families around the world
with the Successor of Peter was to take place in Milan in 2012 on the
theme: "The family: the work and the feast". "
Gift and responsibility for the local church
Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi, in welcoming this news with joy, spoke of
the gift and responsibility, and stated that the church of Milan feels
the grace of Pope’s and families’ presence, saying his happiness for the
collaboration initiated with the Pontifical Council for the Family. This
is an event where the diocese of Milan is personally involved, but not
only so. The neighboring dioceses are coordinating to provide
participants with specific moments, lived in most quickly accessible
chief-places from Milan. So the afternoon session of May 31th will be
held in Brescia, Bergamo, Como, Varese, Pavia, Bosisio Parini. In those
locations it will address specific issues related to the particularities
of these territories. In recent months we have entered into the heart of
the preparatory phase and beyond the effort of finding adequate space
for the celebration of the event, you take the census of the
availability to the families’ welcome, according to the formula:
"Parishes that welcome families, families receiving families": In fact,
online registrations are available from September 1th (cf.
http://www.family2012.com/document.php?id=18188). Almost parish
reception, we think too to the Religious communities which often have
large spaces for easy destination to temporary welcome . Even the
movements of family spirituality, often spread internationally, may be
by invitation and hospitality for foreign families. The organizational
company engages greatly and will be managed by Fondazione Milano
Famiglie (Milan Family Foundation 2012.
A not obvious theme
Cardinal Tettamanzi, in presenting the IMF at the general meeting of the
CEI, on November 2010, emphasized the originality of the theme, which
differs from those previously selected inviting believers families to
reflect on issues that directly invest their social and civic dimension.
"It is an issue - we might say – ‘secular’, which leaves the perimeter
of a consideration only within the Church and religious family. The
close connection between work and feast, correlating two qualifying
times the whole family life, shows the family as the core wellspring: it
is the basis of primordial ties of society; it is the place where - in
the living experience of spouses, parents , sons, brothers and sisters -
we build tomorrow relationships; is the main subject that every nation
is called to safeguard and promote."
It is therefore an invitation to think about the rhythms of social life
from the family, that is, by the person who generates citizen and
therefore the associated life, but it also offers - and this awareness
is much less present in our culture - like the most valuable asset that
a well-ordered society can not protect. How well you understand, the
themes of the feast and the work, if read starting from the needs and
rules of operation of the family, buy a big load of provocation and
proposals to policy, in Italy so little attentive to family demands. If
the rates of required work are very high end to be exhausting and family
and all her ties will suffer, the more so if the job fails:
discouragement and anxiety of not being able to raise their children
generate difficult and sometimes unmanageable dynamic.
On the other hand, these issues challenge each family of believers, they
represent a real opportunity to focus on the fundamental dimensions of
life that affect both of our families live, such as work and rest, that
we Christians often take for granted, risking of losing the richness of
their religious and human value. Families can read the title of the IMF
as a reminder of the wisdom in managing their own rhythm and priorities
assigned by their career choices. In fact it happens often that the
work, when there is either too dry up and absorb the energies and
thoughts so as not to leave even more for our loved ones, and when there
is obviously powerful triggers concerns that invade and sadden our
relationships.
Working with style
The
work is certainly an important dimension in which you play the
perception we have of ourselves, of our identity: it can confirm, grow,
build on, but also demeaning or becoming an occasion of false alibis and
destructive illusions. We therefore believe that it is entirely
appropriate invitation to reflect on the work: to do it with taste and
passion, if at this moment we do not enough; to limit it and embank
wherever we are inadvertently taking up too much and to move away us
from our family; to donate, if we can, to those who have none, or at
least to us with their solidarity and creative in expressing our
support.
With
the work, the family opened it to the social dimension, and can enrich
society by offering his style, his way of life relationships, his
testimony. There are ways and ways of working: from Christians who make
the best of themselves in their work and, in the right size, care
efficiency and relations so as to keep a human face to the workplace;
or to be predators of creation, that all oriented to their welfare until
they lose the beauty of meeting and sharing.
Restoring energy to the feast
The
way of understanding and living the feast deserves some thought. Often
Christians are likely risking to give for granted to lose and confuse
it, submerging it in the myriad chores of daily life, referring to
Sunday some shopping, cleaning, and anything else our homes need. Yet
the feast is made to rejoice in our relations, to devote himself - and
not only in the family - the dearest ties, which may be a little
mistreated by work’s rhythms. The feast is the time to find time for
free, by realizing that you have a thousand reasons to praise and thank
the Lord: in Mass attendance, in family prayer, visiting family and
friends, in the animation and attendance of oratory or of social and
community life. The feast is precious, full of life, must not be wasted
on the surface and just reasons, good energy should be always reserved
to the feast. The feast takes energy, and if we come to Sunday
exhausted, we spent the holidays time to recuperate, then re-enter in
the work, opening up a vicious cycle that will inevitably lead making
work the center of life. Instead, it is important to be prudent to avoid
all this, because ultimately we all know the beauty of the feast: when
we dedicate energy we go out invigorated, refreshed in mind, heart and
spirit, safer of life and happier to be alive. The feast becomes a
opening moment of the family beyond itself, reaching out to praise and
thank the Lord, to the meeting of others in the community, of others
with whom to rejoice and thank, and the others to sustain and console.
The same words of the Pope, in his letter of convocation of the Seventh
IMF, recall the centrality of the link between feast and work, drawing a
fruitful working track: "We need to promote a reflection and a
commitment aimed at reconciling the demands and time of work with those
of family and to recover the true meaning of the feast, especially on
Sundays, Easter week, God and man’s day, the day of the family, of
community and solidarity" and again: "The next World Meeting of Families
is a special opportunity to rethink the work and rest from the
perspective of an united and open to life family, well integrated into
society and the Church, attentive to the quality of relationships as
well as the economy of the same household."
The path of "approach to Milan"
With
these ideas we have tried to hint at the richness of the themes of the
next IMF. To this complexity, the event will be celebrated at a profit
only if properly trained, otherwise it runs the risk of moving as fast
as a meteorite that illuminates the sky for a while leaving unchanged
the night. The Pope himself has called for a path of "approach to
Milan", a desire that has been collected from many dioceses, who will
devote the next pastoral year in its preparation. To this end, the main
instrument is the fast and full text of the catechism, bearing the same
title of the meeting: La famiglia: il lavoro e la festa
(Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2011). Ten catechesis were in fact prepared
on the issues in question, it is nimble meditation on the word of God,
accompanied by texts of the magisterial service, prayers and questions
for the recovery and personal meditation, couples and groups. The text
of the catechesis is freely downloadable at the following address:
http://www.family2012.com/it/catechesi.php
From
Milan then came an invitation to follow the preparation of the meeting
and to enjoy all the instruments (traditional and multimedia) that will
be made available, to deepen and decrease in daily life so important
issues to the lives of families. Beyond the beauty of the day of the
meeting, which is important to participate, it will be a unique
opportunity for the diocese, to take a step towards greater Christian,
but also civil and human, consciousness of order, necessary to the
rhythms of family life and social.
Alfonso Colzani - Francesca Dossi
Responsabili del servizio per la famiglia
della diocesi di Milano
Via Piave, 14 – 22044 Inverigo (Como)
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