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Pope Francis' Lumen Fidei, Evangelii Gaudium, General Audience of 4/2/14, and Discourse to the Delegation of the International Catholic Office of Children
Pope Francis
- "52. In Abraham’s journey towards the future city, the Letter to the
Hebrews mentions the blessing which was passed on from fathers to sons
(cf. Heb 11:20-21). The first setting in which faith enlightens
the human city is the family. I think first and foremost of the stable
union of man and woman in marriage. This union is born of their love, as
a sign and presence of God’s own love, and of the acknowledgment and
acceptance of the goodness of sexual differentiation, whereby spouses
can become one flesh (cf. Gen 2:24) and are enabled to give birth
to a new life, a manifestation of the Creator’s goodness, wisdom and
loving plan. Grounded in this love, a man and a woman can promise each
other mutual love in a gesture which engages their entire lives and
mirrors many features of faith. Promising love for ever is possible when
we perceive a plan bigger than our own ideas and undertakings, a plan
which sustains us and enables us to surrender our future entirely to the
one we love. Faith also helps us to grasp in all its depth and richness
the begetting of children, as a sign of the love of the Creator who
entrusts us with the mystery of a new person. So it was that Sarah, by
faith, became a mother, for she trusted in God’s fidelity to his promise
(cf. Heb 11:11)" (Pope Francis, Lumen Fidei, 6/29/13).
- "the family is the fundamental cell of society...;
it is also the place where parents pass on the faith to their
children. Marriage now tends to be viewed as a form of mere emotional
satisfaction that can be constructed in any way or modified at will" (Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium:, 11/24/13).
- "Matrimony....leads us to the heart of God’s design,
which is a plan for a Covenant with his people, with us all, a plan for
communion. At the beginning of the Book of Genesis, the first book of
the Bible, at the culmination of the creation account it says: 'God
created man in Hs own image, in the image of God He created him; male
and female He created them.... Therefore a man leaves his father and his
mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh” (Gen 1:27;
2:24). The image of God is the married couple: the man and the woman;
not only the man, not only the woman, but both of them together. This is
the image of God: love, God’s covenant with us is represented in that
covenant between man and woman. And this is very beautiful! We are
created in order to love, as a reflection of God and His love. And in
the marital union man and woman fulfil this vocation through their
mutual reciprocity and their full and definitive communion of life" (Pope Francis, General Audience, 4/2/14).
- "it is necessary to reaffirm the right of children to grow up in a
family, with a father and a mother capable of creating an ideal
environment for their development and emotional maturity" (Pope Francis, Discourse to the Delegation of the International Catholic Office of Children, 4/11/14).
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