Pope Francis has stressed the importance of families and warned of attempts at its “ideological colonisation”, during his official trip to The Philippines.
Over the course of his five-day trip to the country, the Pontiff spoke, in three different addresses, of modern threats to family life and the pressing need to defend the institution.
“Every threat to the family is a threat to society itself,” he warned in addressing a gathering of thousands of families at the Mall of Asia Arena in Manila at the weekend, calling on parents to “recognise the dangers threatening our own families and to protect them from harm”.
Earlier that same day, in his homily during a Mass for Manila’s bishops and priests at the capital’s main cathedral, the Pope called on religious to “proclaim the beauty and truth of the Christian message to a society which is tempted by confusing presentations of sexuality, marriage and the family” and again warned of “powerful forces which threaten to disfigure God’s plan for creation and betray the very values which have inspired”.
Then, during Mass before a history-making crowd of six million at Rizal Park in Manila, the Pontiff lamented that “in our day, the family all too often needs to be protected against insidious attacks and programs contrary to all that we hold true and sacred, all that is most beautiful and noble in our culture”.
The answer to such threats, the Pope insisted, is for families themselves to be “on guard against colonisation by new ideas” which directly impacted on family life.
“There are forms of ideological colonisation which are out to destroy the family,” he warned, “They are not born of…closeness to God or the mission which God gave us; they come from without, and for that reason I am saying that they are forms of colonisation.
“Let’s not lose the freedom of the mission which God has given us, the mission of the family. Just as our peoples, at a certain moment of their history, were mature enough to say ‘no’ to all forms of political colonisation, so too in our families we need to be very wise, very shrewd, very strong, in order to say ‘no’ to all attempts at an ideological colonisation of our families.”
Citing the numerous threats to modern families, from “materialism and lifestyles which are destructive of family life” to “growing efforts on the part of some to redefine the very institution of marriage”, the Pope insisted that “our world needs good and strong families to overcome these threats!”
Recalling St John Paul II’s maxim that the future of humanity passes through the family, Pope Francis urged the faithful to “see in [your families] your country’s greatest treasure and nourish them always by prayer and the grace of the sacraments”.
“Protect your families!”
