The synod in Rome is discussing the family in a pastoral way to see how the Church can reach out to the families that are not the same as the traditional ones that I grew up with. Then, I knew no one who was divorced and, if there was one child without two living parents in her home, we knew of the death that had taken one parent. I also lived in a neighborhood with large homes and many children.
Way back in 1993, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' pastoral letter entitled "Follow the Way of Love" said:
"Baptism brings all Christians into union with God. Your family life is sacred because family relationships confirm and deepen this union and allow the Lord to work through you. The profound and the ordinary moments of daily life - mealtimes, workdays, vacations, expressions of love and intimacy, household chores, caring for a sick child or elderly parent, and even conflicts over things like how to celebrate holidays, discipline children, or spend money- all are the threads from which you can weave a pattern of holiness."
This same pastoral letter tells us that "a family is our first community and the most basic way in which the Lord gathers us, forms us, and acts in the world. The early Church expressed this truth by calling the Christian family a domestic church or church of the home."
Let us pray for the synod.
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