Catholic-Orthodox summit calls for ‘urgent rediscovery of the family’

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Catholic-Orthodox summit calls for ‘urgent rediscovery of the family’

Wednesday, 17th December 2008. 12:35pm

By: Matt Cresswell.

A top-level delegation of Roman Catholic and Orthodox Church leaders have said there is "a most urgent need to rediscover the understanding of the family and marriage."
The representatives of the two churches in Europe met for the first European Catholic-Orthodox Forum in Trent, Italy this month.

The Forum's goal was to concentrate on "anthropological issues" rather than debate theological points between the two traditions.

It therefore dedicated its first meeting to ‘The Family: A Good for Humanity’. They said: "We believe that one of the primary causes of the current demographic crisis and all related crises is the rejection of this understanding."

Much effort was needed in order to rediscover what the family unit had to offer society, the Forum concluded.

It said: "In the family, we have homes that are creative, dynamic and vital schools of socialisation in many ways: educating family members to a discovery of the value of community and otherness, forming them in a culture of giving, encouraging openness to diversity in solidarity, facilitating mutuality in communication and providing a dynamic towards discovery and novelty, fruit of interpersonal endeavour."

By combining both Catholic and Orthodox teaching on the family and sexuality, the Forum established further recommendations for Europe.

Essentially both theologies agreed that the family should not be considered an 'outdated' notion and that, rather, the future of Europe's hope rested in the family unit.

Regarding education, the Forum affirmed that parents have the "original, primary and inalienable right to educate" their children.

Therefore the Forum called upon political institutions to ensure parent's rights to educate their children "in conformity with their moral and religious convictions."

Sex education must always be carried out according to the parent's choice and under their "close supervision", agreed the Forum.

The Forum also called on public institutions to ensure that policies regarding remuneration for work were consistent with establishing and "maintaining a family with dignity".

On this point it said: "This could be obtained by tax laws which recognise the indispensable contribution of the family to society. It should be such that both parents need not necessarily be obliged to work full time outside the home to the detriment of family life and especially to the detriment of the education of children."

The Forum comprised of 30 representatives of the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches in Europe.

Together the delegates expressed their 'deep sorrow' at the sudden death of the Patriarch Alexis II of Moscow and All Russia.

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