Synod Fathers: The Church as a family must constantly accompany Her children
The themes discussed today were oriented by the search for general concepts that could give a new meaning to the entire document. Among them, that of the family appeared. It is necessary to write a new document, based on the Instrumentum Laboris – said the President of the Polish Bishops' Conference, Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki, summing up this day of the Synod’s work in discussion groups.
“The family is an institution that resembles the Church. The Church as a family must constantly accompany Her children. Just as no two vocations are ever exactly alike, but all are different, so too parents, in relation to their children, have to ask each day what they should do to bring them up well, to lead them to the fullness of the life towards which faith is advancing,” emphasized Archbishop Gądecki.
The family’s role in the life and the discernment of the young person’s vocation was also highlighted by Archbishop Grzegorz Ryś, who recalled the fact that, according to the values declared by Polish youth, precisely the family is the most important. “Young people esteem the family in itself and if they are helped to understand the family’s value, then starting from it, one can lead them to faith, to God, who is the Creator of the family. We want to lead young people not only to truly live their youth but to discover Jesus Christ. In order to reach Him, one must first meet them in places that are important to them. Such places are friendship, work, freedom, and the family, which comes first,” said Archbishop Grzegorz Ryś.
Archbishop Ryś spoke about the question of vocations. “A vocation, in the broad sense, touches the eternal design of God in relation to every human being. Speaking about vocations, we want to say, first of all, that every person is needed and is eternally wanted by God, that God needs everyone. The fact of coming to be is accompanied by a call, that is a vocation,” summed up Archbishop Ryś.
The head of the Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Gądecki, also noted that, in the course of today's work, attention was drawn to the fact that the document lacks the statement that a young person’s calling must necessarily be connected with the cross if it is to be Christian. For, often an excessively light vision of the young person, without worries and with a deep transcendental gaze, is presented.
Press Office of the Polish Bishops’ Conference
