Marco Carvalho
The decision, announced by Pope Francisco during the Angelus prayer on December 27th, to dedicate the current year to the family and conjugal love, took those responsible for managing family affairs within the Diocese of Macau by surprise. The Macau Catholic Family Advisory Council guarantees, nonetheless, that the “Amoris Laetitia Year” will be celebrated with due relevance, having in mind the importance of the family within the Catholic Church.
The general-secretary of the organization, Veronica Po, told “O Clarim” that the Diocesan Commission in charge of preparing the “Year of the Family” will meet this Friday for the first time to determine how this special year will be celebrated in Macau: “Once this announcement was made by the Pope recently, the members of the Diocese Year of the Family Preparatory Committee will meet on the 8th of this month, so that we can properly discuss this matter,” Mrs Po said.
Before Pope Francis decided, at the end of December, to make this year the “Year of the Family” – dedicated to its importance, to accompany couples looking for advice to face the challenges and difficulties of married life – the Diocese of Macau intended to dedicate a weekend, in October, to the celebration of the fundamental role of the family in the transmission of Catholic values: “Initially, and due to the impact of the pandemic, what we had decided was that the ‘The Parish Families Day’ would be celebrated before and after World Mission Day, in October,” Veronica Po admits. “Now, we will further discuss the plan for the whole “Year of the Family.” I believe that there will be other plans after the meeting. If possible, we would like to reach a decision by the middle of next month,” the secretary-general of Macau Catholic Family Advisory Council adds.
The announcement that the coming months will be months of reflection on the role and place of the family within the Catholic Church was made by Pope Francis during the Angelus prayer, five years after he published Amoris Laetitia, the exhortation the Supreme Pontiff wrote about love among families.
The Year of the Family kicks off on March 19, 2021, the day that the Church consecrates to Saint Joseph, and ends on June 26, 2022, during the 10th World Meeting of Families, an event that shall take place in Rome.
In the homily Francis delivered from the library of the Vatican’s apostolic palace, the Holy Father highlighted “the educational value of the family nucleus … founded on love.” Pope Francis asked families to offer priority “to forgiveness over discord”: “Within the family there are three words that must always be protected: ‘May I?’, ‘Thank you’ and ‘Sorry’,” the Holy Father concluded. (Photo of the Hoy family from Singapore by asiaone.com)
Follow
