{"id":31188,"date":"2014-07-10T09:44:16","date_gmt":"2014-07-10T13:44:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/?p=31188"},"modified":"2014-07-08T22:00:32","modified_gmt":"2014-07-09T02:00:32","slug":"31188","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2014\/07\/31188\/","title":{"rendered":"The Christian witness today in light of the family"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Holy See’s office for the Synod of Bishops release its working document for our –particularly the synodal participants– reflection,\u00a0The Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context of Evangelization<\/a><\/strong>. One of the very interesting paragraphs that deserves personal attention is paragraph 15 which is noted below. But before you get there, it would be could for all of us to give some attention to the first paragraph of the Preface of the same document where it says,<\/p>\n

The proclamation of the Gospel of the Family is an integral part of the mission of the Church, since the revelation of God sheds light on the relationship between a man and a woman, their love for each other and the fruitfulness of their relationship. In these times, a widespread cultural, social and spiritual crisis is posing a challenge in the Church\u2019s work of evangelizing the family, the vital nucleus of society and the ecclesial community. This proclamation of the Gospel of the Family takes place in continuity with the synodal assembly on\u00a0The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith<\/a><\/i><\/strong>\u00a0and the\u00a0Year of Faith<\/a><\/i><\/strong>, announced by\u00a0Pope Benedict XVI<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

I find this to be a key section that deserves lots of time:<\/p>\n

Some episcopal conferences argue that the reason for much resistance<\/strong> to the Church\u2019s teaching on moral issues related to the family is a want of an authentic<\/strong> Christian experience, namely, an encounter with Christ on a personal and<\/strong> communal level, for which no doctrinal presentation, no matter how accurate, can substitute.<\/strong> In this regard, some responses point to the insufficiency of pastoral activity which is concerned only with dispensing the sacraments without a truly engaging Christian experience. Moreover, a vast majority of responses highlight the growing conflict between the values on marriage and the family as proposed by the Church and the globally diversified social and cultural situations. The responses are also in agreement on the underlying reasons for the difficulty in accepting Church teaching, namely, the pervasive and invasive new technologies; the influence of the mass media; the hedonistic culture; relativism; materialism; individualism; the growing secularism; the prevalence of ideas that lead to an excessive, selfish liberalization of morals; the fragility of interpersonal relationships; a culture which rejects making permanent choices, because it is conditioned by uncertainty and transiency, a veritable \u201cliquid society\u201d and one with a \u201cthrow away\u201d mentality and one seeking \u201cimmediate gratification\u201d; and, finally, values reinforced by the so-called \u201cculture of waste\u201d and a \u201cculture of the moment,\u201d as frequently noted by Pope Francis. (15)<\/p>\n

The Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context of Evangelization<\/strong><\/a>, 2014<\/p>\n

How does one identify what it means to be an “authentic Christian witness”? What does the author hope for us to identify as ways to approach and follow the teaching of the Church? What does the author mean by “communal”? What are Catholics doing already to live the communal? How do we address the challenges noted in the paragraph?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Holy See’s office for the Synod of Bishops release its working document for our –particularly the synodal participants– reflection,\u00a0The Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context of Evangelization. One of the very interesting paragraphs that deserves personal attention is paragraph 15 which is noted below. But before you get there, it would be … Continue reading The Christian witness today in light of the family<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1728,1744],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31188"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31188"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31191,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31188\/revisions\/31191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}