Brussels, 22 December 2017
“Twenty years is not much time to attempt an overall assessment, but it is certainly a good occasion to give thanks for the vitality and the enthusiasm with which you have carried out your daily commitment“: this is the way how Pope Francis started his address to us, on the 1st of June 2017, celebrating with us the 20th Anniversary of our Federation. And the end of an year is also an occasion to attempt a partial assessment and we can tell we are growing, thanks to you and thanks to the efforts of our member organisations. Our daily commitment, carried out with vitality and enthusiasm, as the Pope told us, is a commitment to announce the good news of the family, especially in the European institutions in Brussels and Strasbourg.
This means that we are called to respond to many different challenges, being active on many aspects of human life: during this year, we worked on the protection of children from harmful content online; on the protection of human life at every stage, like we did supporting our Members in Poland and in Ireland, but also by informing our Members on the migrant crisis and on persecution of Christians in the Middle East. We advocate for good family policies and for a better balance between family and work, because parents and children have the right to spend time together; the whole society needs to have moments for sharing, and this is why we are active members of the European Sunday Alliance. We work for upholding the dignity of the marriage between a man and a woman, not because of ideology, but because we wish to share with everybody the beauty of the creation and the complementarity and fecundity of a life commitment. We are present in the European Institutions to bring your voice.
The challenges seem too big sometimes… But we know that the news we have to bring is so important and so joyful, that we feel called to continue our work despite all difficulties, and to look for support. You can support our work by a donation online or via other means explained here. You can also support us and the Family in Europe being active with your local family association or creating one if it doesn’t exist where you live. The Pope concluded his speech to us, last June, by saying “The work before you is great and complex. Only by strengthening your association and inviting other families to join with you, will the task become less arduous, since union makes for strength”. Let’s work together for the common good, let’s work together for the family in Europe.
May we have the humility of St. Joseph and the Virgin Mary to respond to His call, and play with confidence our role in the revolution of love that Jesus brings to the world.
Merry Christmas,
Antoine Renard
President
