With children towards the future

During the presentation of Pro-Life Week 2007 in Berlin in recent days, Cardinal KARL LEHMANN, President of the German Bishops’ Conference (DBK), and Evangelical Bishop WOLFGANG HUBER , chairman of the Council of the German Evangelical Church (EKD), described the various activities linked to the annual event promoted by the two Churches. Pro-Life Week will be officially inaugurated in Bremen on 21 April (it ends on 28 April) with an ecumenical rite concelebrated, among others, by Cardinal Lehmann, Evangelical Bishop Margot Käßmann, and Catholic Bishop Franz-Josef Bode. Children are at the centre of this year’s Pro-Life Week, as underlined by its slogan “With children towards the future”. “That means – explained Lehmann – accompanying children along the route to adulthood, supporting them not only materially, but also offering them guidance and taking a close interest in their education and formation”. “Transmission of values and religious education” are thus the main themes of this Pro-Life Week. REINFORCING PARENTS’ RESPONSIBILITY. “We wish to draw attention in this way to a question ever more important for the future of our society and yet one that in the debates on family policy is too often sidelined”, and priority given instead to such questions as benefits for parents or kindergartens. “We would like to promote new initiatives to reinforce the educational responsibility of parents”, said Lehmann. The cardinal expressed the need to “present concrete values to children, and show to them how life can be lived by relating to others and to God. The power of a stable and reliable family to forge a child’s character can never be over-emphasized”. FREEDOM OF CHOICE . “Many different ways of describing family life in practice can exist”, declared Lehmann; so “we need to guarantee genuine ‘freedom of choice’, so as to make work and family compatible. Huber expressed this need as follows: “Our society must respect without any preconception the fact that mothers or fathers decide to leave work for a prolonged period, or even for good, so as to dedicate themselves to their family”. Lehmann expressed the need to recognize “the educational work of parents” “at the political and social level as a factor of equal value, and worthy of the same recognition, as that attributed to professional activity. Families cannot be reduced to a single model, neither overtly nor indirectly”, warned Lehmann, since “it is rightly important for many parents to spend with their children a good part of their first years of life. And what if a child suffers from a chronic disease, or if its development is slower than others, or if for whatever other reason it has a need for greater assistance on the part of its parents? In these cases, parents must have the chance of being able to dedicate themselves personally to their own children for prolonged periods”. “In other families – observed Lehmann – economic or professional needs may be priorities. In such cases, parents are happy to find a good kindergarten for their children, one that permits them to continue their professional career. It makes no sense to pit parents’ needs or the reasons for their choices the one against the other”, he declared. In any case, “families need freedom of action and time, courage and support, not only on the part of family policy but also from society as a whole”.COMMITMENT OF THE CHURCH. Lehmann then emphasized the commitment of the Churches in support of the family: “Roughly half of German kindergartens and 72.3% of available places in private structures fall under the responsibility of the Evangelical and Catholic Churches. But the work of the Churches in this sector is not limited to institutional assistance to children because apart from the promotion of physical and mental development, education must also offer guidance in questions about how to behave correctly and, not least, indications on the religious or spiritual orientation of the person”. The president of the DBK also remarked “how difficult the existential and educational situations of parents sometimes are and how difficult it often is to gain access to offers of support for the parents who most need them”. “Just in relation to religious education, many parents currently experience great difficulties”, observed Lehmann, who, in noting the presence of “conflicts of values” in “our pluralist society”, announced a symposium on the theme, organized by the Associations of the Custodial Structures for Children (KTK), to be held on 18-19 June.