“Nowadays, there are many Christian parents who are really aware of the importance of the role of family education in the transmission of the faith. And who worry for their children, that they may open up to life and personal relations in a universe in which there is a God Father, Jesus the Son of God, who was made flesh for us, the Virgin, heaven, hell, good and evil, the Church and the Sacraments, the signs of the meeting and communion with Jesus Christ”. This was written, in a recent pastoral letter, by the archbishop of Barcelona, mgr. Lluís Martínez Sistach. “However, even today, unfortunately, there are many children – goes on the prelate – who open up to a view of the world which lacks any religious reference. Their parents have no time to take care of this aspect. Perhaps they do not find the words or they do not know the prayers they might teach to their children”. In other words, “a sort of secularisation of family life has come into being which hinders the first Christian education of many children”. And, even if there is still the catechesis in the parishes or in the schools, especially the Christian schools, “we must bear in mind – warns mgr. Martínez Sistach – that a Christian initiation within the family is irreplaceable”. It is “within the family”, according to the archbishop of Barcelona, that “children must be able to discover their being Christians”, “must be able to receive their first initiation to Christian life in its basic forms”, learning to live “on confidence in God, on prayer, on the ability to love and forgive”.
