“The Pope’s visit will be especially a breath of fresh air for families throughout the world” and “will help them to fulfil their mission and be seeds that transform society”, says Eduardo Hertfelder, president of Spain’s Institute of Family Policy (IPF). Reported by the international press agency Fides, Hertfelder hails the imminent visit of Benedict XVI to Valencia (8-9 July), on the occasion of the 5th World Meeting of Families, which is expected to be attended, according to some forecasts, by over a million participants. Faced by the “worrying situation” of a nation “with ever less children and ever more broken homes”, a nation on which “the government has imposed sectarian laws clearly contrary to the family”, such as that of “equating gay unions with marriage, that on unilateral and immediate divorce, and that on assisted reproduction that opens the way to cloning”, the Pope’s presence and support, says Hertfelder, “will bring home to families that they are not alone and raise their awareness of the need to defend their own rights”. But, according to Hertfelder, the Pope’s words will also appeal to “the civil and political authorities” to give priority to the family, and to the “means of communication” to encourage them in the role they are called to play “to foster and diffuse the family’s social importance”.
