An “ecumenical good”

In a thousand ways and with many expressions in words, in faces and in gestures, the family was celebrated and praised as an “ecumenical” good at Valencia: ecumenical in the twofold sense of universal, i.e. of common interest to all peoples, races and cultures, and in the more specific sense of a value shared by the Christian Churches. This was testified by some representatives of the Orthodox and Evangelical Churches who took part in a round table in Valencia, introduced and moderated by Bishop Vincenzo Paglia of Terni-Narni-Amelia, chairman of the Commission for Ecumenism and Dialogue of the Italian Bishops’ Conference. With unanimity of ideas and convictions, the participants in this friendly and fraternal dialogue, even if not representative of all the Christian confessions, expressed their view that in this period of history the family, as it was willed by God according to the Christian Revelation, must be defended and safeguarded from the attacks that come from the individualism that tends to alienate, fragment and destroy human relations and by the secularism that tends to expel any trace of the sacred from them.These concepts were proposed in the dialogue by the following representatives of the Churches: Metropolitan Mar Gregorios Ibrahim of Aleppo in Syria, of the Syro-Orthodox Church; Metropolitan Kirill of Jaroslav and Rostov of the Russian Orthodox Church; Dr. Thomas Roemer, of the German Evangelical Church, assistant secretary of the Young Men’s Christian Association in Germany; Dr. Marie Panaiotopoulos, Cassiotou, of the Greek Orthodox Church, member of the European Parliament; Archpriest Dimitriy Smirnov of the Russian Orthodox Church, head of the department for relations with the armed forces of the Russian army within the Patriarchate of Moscow; Father Costantin Preda, of the Romanian Orthodox Church; and Jurgen Joahnmesdotter, Lutheran bishop in Germany.This is the first time that an ecumenical event has been held on the family in a world assembly. And it is also the first time a public declaration re-affirmed to world public opinion that “the family unites Christians”. This is precisely how these members of the Churches were presented to Pope Benedict XVI during the vigil. In a joint declaration they added: “We all recognize the joys and hopes of families, but also the very serious difficulties from which they suffer today due to the individualistic conception of life that seems to prevail in the common mentality. We feel the urgent need for a common commitment to the future of the family, its stability and its indispensable mission both in the distinct ecclesial communities and in the world”. In the debate and in the prayer vigil the family was also presented as the model of relations between Christian Churches and the common face they should present to our Muslim friends, as emphasized by Mar Gregorios of Aleppo: “Our situation as a small flock immersed in a Muslim majority prompts us to join together with the various Christian traditions that we now like to call families. We have understood, in fact, that there is a close link between the Family of God that is the Church and Christian families. For us in the Middle East, the meeting between the different families is decisive, because it is the most effective way we have to show to our Muslim friends that ‘God is love'”. These are magnificent and in some way also new expressions of the ecumenical richness of the theme of the family and the suggestive influence that reflection on it can have to facilitate a revival of ecumenical dialogue and collaboration. In the public testimony rendered by Metropolitan Kirill, of the Russian Orthodox Church, during the vigil we find expressions that epitomise the richness of thoughts and sentiments expressed on this happy occasion: “Most Blessed Father – he said, addressing the Holy Father – I come from Russia where the Orthodox Church conserved its faith during the terrible period of atheism, both through the family and through the Divine Liturgy. Today we are called to defend the family from the attacks of secularism. The family, in fact, once again – strengthened by the grace of God with the sacrament of matrimony – can save humanity from self-destruction. That’s a commitment that must see the Churches united. The meeting between Christian families is a precious means of progressing towards the unity willed by Christ and helping humanity to understand itself as a family with a single Father, the Lord God who reigns in heaven”. This fine testimony, which expresses the thought diffused in the great Russian Orthodox Church, can be accepted as a hope and a pledge by all those who interpret the signs of the time today in the light of the Gospel and who intend to be witnesses of hope for the human family.