the famiLY
Italy: from cohabitation to marriagePre-marriage cohabitation in Italy “is becoming a widespread custom”. One out of every three couples attending marriage preparation courses “are already experiencing cohabitation”. The phenomenon is most widespread “in Northern Italy” (accounting for half of engaged couples), while figures decrease in the Country’s southern regions. These are the findings of a survey by CISF (International Family Study Centre), presented in the framework of the Conference held by the Department for the Family of the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI), in the Calabria region June 24-28. Marriage preparation courses held in Southern Italy are mostly attended by young couples, while proceeding towards the North the mean age of engaged couples increases (a fifth are over 35). The increasing presence of couples that are no longer young “may entail the possibility of greater experience, maturity, personality development and vision of the world”, along with “greater rigidity or greater determination and coherence”. Before the phenomenon of secularization, “mean age increase might also entail more years spent away from the Church and from religious practice. Hence the need to step up formation on the pillars of catechesis. This is why marriage preparation courses represent a real and true Christian re-initiation”. CISF member Pietro Boffi said, “we must notice that civil marriage precedes religious marriage. This entails the passage from one dimension to the next.” For Msgr.Sergio Nicolli, director of the CEI department for the Family, “On the one side we ought to welcome with sympathy cohabiting couples requesting a Christian marriage and accompany them, on the other we cannot be mere witnesses of this widespread phenomenon”. Thus the Church ought to “urgently” implement “a synergy among the different elements of pastoral life in order to propose formation to adolescents”, so they may learn “the joyous proclamation of God on human love” and develop “mature affectivity and sexuality”. The conference was attended by Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, CEI president, who declared that the human person and the family “ought to lead to coherence within society and in the cultural realm”.Germany: future exists Does the family have a future? Which challenges must be addressed by the pastoral care for marriage and the family? These are among the questions addressed during a meeting promoted by Germany’s Bishops’ Conference (DBK), held in Eching June 25-26. During the meeting, those responsible for the pastoral care of marriage and the family of the German dioceses and Countries bordering on Germany debated future pastoral care projects organized at national level. “Marriage and the family have lost a lot of their credibility”, remarked Cardinal Georg Sterzinksy, President of the Commission for marriage and the family of the DBK. “It’s often difficult to find the appropriate partner in an ever more plural society, in order to establish a true relationship and have a family. To this must be added job environment demands, along with individual concerns over the quality of life and much more. Thus, the youth, the couples and the families often experience a clash between their dreams and reality, in a situation that is hard to solve”. For this reason, he added, “many confide that Church pastoral care grant her support to life and to marriage”: a reality that is already present with a number of initiatives that range from the school of relations for young adults to family reflections on religion, to the organization of marriage anniversary Masses in gratitude and acknowledgement of the years the couple spent together. Msgr. Reinhard Marx, archbishop of Munich and Eching, underlined the importance of appropriate social conditions for the development of marriage and the family, “Given the lack of consideration encountered by families in a number of areas, Church pastoral activity also has the task of defending marriage and the family”. Conversely, “Also the Church can count on the family. In the realm of religious education the Church and the Family have a lot to share”. Numerous initiatives were brought up in debates among scholars, religious coordinators and workers in this field, that are constantly being put into practice. But the objective for the future is to introduce marriage and family pastoral care within broader pastoral areas, devoting special attention to marriages between Catholics and non-believers or divorced people.
